Hollanda Araştırma Enstitüsü  -  Nederlands Instituut in Turkije

Barcın Höyük Excavations

The Barcın Höyük Excavations Project investigates the settlement remains of an early farming community of the seventh millennium BC. The archaeological site of Barcın Höyük is located in the Yenişehir Valley in Bursa in northwest Anatolia. The excavations took place between 2005 and 2019.

Background

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 25 years ago. The Barcın Höyük Excavations Project is the latest of a series of excavations in the region conducted as part of the Early Farming Communities research project.

The site

The site is located 5 km west of the town of Yenişehir along the main road to Bursa. 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 the NIT. Excavations to date have demonstrated occupation in Byzantine, Hellenistic/Roman, Early Bronze Age, Late Chalcolithic, Middle Chalcolithic and Late Neolithic periods.

The current excavations

For preliminary reports on the excavations seasons from 2007 onwards, please follow the links in the Publications section below.

Support

The Barcın Höyük Excavations were carried out with permission from the Culture and Tourism Ministry of the Republic of Turkey.

Institutional support is provided by the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (Istanbul), the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), Koç University (Istanbul), Research Institute CLUE+ (VU University Amsterdam), Boğaziçi University (Istanbul), Ege University (Izmir).

The Barcın Höyük Excavations gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO).