• Office: WRI A123
• Phone: 702-895-5237
• Fax: 702-895-4823
• E-mail: levent.atici@unlv.edu
• Ph. D. : Harvard University, 2007
• Curriculum Vitae
• Zooarchaeology Lab

Interests: Paleolithic archaeology, zooarchaeology and taphonomy, foraging economies, the origins of animal domestication and the emergence of farming communities, the evolution of pastoral economies, the emergence of social complexity and state-level societies.

My research focus has been the Epipaleolithic forager adaptations in Mediterranean Turkey with special reference to the roots of the economic and socio-political transformations of societies in the Near East during the Neolithic. Dynamics leading to this "revolutionary"� transformation would become more comprehensible when viewed from a broader perspective, i.e. from those periods that precede and follow it. For this, I have been engaged in research covering both ends of the spectrum, particularly focusing on the preceding Epipaleolithic period.

Although I continue to study Terminal Pleistocene forager adaptations in the Mediterranean Turkey through studying the faunal assemblages excavated from a new Paleolithic site near Karain and Okuzini caves, Suluin Cave, domestication of animals and the consequent development and evolution of pastoralism are two major topical fronts in my current research. In this domain, I conduct research in two geographical areas simultaneously, Southeastern and Central Anatolia, to illuminate the full spectrum of human-animal interaction from hunting to taming to industrial production and large scale animal management systems.

For the animal domestication front, I focus on various social and economic characteristics of the Neolithic Revolution and their reflections on animal exploitation strategies. Toward this end, I conduct faunal analysis at PPNA Kortik Tepe near Diyarbakir, SE Turkey. For the development and evolution of pastoral economies front, I carry out research on later Central Anatolian Bronze Age societies, particularly focusing on ethnicity, colonialism, and the roles played by different socio-economic and political organizations, such as small villages and large urban centers, from a zooarchaeological perspective. Toward this end, I currently undertake complementary research at two Bronze Age sites Kultepe/Kanesh and Kalehoyuk, a major Assyrian Trade Colony center and a small village site, respectively, in the arid Central Anatolian Plateau.

Atici, Levent ed. (with Natalie Munro)
           2009 (in press) Specialization, Intensification, and Diversification in Animal
           Exploitation Strategies during the Late Pleistocene in the Mediterranean Basin, Before
           Farming.

Atici, Levent (with Natalie Munro)
           2009 (in press) Human subsistence Change in the Terminal Pleistocene Mediterranean
           Basin: The Status of Research on Faunal Intensification, Diversification, and
           Specialization. In  Specialization, Intensification, and Diversification in Animal
           Exploitation Strategies during the Terminal Pleistocene in the Mediterranean Basin,            Before Farming.

Atici, Levent
           2009 (in press) Specialization, Intensification, and Diversification in Animal
           Exploitation Strategies during the Terminal Pleistocene in the Western Taurus Mountains
           of Mediterranean Turkey. In  Specialization, Intensification, and Diversification in Animal
           Exploitation Strategies during the Terminal Pleistocene in the Mediterranean Basin,            Before Farming.

Atici, Levent ed. (with Benjamin S. Arbuckle and Cheryl Makarewicz)
           2009 (in press) Zooarchaeological contributions to reconstructing cultural systems:
           Case studies from the Old World. Anthropozoologica. Paris: CNRS.

Atici, Levent
           2009 (in press) Implications of Age Structures for Mobility Patterns, Site Function, and
           Seasonality of Hunting at Epipaleolithic Karain B and Okuzini Caves, Southwest
           Turkey. In Zooarchaeological contributions to reconstructing cultural systems: Case
           studies from the Old World. B.S. Arbuckle, C. Makarewicz, and L. Atici, eds.
           Anthropozoologica. Paris: CNRS.

Atici, A. L. 
           2006.Who let the dogs out? Bone destruction and its broader implications in
           interpreting the Bronze Age pastoral economies at Kaman Kalehoyuk. In: Anatolian
           Archaeological Studies. Pp. 121-131. Vol. XV. Tokyo: Middle East Culture Center in
           Japan.

Atici, A. L. 
           2006. Middle Range Theory in Paleolithic archaeology: the past and the present,
           Journal of Taphonomy, Vol. 4(1): 27-44.

Atici, A. L. 
           2005. Centralized or decentralized: the mode of pastoral economy at Early Bronze Age
           Kaman Kalehoyuk. In: Anatolian Archaeological Studies. Pp. 119-127, Vol. XIV. Tokyo:
           Middle East Culture Center in Japan.

Atici, A. L. 
           2003. Early Bronze Age fauna from Kaman Kalehoyuk (Central Turkey): a preliminary
           analysis. In: Anatolian Archaeological Studies. Pp. 99-102, Vol. XII. Tokyo: Middle East
           Culture Center in Japan.

Atici, A.L. and A.J. Stutz. 
           2002. Mortality Profile Analysis of the Ungulate Fauna from Okuzini: A Preliminary
           Reconstruction of Site Use, Seasonality, and Mobility Patterns. In: La Grotte d'Okuzini:
           Evolution du Paleolithique Final du Sud-Ouest de l'Anatolie [Okuzini Cave: The
           Evolution of the Final Paleolithic in Southwest Anatolia]. ERAUL 96, edited by I.
           Yalcinkaya, M. Otte, J. Kozlowski and O. Bar-Yosef, pp. 101-108. Universite de Liege,
           Liege.