Abdullah Hacar is Associate Professor of Archaeology at Hitit University. He received his BA (2004) in Near Eastern Archaeology and his MA (2011) in Prehistory from Istanbul University. He earned his PhD (2016) in Archaeology from Dokuz Eylul University.
His current research interests focus on Anatolian Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. He directed a survey in the northern Central Taurus in the southwestern Cappadocia between 2017 and 2021. He has also been conducting the excavation of Bekçitepe Chalcolithic site located in the northern margin of the Central Taurus since 2021. During survey directed by Hacar, important data were obtained to analyze Chalcolithic lifestyles and social structures. Results suggest that while Early Chalcolithic sites in Cappadocia show some local differences, Middle Chalcolithic (5200-4700 BC) settlements built atop these earlier sites have very similar finds in terms of architectural layouts, location choices and pottery production. However, with distinctive cultural materials, Middle Chalcolithic groups not only settled at older settlements on the plain, but also spread throughout the highlands, where there were no signs of earlier permanent settlements. At the end of the Middle Chalcolithic, all these settlements were abandoned. These features suggest a pattern of the Middle Chalcolithic expansion into the highlands under a new socio-political structure that ultimately seems to have failed at the end of the period.
As a Visiting Research Scholar at ISAW-NYU, A. Hacar will focus on the cultural development process of the northern Central Taurus in Chalcolithic period in light of the survey results. He will expand his focus from the Chalcolithic lifestyles, the socio-economic organization, settlement pattern to internal dynamics and try to interpret the possible reasons and results of the dramatic socio-political developments and transformations that occurred in the Chalcolithic period in the study area.