x. completed project: Dedecik/Heybelitepe (türkçe)

Dedecik/Heybelitepe

A Neolithic settlement on the west coast of Anatolia

Location

The site Dedecik-Heybelitepe lies at the edge of the Plain of Torbalı, some 35 km south of Izmir and about two kilometers south of the ancient site of Metropolis. It is situated on a natural rise extending from the western limits of the plain, watered by the valley of the Küçük Menderes or "Little Maeander" that provides natural access not only upstream into the interior but downstream to the sea as well. This prehistoric findspot was discovered by R. Meriç in the 1990s.

Objectives

Over the past several years we have seen more and more indications that western Anatolia played a key role in the transmission of the farming economy to Europe. The pre-Bronze Age periods in the western coastal regions have been only scantily investigated during the Neolithic and early Chalcolithic periods in particular, known nearly exclusively through surface survey. Thus the close of the seventh and the beginning of the eighth millennia BC are of special interest: the very timespan in which the Neolithic lifestyle first appears in Greece and southeastern Europe. The project in Dedecik-Heybelitepe is seen as a contribution to defining the context of the period in western Anatolia. The presentation of an inventory definitely contemporary in context will facilitate the interpolation of surface finds already known into a sequence.  

Previous Activities

	View of the excavations from the south

Several trial trenches were opened in the summers of 2003 and 2004. To better understand the distribution of context at the site and lay out future trenches, investigations were then begun on the upper, middle, and lower slopes. Evaluation of the finds-mostly pottery and stone tools-was begun. Several obsidian artifacts were selected for source analysis. 

Methods

	Work in the trenches on the lower slopes

A small team oversaw excavation and documentation. Balks one meter in width were left between 5.0 x 5.0-m trenches to provide profiles for monitoring and documenting the sequence. Finds were collected in passes 5.0-10.0 cm in depth. C. Lichter has undertaken the study of the pottery, and L. Herling that of the stone tools. Scientific analysis of the obsidian samples is being carried out by K. Kasper at the Institute for Archaeometry in Freiberg. 

Results

	The Early Bronze Age burial in the left fetal position

On the upper surface of the rise, a Byzantine cemetery from the 10th-11th centuries was found to have totally destroyed any traces of earlier settlement.
Halfway up the slope we found that erosion had reduced the depth of the cultural deposit to only a few centimeters, whereas towards the bottom of the slope we encountered an accumulation of sediment with cultural strata in places reaching up to 2.5 m in depth.
Work in the 2004 campaign therefore concentrated on the lower slope, where three 5.0 x 5.0-m trenches separated by balks one meter across were opened. Only 0.8 m below the surface we came upon a wall of fieldstone running perpendicular to the slope; preserved to a maximum height of seven courses, it could be followed across two trenches. Two stone cist graves oriented E-W appeared north of the wall, partially disturbed by it. The graves contained the skeletons of an adult and a child, both in fetal position facing left and right respectively. A pottery vessel was found beside the skulls of each. Pottery dated both the wall and the burials to the Early Bronze Age.
In the stratum below, easily distinguished by a fill paler in hue, appeared only Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic finds, with the pottery providing close analogies to that of the southwest Anatolian Lake District (Hacılar). A clay seal with concentric circles on the face reflects both in form and ornament finds from Central Anatolia, Greece, and the southern Balkans, thus demonstrating the cultural contacts of the period. As raw material for the chipped stone industry, obsidian from the Cycladic island of Melos had been employed, confirming for the first time the definite use of Melian obsidian in western Anatolia at this early a date and documenting intensive trade relations with the Aegean realm.  

Cooperation

The project is under the direction of C. Lichter in cooperation with R. Meriç (Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi, Izmir) and the Metropolis Excavations. 

Further Contact Partners

Dr. Clemens Lichter, via Abteilung İstanbul des Deutschen Archäologischen Institus, Gümüşsuyu / Ayazpaşa Camii Sok. 48,
34437 İstanbul, Türkei, Tel : +90-(0)212-393 76 25, Fax : +90-(0)212-393 76 40, Email : sekretariat@istanbul.dainst.org