For a long time, assessments and evaluations of the western Anatolian Early Bronze Age (EBA) have only been based on the excavation results of Tarsus, Karatas-Semayük, Beycesultan, Demircihüyük, and Troy. However, excavations and surface surveys carried out in the last two decades have increased our knowledge enormously. In particular, the excavations of Liman Tepe, Küllüoba, and Seyitömer have made an immense contribution to the establishment of a reliable West Anatolian EBA chronology. The surface surveys have also made it possible to define better the borders of the cultural areas and pottery zones of the region. Based on these new data, new theories are presented here on the cultural and socio-political development of the region, as well as on regional and inter-regional relationships during the EBA.

Germia was a well-connected Byzantine polis in western-central Anatolia, famous for its healing waters and a church of St Michael. After three years of survey the site can now be reconstructed: it included several other churches and monasteries, but little space for ordinary residential buildings. This comes as a surprise, but can be explained by the discovery of two older Roman cities within walking-distance of Germia, where the ordinary people seem to have lived. One of these cities, Mantalos, was home to a local cult of the pagan god Men. This may explain why the Christian healing centre was established at Germia. Later, Mantalos shed its pagan legacy and was apparently renamed Eudoxias after a homonymous member of the Theodosian dynasty. No Roman or Byzantine settlement of the region has a history extending back beyond the Iron Age, when the population retreated to fortified hilltop settlements and many sizable Bronze Age höyüks were deserted. Settlement locations changed often and grew little in central Anatolia, and this may be blamed on the uniform landscape of the high plateau; it lacks the Mediterranean's diverse geography of ‘definite places’ that would favour one site above others and ensure its continuity and growth.

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The region of Inner North-western Anatolia was a key node in the transmission of the Neolithic lifestyle from the Near East to Marmara, and from there to the Balkans and the rest of Europe. It formed the intersection between several important routes and trade networks, and the settlement of Keçiçayırı, the subject of this paper, had an essential role in the transfer of cultural elements during the Neolithic. The settlement is located on a natural communication route that connects the region of Emirdag-Bolvadin with Eskisehir across the mountainous area of Phrygia, between the distribution areas of the Hacılar and Fikirtepe cultural groups. Finds from the site include both Pre-Pottery Neolithic material and Early Neolithic ceramics, and it is therefore among the earliest permanent settlements of the Eskisehir region, and contains some of the earliest evidence for the Neolithisation process. In this paper, the pottery assemblage of the Early Neolithic settlement at Keçiçayırı is discussed, and its place in the spread of Neolithisation from the Near East to Northwestern Anatolia is evaluated when compared to other known sites.