Archaeologists working at the ancient city of Aspendos in southern Turkey have uncovered Chalcolithic material showing that people were living on the site about 6,000 years ago. The evidence was found during excavations beneath the floors of two-story shops on the acropolis, where plates, bowls, and tools were dated to roughly 4000 to 3500 B.C., according to excavation director Mustafa Bilgin.
The discovery pushes the known settlement history of Aspendos much further back than the Iron Age, which had long been a major reference point for the city’s early development.
Bilgin, an associate professor at Afyon Kocatepe University, said the finds showed that the fertile area around Aspendos had been occupied far earlier than researchers once understood. The excavation is being carried out under Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry as part of its Heritage for the Future Project.
Chalcolithic finds push Greek city of Aspendos deeper into prehistory
The finds came from beneath later structures in a city better known for its Roman-era monuments, especially its remarkably preserved theater and aqueduct system. Aspendos was one of the important cities of ancient Pamphylia, near the Eurymedon River, now called Köprüçay.
Bilgin said the objects recovered from the earlier layers helped establish the prehistoric date of the acropolis. “Plates, bowls and various tools from that period revealed that the historical past of Aspendos’ acropolis dates back to 3500-4000 B.C.,” he told Anadolu.
The discovery adds a much older layer to a site where archaeologists are also studying remains from the Classical Greek, Hellenistic and Roman periods. UNESCO’s Tentative List entry for Aspendos describes major surviving monuments on the acropolis, including a basilica, market building and odeon, while noting that earlier archaeology at the site has continued to be investigated.
Roman streets and mosaics add context to the prehistoric find
Recent work at Aspendos has produced several other finds, although they belong to much later periods. In June, excavators reported a third-century depiction of the river god Eurymedon in a mosaic structure near the city’s eastern fortifications.
In July, researchers announced that about 300 meters of a nearly 2,000-year-old street linking the theater and acropolis had been uncovered, along with a bakery, public buildings, homes, a monumental gate and drainage infrastructure.
Those discoveries show how the current excavation is revealing different periods of life across the site. The Chalcolithic evidence, however, changes the timeline at the deepest level by placing human occupation on the acropolis thousands of years before the monuments for which Aspendos is best known.
Bilgin described Aspendos as a site made up of many archaeological layers. The latest Chalcolithic finds give researchers a clearer view of its earliest known settlement history while excavation continues across the ancient city.
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