Pottery recovered from an ancient mound in southern Turkey has revealed possible connections to Athens, Sparta, and Ionia, researchers say. An analysis of ceramics from the settlement known today as Yumuktepe, in modern-day Mersin on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, found Greek-style wares among Iron Age vessels, suggesting the community may have obtained some pottery from beyond its immediate region.
One fragment bears the black-gloss, red-figure decoration associated with pottery made in the Athens area during the fifth century B.C. Two other pieces, identified by archaeologists as “Ionic Bowls,” have similar chemical signatures, leading the team to propose an eastern Greek or Ionian origin.
A separate rim-and-neck fragment resembles a black-glazed krater from Laconia, the region of southern Greece associated with Sparta. Researchers noted that Laconian ceramics dating to about 600-575 B.C. are scarcely documented in Cilicia. The vessel could represent an occasional import, although local imitation remains another explanation.
How pottery may link Yumuktepe to Athens, Sparta and Ionia
The findings were reported in a study published in the journal npj Heritage Science. Researchers studied 34 fragments from Yumuktepe, including 19 from Iron Age deposits dating between 900 and 350 B.C. and 15 from Chalcolithic layers dating between 4500 and 3000 B.C.
To examine their origins, the team compared clay composition, mineral grains, color, and firing conditions. They used microscopy, X-ray analysis, and chemical testing to group pieces with similar materials. The results suggest that some later vessels differed substantially from ceramics produced using clays available around Mersin.
Yet the study also found strong signs of local production. Several Iron Age samples resembled pottery associated with Kelenderis, another Cilician center, while a red-and-black painted fragment may have been made near Tarsus in imitation of Cypriot designs.
Other samples overlapped with older local ceramics in their composition, pointing to continued use of nearby raw materials.
Older ceramics reveal changes in firing and clay preparation
The earlier Chalcolithic fragments generally contained coarser material and showed less consistent firing. The Iron Age pottery was usually made from more carefully prepared clay and fired at higher temperatures, indicating changes in techniques over time.
Yumuktepe has 33 identified occupation levels spanning more than 8,000 years. Archaeologists first investigated the mound in the 1930s, and later excavations uncovered deposits from different periods, offering material for comparisons across the settlement’s long history.
The researchers cautioned that the proposed foreign origins are not confirmed. They lacked matching clay samples from the suspected production areas, making direct comparisons impossible. Even so, the varied Iron Age ceramics point to a settlement whose supplies and connections may have extended across the eastern Mediterranean.
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