An Important Middle Bronze Age Cemetery at West-Central Anatolia: Dede Mezarı

Abstract

In 2005, an excavation was carried out at the Dede Mezarı cemetery in Yukarı Çaybelen village, district of Bayat, province of Afyonkarahisar. The results show that this cemetery was in use from the beginning of the 2. Millenium B.C. to the middle of this millenium. There are some problems with this region of West-Central Anatolia concerning especially the Assyrian Trade Colonies Period and the Early Hittite Period. This research area is one of the few cemeteries dated to this period. The findings from this cemetery are contemporary with, and give the same results as, the finds at Yanarlar (10 km to the Northwest), at the Çavlum and Sanket cemeteries in Eskişehir. Another important aspect of Dede Mezarı is that there is a contemporary mound ca 200 m. northwest of this area.