Beycesultan

Beycesultan () is an archaeological site in western Anatolia (Asia Minor), located about southwest of the modern-day city of Çivril in the Denizli Province of Turkey. It lies in a bend of an old tributary of Büyük Menderes River (Maeander River).

History

The site (4 ha) has some 40 archaeological layers date from Late Chalcolithic to the Byzantine period.

Late Chalcolithic

Beycesultan was occupied beginning in the Late Chalcolithic period. This large mound is almost in diameter and high. The first 20 layers belong to the 5th and 4th millennium BC.

Architecture saw rectangular rooms with mudbrick walls on stone foundations, with benches along the walls.

Early Bronze

The settlement increased in size and prominence through the 3rd millennium, with notable religious and civil buildings. In later part of the Early Bronze, the Anatolian Trade Network with trade between Central Anatolia and Western Anatolia, moving into the Aegean islands developed.

In Early Bronze I there were well-protected Megaron-like structures with porticoes in the front and a fireplace in the main hall. Pottery include beak-spouted jugs and jars. Small temples are built next to the large constructions with offerings and sacred horns.

In Early Bronze III, the potter's wheel arrived this region associated with the arrival of the Luwian people. Architecture was characterized by Megaron-shaped houses.

Middle Bronze

Development peaked early in the 2nd millennium with the construction of a massive palace and associated structures. The palace was abandoned and then destroyed . Unlike the Early Bronze, Central Anatolia focused more on trade eastward in the Assyrian Trade Network. Western Anatolia (Asia Minor) saw the orientation of sites like Beycesultan more strongly influenced from the west, mainly the Aegean and Crete.

In the Transitional EB/MB (Level VI/V), a stamp seal had Luwian hieroglyphics represented the earliest known evidence of the Indo-European language.

In the Middle Bronze I (-1800 BCE), Beycesultan was one of the main cities of Asia Minor. In Layer V, a palace was built on the east side of the tell. In addition, there was a lower town.

In the Middle Bronze II (-1550 BCE), the palace has similarities with the palace of Knossos (Crete, Minoans). It was eventually burnt down in the 17th century BC. Mallaart assigned the destruction to king Hattusili I (-1620 BCE) of the Old Hittite Kingdom fighting the Lands of Arzawa in the west. The site was semi-abandoned.

Late Bronze

After a few centuries of semi-abandonment, Beycesultan began to rise again, this time more influenced by the Hittite regions of Anatolia. Though smaller than the earlier city, the site was of impressive size. After the Anatolian Wars of Suppiluliuma I (), the Hittite Empire was the dominant power to the east in this region. After a second flowering of Beycesultan, it was completely destroyed as were many locations in Anatolia at that time.

Later Periods

The site was also the occupied, to a lesser scale, in the Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman period. It has been hypothesized that it is the Byzantine town and bishopry "Ilouza" (Ιλούζα), and possibly the Hittite Wilusa. However, Fred Woudhuizen, maintains that the name of the site can be positively identified as Mira based on epigraphic testimony.

Archaeology

The site of Beycesultan consists of two mounds, divided by the old trading road. The maximum height of 25 meters is at the western mound and the entire site is around a kilometer in diameter, covering an area of about 35 hectares.

In early 1950s James Mellaart discovered specimens of "champagne-glass" style pottery in a Late Bronze Age context near the site. A search identified the höyük (mound) of Beycesultan upstream of the Menderes river.

Seton Lloyd, along with James Mellaart, excavated Beycesultan on behalf of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara for six seasons from 1954 to 1959 with each dig lasting around two months.

A renewed survey of the site and its region was conducted from 2002 to 2007 by Eşref Abay of the Ege University and new excavations at the site conducted under his direction beginning in 2007. Work continues to the
present in conjunction with Adnan Menderes University.Abay, E. ve Dedeoğlu, F., "Beycesultan 2007-2008 Yılları Kazı Çalışmaları Ön Raporu.(Preliminary Report of Beycesultan 2007-2008 Excavation Campaigns)", Arkeoloji Dergisi Cilt XIII. Ege Yayınları. İstanbul, 2009

While no epigraphic material has been found as yet, a few seals have been recovered.

The early excavators reported "a row of small houses that had been destroyed by fire", with the champagne-glass pottery. There was also a palace "whose plan suggested ... Knossos", which was cleared out before its destruction:

:At one entrance of the palace was a kind of bathroom, where visitors washed themselves before making their bows at court. One odd feature of the inner chambers: floors raised about a yard above the ground. Beneath the floors were small passages. They suggest air ducts of a heating system, but nothing of the sort is known to have existed until 1,000 years later.

Outside the palace,
:Most interesting was a row of little shops. One was a Bronze Age pub with sunken vats for the wine supply and a lavish supply of glasses for serving the customers. It also had knucklebones, a gambling game that did the duty of a modern bar's chuck-a-luck.

Notes

See also

*Cities of the ancient Near East

References

*Abay, Eşref, "Some decorated bone objects from Beycesultan, Turkey", Context and Connection. Essays on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Honour of Antonio Sagona, hrsg. v. Attila Batmaz (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 268), pp. 453-464, 2018
*Elalmış, Ayça, "Belgelerdeki Beycesultan Höyüğü ve Çevresinde Bulunan Bizans Dönemi Kaleleri", Ortaçağ Araştırmaları Dergisi, vol. 2, pp. 264–275, 2019
*Helbaek, Hans, "Late Bronze Age and Byzantine Crops at Beycesultan in Anatolia", Anatolian Studies, vol. 11, pp. 77–97, 1961
*Seton Lloyd and James Mellaart, Beycesultan I. The Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Levels, Occasional Publication of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, no. 6, 1962
*Seton Lloyd, Beycesultan II. Middle Bronze Age Architecture and Pottery, Occasional Publication of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, no. 8, 1962
*James Mellaart and Ann Murray, Beycesultan III pt. 1. Late Bronze Age architecture, Occasional Publication of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, 1995,
*James Mellaart and Ann Murray, Beycesultan III pt. 2. Late Bronze Age and Phrygian Pottery and Middle and Late Bronze Age Small Objects, Occasional Publication of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, 1995,

External links

Beycesultan Excavations - British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara

Idol from Beycesultan, Turkey - 3rd Millennium - Harvard Art Museums

4,000-year-old textile mill unearthed in western Turkey - Hürriyet Daily News September 24 2020
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Hittite cities
Archaeological sites of ancient Anatolia
Former populated places in Turkey
Archaeological sites in the Aegean region
History of Denizli Province
Buildings and structures in Denizli Province