Interim Report (1997 and 1998) on the Excavation at Bademağacı

Abstract

Under the auspices of the Faculty of Literature of İstanbul University and through the permission and funding granted by the General Directorate of Monuments and Museums, the 5th and 6th seasons of excavation work initiated in 1993 at Bademağacı were continued in the summers of 1997 and 1998. Work on the central portion of Clearing "A", measuring roughly 2,000 square meters in the northern half of the tumulus, exposed settlement layers 5 and 6 dated to the Early Neolithic Age (ENA) (mid-7th millenium B.C.). Due to the smallness of the excavated area, certain characteristics of the pottery of these early periods came to be known, but little information was gained regarding the architecture. Neither the bedrock nor the very earliest ENA settlement levels was reached. Excavation of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) settlements on the sides of the Bademağacı tumulus was continued in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Digging was extended to the incompletely excavated rear portions of the structures with megaron floor plans, which had been recovered in EBA structural levels 2 and 3 in excellent condition during previous seasons. One of the most important results of the 1998 season was the discovery that a stone wall one meter in thickness enclosed EBA settlements 2 and 3. A 13-meter portion of the wall, whose existence was disclosed in the northeastern portions of the tumulus, was uncovered. No extension of the defense wall to other portions in the excavation area was ascertained. The existence of a stone pavement outside the EBA wall and which had originally covered the slopes of the tumulus came to our attention in the first excavation period. One section of this pavement (glacis) that covered the slope was brought to light and cleaned during the past two excavation seasons. It is quite likely that the stone pavement, a band some 8 meters in width encircled the EBA tumulus settlement.