Kaymakçı is a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

overlooking Marmara Lake in

Manisa Province Manisa Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in western Turkey. Its area is 13,339 km2, and its population is 1,468,279 (2022). Its neighboring provinces are İzmi ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. 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 Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically ...

Archaeology

Occupation at Kaymakçı began in the

Middle Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, and it became a major settlement during the

Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. The site was settled continuously from 1700 BC to 1200 BC, contemporary with

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

VI and VIIa. Some occupation continued into the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

, though it was no longer a major urban center. Like other citadels in the area, Kaymakçı shows evidence of having been burned, but it is unknown whether this destruction caused the abandonment of the site or dates from an earlier sacking. The site covers an area of at least 25 hectares, spanning across 1 kilometer of a

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

ridge A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

. Its elevation 140 meters over the lake provides a commanding view of the surrounding area. It consists of a 8.6 hectare

citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...

, a sprawling lower town, as well as a cemetery. The citadel is itself divided by circuit walls into several concentric areas, seeming to reflect a hierarchy of sectors. The densely built inner citadel consists of concentric rising terraces much like those at

Late Bronze Age Troy Troy in the Late Bronze Age was a thriving coastal city consisting of a steep fortified citadel and a sprawling lower town below it. It had a considerable population and extensive foreign contacts, including with Mycenaean Greece. Geographic and ...

. The outer citadel includes a terrace with pebble streets on a grid-like plan and seems to have been divided into residential neighborhoods on different orientations, where residents engaged in household industry. The western area of the outer citadel consists of open spaces and monumental buildings. The lower town covers an area of at least ten hectares, but its existence is known primarily from surface pottery and its exact boundaries are not currently known. Pottery finds suggest cultural ties to coastal sites such as

and inland sites such as

Beycesultan Beycesultan () is an archaeological site in western Anatolia (Asia Minor), located about southwest of the modern-day city of Çivril in the Denizli Province of Turkey. It lies in a bend of an old tributary of Büyük Menderes River (Maeander River ...

. The city also imported Aegean and Hittite objects, and made local imitations.

Historical context

Kaymakçı was located in the Seha River Land, a Late Bronze Age state known from

Hittite texts The corpus of texts written in the Hittite language consists of more than 30,000 tablets or fragments that have been excavated from the royal archives of the capital of the Hittite Kingdom, Hattusa, close to the modern Turkish town of Boğazkale ...

such as the

Manapa-Tarhunta letter The Manapa-Tarhunta letter ( CTH 191; KUB 19.5 + KBo 19.79) is a fragmentary text in the Hittite language from the 13th century BC. The letter was sent to the Hittite king by Manapa-Tarhunta, client king of the Seha River Land. In the letter, Manap ...

. In its early history, Seha was part of

Arzawa Arzawa was a region and political entity in Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. In Hittite texts, the term is used to refer both to a particular kingdom and to a loose confederation of states. The chief Arzawan state, whose capital wa ...

, a macrokingdom which the Hittite king

Mursili II There were three Hittite kings called Mursili: * Mursili I, ca. 1556–1526 BCE ( short chronology), and was likely a grandson of his predecessor, Hattusili I. His sister was Ḫarapšili and his wife was queen Kali. * Mursili II, (also spelled Mur ...

defeated and partitioned. After that time, Seha became a vassal state of the Hittites which served as an important intermediary with the Mycenaean Greeks. Kaymakçı is the leading candidate for the Seha River Land's capital due to its size, complexity, and commanding position. In the Iron Age, the region became part of

Lydia Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, ...

, whose capital of

Sardis Sardis ( ) or Sardes ( ; Lydian language, Lydian: , romanized: ; ; ) was an ancient city best known as the capital of the Lydian Empire. After the fall of the Lydian Empire, it became the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Lydia (satrapy) ...

was located near Kaymakçı. However, the relationship between the

Lydians The Lydians (Greek language, Greek: Λυδοί; known as ''Sparda'' to the Achaemenids, Old Persian cuneiform Wikt:𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭, 𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭) were an Anatolians, Anatolian people living in Lydia, a region in western Anatolia, who spo ...

and the Sehans is unknown since current evidence suggests both continuity and disruption. Kaymakçı is located in an area with numerous

Hieroglyphic Luwian Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian languages, Anatolian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya ...

inscriptions but it is not known whether this was a primary language of the local population or if it was used merely for official purposes. Evidence of cultural continuity raises the possibility that Lydian speakers were already present in the area during the Bronze Age.

Excavation

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.
Christopher 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, 2018Roosevelt, C.H. , Kaner, T. , & Luke, C., "Kaymakçı Arkeoloji Projesi: 2018 yılı kazı ve araştırma sonuçları", Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı, 41(1), pp.437–459, 2020

References

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 Manisa Province

Archaeology

Historical context

Excavation

See also

References

Further reading

External links