8,000-year-old fig remains unearthed in Balıkesir

BALIKESİR

The carbonized figs were discovered during excavations at Andik Cave on Kocacal Hill, about 2 kilometers from Havran’s İnönü neighborhood.

Archaeologists in northwestern Türkiye have uncovered 8,000-year-old black fig remains in Balıkesir’s Havran, revealing that the district’s signature fruit has been cultivated in the region since the Neolithic period.

The carbonized figs were discovered during excavations at Andik Cave on Kocacal Hill, about 2 kilometers from Havran’s İnönü neighborhood.

A Carbon-14 analysis conducted at the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye’s Marmara Research Center dated the remains to around 6,300 B.C.

Derya Yalçıklı, an archaeology professor at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, is leading the excavations with authorization from the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

The Balıkesir Kuvayi Milliye Museum Directorate, the Balıkesir Municipality and Havran Municipality are supporting the project.

Andik Cave, which was discovered in 1949 by archaeologist Kılıç Kökten, reaches a depth of 59 meters and contains several galleries.

Getting to the site presents a daily challenge for the excavation team. Setting out from their excavation house at dawn, the archaeologists travel by off-road vehicle along a trail to Kocacal Hill.

At the end of the road, they load their water supplies onto a donkey and walk about 500 meters through narrow, rugged terrain to reach the cave.

There, the team has uncovered numerous ceramic vessels and tools made of stone and bone. A painting on one of the cave walls depicts a mountain summit and a leopard.

Yalçıklı told state-run Anadolu that the cave was used over a long period, with its entrance serving both as a storage area and for ritual purposes.

“The use begins mainly in the Early Bronze Age and continues until the middle of the Late Bronze Age. In terms of dates, it covers a period extending to around the middle of 3,000 B.C.,” he said.

The team also found evidence of limited use during the Byzantine period, while the earliest evidence of human activity at the site dates to after 6,700 B.C.

Yalçıklı said this year’s excavations had revealed better-preserved archaeological layers than initially expected, including habitation areas and floor surfaces.

“We found habitation units and floors, allowing us to identify different levels of occupation,” he said. “The collection consists mainly of bone, stone and cutting tools because these periods saw little or no use of metal.”