Gallipoli Peninsula

Prehistoric survey of the Gallipoli Peninsula National Historical Park

Field surveys of the Gallipoli Peninsula in South Thrace, concentrating on the prehistoric period, are being undertaken by Onur Özbek of Canakkale University.

2008

Dr Özbek kindly provided the following information.

In 2008 the survey was concentrated inside the borders of the Gallipoli Peninsula National Historical Park. While the main goal of the survey was to research the sources of raw materials used by prehistoric societies, a secondary one was to check whether there were any prehistoric settlements in the area that had not been recorded in the archaeological literature. Two previously unknown prehistoric mounds were discovered: the first can be assigned to the Early Neolithic, according to Balkan chronology, while the second is a Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age site about 6 km north of the renowned prehistoric mound of Karaağaçtepe (Protesilaos) and 13 km west of Kilise Tepe.

The Neolithic site, Hacı Hüsrev Höyük, is situated on the eastern coast of the peninsula, only 1370 m from the present shoreline of the Marmara Sea. It is in Hacı Hüsrev locality, 2 km southeast of the modern village of Bigalı. Located 22 m above sea level, the mound extends over about a hectare on a low terrace below a gently rising pine forest. The artefacts are scattered over an area of 60 x 150 m. Although Early Neolithic material is not common on the peninsula, that found in Hacı Hüsrev Höyük is reminiscent of the ceramics and flaked and ground stone material found at Kaynarca Höyük and Hamaylıtarla. The Hacı Hüsrev Höyük pottery is mainly composed of red slipped, burnished bowls, some having S-shaped profiles. There are also fragments of hole-mouth jars and straight-sided bowls, as well as vertically placed tubular lugs and knob-like perforated lugs. According to preliminary observations, Hacı Hüsrev Höyük pottery has close similarities with that from Kaynarca Höyük and thus resembles the red slipped tradition of West Anatolia, dating roughly to the middle of the 7th millennium BC.

The second mound found in 2008 is located on the opposite (northern) side of the peninsula. Only a hundred metres from the Aegean coastline and 78 m above sea level, Kel Tepe Höyük has a clear view of the island of Imbros (Gökçeada), 18 km away as the crow flies. On the exposed part of the mound’s surface is a vast amount of sherds belonging to the Late Chalcolithic period and Early Bronze Age (Troy I-II), as well as abundant lithic material and ground stone tools.

As far as we know, these two mounds have been neither cited in any previous archaeological literature nor listed in the archaeological sites inventory of the National Historical Park. Adding them to the site inventory will allow a more accurate estimate of the concentrations of prehistoric populations on the peninsula. It is also worth mentioning that the upper layers of these two new sites were not heavily disturbed by later Roman or Byzantine structures, as is the case in numerous Neolithic to Bronze Age sites on the peninsula. Future studies will focus on the subsistence patterns at these two settlements.