From the Neolithic Age to the end of the Bronze Age change of hearths and the functions of the hearths in the religious rituals at the Western Anatolia

Human race that had been weak against nature gained with the domestication of fire.After accomplishing that, with the goal of maintaining it, primitive of hearths started appearing. Since prehistoric era hearth was employed for many purposes such as cooking, heating, lighting, crafting tools, and these in the longer perspective, with the expanding technology and increasing efficiency in hearths, led to the emergence of a broad range of occupations that includes metallurgy, kilns, thus alloweds specialisations; all of which clearly indicate its crucial role in paving the way for urbanisation. Because these reasons, hearth's sacralisation should not be surprising as it was that which exists throughout human experience, protecs, feeds, heats and brightens. In the thesis "From the Neolithic Period to the End of the Bronze Age, Change of Hearth and the Functions of the Hearths in the Religious Rituals at the Western Anatolia" the geographical and chronological explanations were made in the eras mentioned in the title. The effects of the first traces of fire and hearth, reflections of cooked food on human physiology, and sacralisation of hearth and fire was expalined under the light of archeological and written data. As the main subject of the thesis, the hearths locations, forms, materials, and the samples from their place of origin were evaluated and the purposes of their uses were examined; these hearths were located in Western Anatolian settlements and the study covered Neolithic, Chalcolithic Early Bronze Age, and 2000 BC. At the same time, the differences between sacred and used in daily activities hearths were explained.