The intersection of culture and agency as seen through the shared figurine genre of the prehistoric southwest Black Se

A significant chronological gap in the occupation of the eastern Balkans occurred between the end of the Balkan Late Chalcolithic c.4000 and 3500BC. The abandonment of hundreds of sites during this period was preceded by radical changes, including a rise and then precipitous decline in the production of painted ceramics, artifacts in precious metals, and figurines throughout the Balkans. This decline was so drastic in the case of figurines that it was not until approximately 1000 years later that they again appeared in the eastern Balkans. Coinciding with the decline, Balkan cultural traditions expanded eastward as far as north-central Anatolia, an expansion that continued into the Early Bronze Age despite the habitation gap in the Balkans. Utilizing a systematic study of the figurines from Anatolia and the Balkans, primarily, during the Late Chalcolithic, this study illuminates the processes that underlay this expansion. Ikiztepe, in north-central Anatolia, is a key site for this study due to its prehistoric location on the Black Sea and Balkan-like artifacts.;The correlations between the figurines and other material culture of the Balkans and Anatolia during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age suggest three things. One, the dating of many, if not all, layers at Ikiztepe is in need of revision. Specifically in regards to the figurines, few of those from Ikiztepe belong to classes found in the rest of Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age, instead they correspond to classes from the Late Chalcolithic Balkans. Two, assuming Ikiztepe is earlier than previously thought, the people in the Balkans must be understood to have moved either en masse or little by little to north-central Anatolia prior to the Early Bronze Age, with the Black Sea being a significant route for their movement. These people brought with them, not only a concept of figurine design, but also an architectural, mortuary, and ceramic tradition. Finally, keeping in mind the above, all the material culture of the Early Bronze Age in Anatolia ought to be reassessed for its relationship to the earlier material culture of the Balkans.