Melos obsidian reveals Bronze Age maritime trade links

MUĞLA

This year’s excavations continue at a settlement dating to around 2400 BC, revealing remains from the final phase of the Early Bronze Age II.

Archaeologists excavating Çaltılar Höyük in the western province of Muğla have uncovered obsidian originating from the volcanic Greek island of Melos, providing fresh evidence of overseas trade and cultural exchange during the Early Bronze Age.

The excavations, launched in 2021 after extensive surface surveys in Seydikemer’s Çaltılar neighborhood, are being carried out under the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Heritage for the Future project with support from Hacettepe University, the Seydikemer Municipality, the Muğla Metropolitan Municipality and the Turkish Historical Society.

The site, the only mound excavation currently underway in Muğla, is directed by Professor Ayşegül Aykurt of Hacettepe University’s Department of Archaeology.

Aykurt said the first settlement in the area was established on the plain around 3300 B.C. before relocating to the mound approximately 200 years later after surrounding wetlands dried up. The settlement remained occupied until around 2400 B.C., with archaeologists identifying eight occupation layers dating between 3100 and 2400 B.C.

One of the excavation’s most remarkable discoveries is an Archaic-period structure built on a stone foundation using fragments of large storage jars, or pithoi.

“This is the only known example of its kind in Anatolia,” Aykurt said, explaining that burial pithoi from the Early Bronze Age had been deliberately broken and reused as construction material.

This season’s excavations have focused on a settlement dating to around 2400 B.C., revealing remains from the final phase of the Early Bronze Age II.

Among the finds are chipped stone tools made from Melos obsidian, a volcanic glass widely distributed across the Aegean during prehistory.

“We recovered chipped stone industry remains made from Melos obsidian. These finds are important because they demonstrate the settlement’s overseas connections,” Aykurt said.

Archaeologists also uncovered a Cycladic frying pan and a spool-shaped balance weight originating from the western Aegean, while tools fashioned from obsidian sourced in central Anatolia indicate that the settlement also maintained contacts with inland regions.

According to Aykurt, the community may have established maritime trade connections through river routes along the Eşen River, linking inland settlements with the Aegean coast.

The excavation has also yielded ceramics from Lycia and Caria alongside pottery associated with Lydia and Ionia in the Archaic settlement.

Aykurt noted that the diversity of imported artifacts does not correspond with the site’s architectural character, suggesting that the settlement may have been inhabited by a group linked to, or controlled by, a regional power that oversaw major trade networks.

“The coexistence of ceramics and other finds from different cultural regions can best be explained by the presence of such a community,” she said.