Introduction - The Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia - Laura K. Harrison,

The authors call attention to a number of key issues in the field, which include: the longstanding debate over the timing of the start and the end of the Early Bronze Age; the boundaries of cultural regions in Western Anatolia and their changes over time; the relationship of cultural regions to administrative centers; the characteristics of local pottery traditions; the reconstruction of pan‑regio. [...] Efe also calls for the publication of excavation reports from Central Anatolian sites, and highlights a need for research into the absolute and relative chronology of the EBI and EBIII periods in Western Anatolia, which is necessary to clarify the chronology of the start and end of the EBA. [...] witnesses the emergence of cities and urbanism, the concretization of regular, long‑distance trade routes, the rise of an elite social class, the adoption of wheel‑made pottery, and the variegation and specialization of economic roles within society. [...] In doing so, the authors offer fresh observations about the chronology and delineation of regional cultural groups in Western Anatolia; the architecture, settlement, and sociopolitical organization of the Early Bronze Age; and the local characteristics of material culture assemblages. [...] 2013 Against the Gaps: The Early Bronze Age and the Transition to the Middle Bronze Age in the Northern and Eastern Aegean/Western Anatolia.