Archaeology

A long standing archaeological project called “Early farming communities in the Eastern Marmara Region” is conducted in Anatolia by NINO and NIT. The sites of Ilıpınar, Menteşe and Hacılartepe were excavated from 1987 until 2004.

The Neolithic settlement of Ilıpınar exhibits a succession of six centuries of farming history starting ca. 6000 BC, with a few temporary interruptions of daily routine or even abandonment. There was a steady growth in population and volume due to a prosperous economy which was based on plant cultivation and animal husbandry. The site was finally deserted around 5400 BC, but it was re-occupied in the Late Chalcolithic period, around 3600 BC.

Menteşe was already occupied by the middle of the seventh millennium, nearly half a millennium before the foundation of Ilıpınar, which makes it the oldest settlement found so far in Northwest Anatolia. The site of Hacılartepe was inhabited during the Early Bronze Age.

Download paper The Neolithic in the eastern Marmara

In 2005 excavations at the site of Barcın were started. Results of this archaeological project will be posted here in due time.

Excavations at Ilıpınar.