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NIT Research ProjectEarly Farming Communities in the Eastern Marmara Region
Introduction
How
did the first farming communities develop in northwest Anatolia, more
than 8000 years ago? How did these people make a living, in what kinds
of settlements did they live, how did they treat their dead, and with
which communities nearby and far away did they interact? And, at a
broader temporal and regional scale, what was the role of northwest
Anatolia in the spread of farming from the Near East to Europe in the
Neolithic Age? These
are some of the central questions of the long-term research project
Early Farming Communities in the Eastern Marmara Region launched by the
Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO) and the Netherlands
Institute in Turkey (NIT) some 20 years ago. For a better understanding
of the westward spread of agriculture, the study of the Marmara region,
located on the geographical boundaries of Asia and Europe, is of key
importance. Yet, this region has long remained a blank on the map of
prehistoric archaeology. At
the beginning of the Early Farming project stood the excavation at
Ilıpınar, launched in 1987 by Jacob Roodenberg. This was the first
systematic attempt to find out when and how the alluvial valleys of
this region were colonized by early farming communities. It was
discovered that the site, which could be dated back 8000 years, had a
full-fledged farming economy. The mound of Menteşe was studied as a
second step in the Early Farming project in order to be able to
evaluate the evidence from Ilıpınar in its regional context. This site
had begun to be occupied in the second half of the seventh millennium,
making its initial settlement several centuries older than Ilıpınar.
Both Menteşe and Ilıpınar predate comparable finds in Southeast Europe.
A third mound, Hacılartepe, was investigated because of presumed links
with nearby Ilıpınar. This site yielded only Early Bronze Age material,
however.
The NIT Excavations at Barcın Höyük (2005-)
The
third step in the Early Farming project was the launch of excavations
at Barcın Höyük in 2005. The site is located 5 km west of the town of
Yenişehir along the road between İznik and Bursa. This mound, with
evidence for occupation in Byzantine, Roman, Early Bronze, Late
Chalcolithic, and Late Neolithic periods, promised finds perhaps even
predating the oldest phases excavated at Menteşe and Ilıpınar. As the
research continues, it is hoped that a thorough study of the Neolithic
layers will provide significant information on the earliest phases of
settled life in the area. This in turn will help elucidate the role of
the Marmara region in the processes of Neolithization of northwest
Anatolia and southeastern Europe.
History of research at Barcın Höyük
As
with so many prehistoric sites in Anatolia, Barcın Höyük first entered
the literature through the work of James Mellaart and David French. The
site was included in the surveys of Mehmet Özdoğan in the 1980s. No
further study was undertaken until 2005, when excavations were begun by
NIT/NINO under the direction of Jacob Roodenberg and (in 2005 and 2006)
under the auspices of the İznik Museum. The site, hitherto known as
Yenişehir II was renamed Barcın Höyük after the village in the
vicinity. Excavations continued annually since then, since 2007 under
the direction of Fokke Gerritsen of NIT. The 2005 and 2006 seasons
aimed at establishing an initial stratigraphic sequence and gaining a
first idea of the location and distribution of the Neolithic levels. In
2007 the work on the central part of the site continued, with work in
four trenches investigating a Byzantine cemetery, and occupation levels
mainly of Late Chalcolithic and Late Neolithic date. In two of the
trenches the excavators were able to reach Neolithic layers around 3 m
below surface level. Radiocarbon samples taken from the upper levels of
the Neolithic settlement confirmed them to be more than 8000 years old.
This makes it one of the oldest known settlements in the wider region,
and yet again emphasizes the importance of Barcın for the spread of
early farming in Northwest Anatolia and beyond.
   [map source:
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=16065]
Please follow the links below for more information.
2007 campaign
2008 campaign
2009 campaign
2010 campaign
2011 campaign
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