The earliest permanent settlers were the prehistoric farming communities of Mesopotamia, living in the well-watered stretch of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now northern Syria and Iraq.
  Around 10,000 BC groups of people began to settle in Anatolia, where they raised crops of wheat and barley.They also kept domestic animals such as sheep,goats and cattle, and used dogs to venture beyond the boundaries of the Fertile Crescent,establishing communities along the Mediterranean and Red Sea, as well as around the Persian Gulf. Here, the archaeological remains of Neolithic villages date back to 8000 BC, and by 7000 BC countless thriving settlements had sprung up.
  It was during this period that people discovered how to smelt metal and work with it.They developed methods of extracting and casting various useful objects such as weapons, as well as ornamental items.The earliest items cast from copper were made in Anatolia around 5000 BC.

  Stone tools as well as various other crude artifacts, animal bones and food fossils from the Old Stone Age that were found near Burdur north of Antalya, prove that people have lived in Turkey since 20,000 BC. The earliest inhabitants were nomadic hunter-gatherers who migrated in response to changing weather patterns and seaons. They followed the wild animal herds they depended upon for their sustenance, clothing ,tools and weapons.

THE HISTORY OF TURKEY

  The history of Turkey is as afall of many great and advanced cincient as that of humankind.Known as anatolia and previously as Asia Minor, this land has witnessed the rise and civiheritage lizations, from the early Hittites to the Persians, Lydians,Greeks,Romans,Byzantines and Ottomans.A singular heritage of splendid art and architecture bears the mark of an often tumultuous past.
  Long before great empires such as the Persian Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman began to exploit the strategic position of Asia Minor, important ancient civilizations flourished in the fertile river valleys, on the windswept, arid interior plains and along the southern coastline of Anatolia.The early communities were replaced by successive waves of migration that saw the rise and fall of new cultures, each of which left reminders of its dominance and glory and contributed to the astoundingly varied cultural tapestry that forms the basis of today's proud,modern republic.