SPECIAL BUILDINGS AT NEOLITHIC GIRMELER, NEAR TLOS IN SOUTH‐WEST ANATOLIA

Summary Special buildings, or communal buildings, were ubiquitous in most Neolithic settlements in the Levant, Upper Mesopotamia, and Anatolia. Recently, remains of three special buildings with terrazzo floors dating to the early seventh millennium BC representing the Initial Neolithic period in west Anatolian chronology were unearthed in the basal layers of the mound located in front of the Girmeler cave in south‐west Anatolia. The terrazzo floors in these three special buildings feature traces of red‐painted linear and geometric decorations, while one also contains human burials. These special buildings may enhance our understanding of the symbolic and ritual behaviours of the Neolithic communities living on the south‐west fringes of Anatolia. They may have been gathering places for ritual activities that helped create social memories and define group identities, as well as strengthen intra‐ and inter‐societal relations among Neolithic groups. It is argued that the location of these special buildings adjacent to a natural hot spring before a cave with an impressive façade may have been one of the factors that eventually led Neolithic groups to form a gathering pattern here.