First stratigraphic evidence and absolute dating of a Bronze Age settlement in the Bakırçay valley in western Turkey

This paper presents results of the first investigation and the absolute dating of stratigraphic sequences of a prehistoric settlement site in the Bakırçay valley, Western Turkey. The geomorphological and stratigraphical investigations focus on the settlement at the Yeni Yeldeğirmentepe, a small volcanic hill within the Bakırçay flood plain. So far, this unexcavated site has been relatively dated to the Late Chalcolithic (end of the fourth millennium BCE) and the Early Bronze Age 1 (first centuries of the third millennium BCE) period based on comparisons of surface finds with those from other excavated sites along the Aegean coast of Western Anatolia. Two drilling cores were analysed for their sedimentological and archaeological features, and a chronological model based on AMS radiocarbon dating was developed. Our results show that the settlement was constructed within a dynamic fluvial environment and was occasionally flooded. Its N-S extent was at least 40 m and the thickness of the archaeological layers is up to 2.8 m. The chronological model confirms a first occupation phase or phase of human presence at Yeni Yeldeğirmentepe dating to the end of the fourth millennium BCE. The main settlement phase dates to approximately the 27th to 24th centuries BCE and is therefore some hundred years younger than previously expected. This new information on the age of the site generates new stimuli for the discussion of the position of the Bakırçay valley within the cultural and economic networks of the Early Bronze Age period in the Aegean region.