Hydas; A Fortified Settlement in the Bozburun Peninsula

Abstract

The fortified hilltop suited settlement Hydas / Hygassos is located on the west coast of large Bozburun peninsula of about 300 square kilometers in Caria in southwestern Asia Minor. From there, it was easy to control the sea trade routes between the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. Rhodes is just 18 km away at the opposite side. Hydas is one of the still­known 18 settlements of the Bozburun peninsula. Half of them are explored until today. The 3.5 ha extended settlement with acropolis, enclosed at the foundation phase by cyclopean walls, also had an approximately 1 ha port facility. The surveys, conducted in 1998, 2000 and 2002, provided ceramic and small findings, which show the usage of the settlement from the end of the Late Bronze Age until Late Antiquity. This finding allows the suggestion that the founders of Hydas were the immigrants influenced by Minoan-Mycenaean culture. The sparseness and limited information of the material do not provide a safe testimony. After all, that the reasons why such fortified hilltop settlements as Hydas/Hygassos were occupied in Bozburun Peninsula could be the confrontations emerging in Mediterranean Region in late Bronze Age and the migration and the changes related to it should be considered.