Karaağaçtepe-Protesilaos

Karaağaçtepe (Çanakkale)

Karaağaçtepe (Protesilaos) is at the southern end of the Gallipoli Peninsula, 3 km north of Seddulbakır village. Today the mound is 8 m high and measures 100 m in diameter, with two low terraces. It is now 1 km inland but would have originally been on the shore.

The site was identified by Schliemann as the tumulus of Protesilaos and he described it as being 10 m high and 130 m in diameter. Like most sites on the peninsula it has been affected by agricultural activities and erosion. French excavations at the site in the 1920s revealed that it was a habitation mound and identified four levels, with the upper ones assigned to the Early Bronze Age and the lowest level to "Neolithic". Mehmet Özdoğan during his work in the area in the 1980s assigned it to Late Neolithic or Early Chalcolithic.

The site is now being reassessed by Onur Özbek of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. Little pottery was published from the French excavations or placed in the Istanbul Museum, probably because only notable pieces were restored, but there was a quantity of stone objects. These were made from many stones, but there was no use of obsidian. The most important types are polished axes, hammerstones, grinders, polishers, grinding stones, pestles and hand stones. The lowest level, from 9 m to 11.5 m in depth, produced charcoal, animal bones and chipped and ground stone. Study of the stone objects suggests they can be compared to those from Hoca Çeşme and Aşağı Pınar and so this layer dates to Middle or Late Neolithic.

The sites of Değirmenlik, Akbaş and Asartepe were also examined as part of this reassessment of sites on the peninsula.
 

Bibliography

Onur Özbek, "Gelibolu Yarımadası güneyindeki bazı höyüklerin son araştırmalar ışığında yeniden değerlendirilmesi", Arkeoloji ve Sanat Dergisi 127 (2008), 1-14