Kaymakçı Tepe is a
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
overlooking
Marmara Lake in
Manisa Province
Manisa Province ( tr, ) is a province in western Turkey. Its neighboring provinces are İzmir to the west, Aydın to the south, Denizli to the southeast, Uşak to the east, Kütahya to the northeast, and Balıkesir to the north. The city of Ma ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. Given its size and location, the settlement is considered a leading candidate for the capital city of the
Seha River Land
The Seha River Land was a kingdom in Western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age known from Hittite texts. Part of Arzawa, it was located north of Mira and south of Wilusa, and at one point controlled the island of Lazpa.
History
The Seha River L ...
.
Occupation at the site began in the Middle Bronze Age, and it became a major settlement during the Late
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
. Some occupation at the site continued into the Iron Age.
The site was settled continuously from 1700 BC to 1200 BC, contemporary with
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
VI and VIIa. The site has a densely occupied citadel 8 hectares in size, with an additional 17 hectares of settled area outside of it. It sits on a ridge of bedrock rising 140 meters over the lake.
The site was discovered in 2001, when the Central Lydia Archaeological Survey examined the area around the Marmara Lake and identified 6 citidels, 5 unfortified lowland sites, and 23 smaller sites. The largest was at Kaymakçı. The site of Kaymakçı was then excavated in four seasons between 2014 and 2017.
hristopher H. Roosevelt, et al., "Exploring Space, Economy, and Interregional Interaction at a Second-Millennium B.C.E. Citadel in Central Western Anatolia: 2014–2017 Research at Kaymakçı.", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 122, no. 4, pp. 645–88, 2018
obles, Gary R., and Christopher H. Roosevelt, "Filling the void in archaeological excavations: 2D point clouds to 3D volumes", Open Archaeology 7.1, pp. 589-614, 2021
See also
*Arzawa
Arzawa was a region and a political entity (a "kingdom" or a federation of local powers) in Western Anatolia in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC (roughly from the late 15th century BC until the beginning of the 12th century BC). The core o ...
*Cities of the ancient Near East
The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by ...
*Hittite Empire
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...
*Kingdom of Mira
The Kingdom of Mira (ca. 1330–1190 BC) was one of the semi-autonomous vassal state kingdoms that emerged in western Anatolia (Asia Minor) after the destruction of the Arzava Kingdom by the Hittite Empire.
Location
According to the current u ...
*Manapa-Tarhunta letter The Manapa-Tarhunta letter ( CTH 191; KUB 19.5 + KBo 19.79) is a tablet in Luwian/Hittite language from the thirteenth century BC, which has come down to us in a fairly good state of conservation. It was discovered in the 1980s.
It was written by ...
*Sardis
Sardis () or Sardes (; Lydian: 𐤳𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣 ''Sfard''; el, Σάρδεις ''Sardeis''; peo, Sparda; hbo, ספרד ''Sfarad'') was an ancient city at the location of modern ''Sart'' (Sartmahmut before 19 October 2005), near Salihli, ...
*Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
References
Further reading
* Shin, Nami et al.
* Ciftci, Asiye, et al. (2019).
Ancient DNA (aDNA) extraction and amplification from 3500-year-old charred economic crop seeds from Kaymakçı in Western Turkey: comparative sequence analysis using the 26S rDNA gene
. In: ''Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution'' 66.6, pp. 1279-1294. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-019-00783-9.
* Pieniążek, Magda, et al. (2019).
Of networks and knives: a bronze knife with herringbone decoration from the citadel of Kaymakçı (Manisa İli/Tr)
. In: ''Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt'' 49.2, pp. 197-214. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/ak.2019.2.75190.
External links
Excavation Web Site
{{Ancient settlements in Turkey, state=collapsed
2000 archaeological discoveries
Archaeological sites of prehistoric Anatolia
Archaeological sites in the Aegean Region
Archaeological sites in Turkey
Manisa Province