Undiscovered ancient sites to come to light in Denizli

DENİZLİ

Cihan Photos

An ancient habitat has been newly discovered by the Ege University excavation team at the Beycesultan Mound in Turkey’s western province of Denizli’s Çivril district. 

The settlement, located between the Menteş and Kocayaka neighborhoods, was unearthed in the eastern section of the region, and was never noted in the records before.

Excavation works were first initiated at the Beycesultan Mound, one of the oldest settlements in Anatolia, by British archaeologists in 1954 and continued for six seasons. They were carried out at two large areas on the western and eastern parts of the mound, as well as in different parts of the settlement on smaller areas. 

Works in the western part were carried out in small fields and aimed at identifying the stratigraphy of the settlement. As a result of the research in this area, 40 cultural layers of uninterrupted settlements dating from the Late Chalcolithic Period to the Late Bronze Age were identified. 

In the eastern part, a palace dating back to the 2nd millennium BC, subsequently named “The Burnt Palace,” was partly unearthed.


However, the initial works were halted in 1959 and only taken back up in 2007 by the Ege University Archaeology Department. They have since been carried out by an excavation team of 60 people, headed by Professor Eşref Albay.
 
The site has a strategic position due to its natural routings that connect the western and southern coasts with the Anatolian interior, according to Abay.

“We have reached very important historical data during our excavation works. We discovered a settlement where 40 cultural layers have so far existed. This settlement, located in Çivril plain watered by the productive Greater Menderes River and its tributaries, is a very important one that shed light on the pre-history of Anatolia,” he said. 

“We have revealed that Beycesultan was a very big city, especially in the late Bronze Age, divided by long streets in the east and west with two-storey villas. We are still continuing to work in the area,” Albay added.