Increasing field work in the ̇Izmir region has produced much sought tangible evidence about the ways in which food-producing communities emerged in the Aegean. Focusing on the archaeological and zooarchaeological data from Ulucak and neighboring sites, the authors discuss the possible mechanisms of initial farmer-herder dispersals into the region. The authors stress that the lack of pre-Neolithic strata in the eastern Aegean impedes a full understanding of forager-farmer interactions in the early Holocene.