The tumultuous changes that took place around the Mediterranean in 6300 BC are seen here through the eyes of a boy who was born into a family of hunter-foragers in northern Turkey. While still young, Tulirane is taken from his family and forced to live as a slave among the obsidian masters of Catalhoeyuk (Bhelsakros in our story), a town of some 8,000 people that has only become more baffling as archaeological technologies have become more precise.

As Tuli moves from one world into another–from the open wilderness that sheltered the foragers into the closed, white-plastered chambers that sheltered the townsfolk of Catalhoeyuk–he becomes acutely aware of the differences in how the people in each of these two worlds live and die, and what they hold dear.

Mary Settegast has written several non-fiction books about archaeology and cultural change, but this is her first novel. It is intended not only for young adults but for all ages who are interested in Old World prehistory and the ultimate triumph of agriculture over hunting and gathering.