I owe an immense debt of gratitude to far too many people to ever successfully list here, but I would very much like to have a go. My eternal gratitude to Jim and Anna, editors extraordinaire, without whose tequila shots (Jim) and bravery in the face of my unreasonable demands (Anna) this book would never have been written; and to Myriam for ensuring this book has all of the right words, all in the right order. It’s a backhanded sort of thank-you given how I turned out, but I’d like to particularly thank all of the supervisors and advisers that have made me the archaeologist I am – particularly Simon Hillson, Dan Antoine, Louise Humphrey, Chris Stringer and Chris Dean, all of whom I very much hope will still speak to me even if I made them spit their coffee in various sections of this book. I am also thankful to my amazing colleagues, who have put up with my ranting about ‘the book’ in every possible circumstance – from Ros Wallduck and Ali Freyne in the Natural History Museum, to Laura Buck in just about every research institute in Japan. Enormous thanks are due to all of my amazing Team Anthro – Sarah, Nil, Izzettin, Oznur, Didem (‘Didoo’), Martina, Fatma, Habip, Meltem, Metin (honorary) and Ihsan (honorary) – thank you for being so good at digging that I actually managed to get some of this book written on fieldwork! Thank you to Veysel for finding me the best place to work outside the British Library, and to Haluk Sağlamtimur for being one very patient excavation director.
This book would never have been possible without the help of friends and colleagues to answer even the most inane questions, and special mention goes to Güneş Duru for the most time spent explaining the Anatolian Neolithic. Thank you so much to Mihriban Özbaşaran and the rest of the team at Aşıklı Höyük for giving me so much to write about. An absolutely heartfelt thank-you to my early readers and commentators, who are largely responsible for this book (if it’s good) and in no way at fault (if it’s not). Thank you to Martha, to Hana, to Carolyn, to David and of course, to my mother. Thank you to my special academic advisers: Chris S. for trying his best to get me to understand human evolution, Rachel I. for sorting out the vitamin deficiency alphabet soup, Steve and Jess for explaining London archaeology even though I’m not really a ‘real’ archaeologist, Tim for telling me the difference between policy and politics in German, to Rachel F. for the Jon Snow jokes, and to Patrick for making sure I got Raquel Welch’s bikini right. Thank you to the TrowelBlazers women who are my personal heroes (Suzie! Becky! Tori!), the Cavendish Road Yakut Appreciation Society, the SLC, my personal Reggie, and everyone who bought me a beer while I wrote this. Thank you to my family – Jenny, Kevin, Kaitlin, Allen, Lisa, Lynne, Doris and Connie – for understanding why I never come home. I told you I was busy.
There is one person whom I could never thank enough, who has read every word in this book twice over (and added a ‘u’in like half the words). This book would never have been possible without the tireless support of Andy Bevan, to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude and probably a drink or two.