The Chalcolithic Period covers a substantial stretch of time during the prehistory of Anatolia but has still received relatively little scholarly attention compared to the preceding Neolithic Period and the subsequent Bronze Age. Possibly, this is due to the multiple, variegated and often regionalized social, economic, and cultural trajectories that make this period still difficult to define.

This is why we see a need for a better understanding of the manifold developments that took place during the Chalcolithic, not only with regards to changes in material culture, settlements organization, and landscapes, but also with regards to our views on changes in society, culture, subsistence, economy and technology.

It is our impression that ongoing projects that currently produce new datasets, be they excavations, surveys or museum and laboratory-based studies, frequently operate in relative isolation from other relevant work being conducted on the Period and region. This hampers the spread of information and limits the potential of collaborative research that we believe essential in order to deal with the complexities of this Period.