Demirci Hüyük is an excavated settlement in ancient northwestern

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

dating from the Early and Middle

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. It is located near the village of

Zemzemiye, Söğüt Zemzemiye is a village in the Söğüt District, Bilecik Province, Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europ ...

, about 25 km west of Eskisehir on the border of the

Bilecik Bilecik is a city in northwestern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the seat of Bilecik Province and Bilecik District.Eskisehir Provinces. The western side of the hill has been eroded by the Zemzemiye Creek passing by. The plain on which Demirci lies was filled up with sediment since the Neolithic period, so the village of Demirci's first inhabitants was excavated about 7-8 m below the plain level. The cultural deposit is about 12 m thick. Sariket, an ancient burial ground, is on the terrace 250 m west of Demircihöyük settlement. It was used as a necropolis both during EBA and MBA. During the

Hellenistic Period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

there were also a few inhabitants living on the top of the Demirci hill.

Excavations

The settlement was excavated in 1937 by K. Bittel for the

German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office, Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Status, tasks and ...

, and then by M. Korfmann in 1975-78. The cemetery of Sariket was excavated under J. Seheer in 1990-91. Altogether 17 archaeological layers were discovered, the lowest layer being layer A. The mound was abandoned after the Early Bronze Age settlement, and then re-occupied during the Middle Bronze Age after a few centuries' gap. The excavator suggested that some 130 people resided in the village.

Finds

About 200 clay idols were found, among them plenty of animal figurines, such as the bull figurines. Weaving and spinning tools were also found.

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

and obsidian tools and flakes were also discovered, as well as the evidence of metalworking in the form of a stone casting mould. : "It is noted that the black rimmed bowls and loop handled vessels of the orange colored burnished group of ware in the style of Northwestern Anatolia appear from EBA I in this region and then from the beginning of EBA II expand to a wider area till Ankara over Iznik and Inegöl plains. T. Efe r. Turan Efebases the long-lasting of some ware on the presence of many city states during EBA in this region."Demircihöyük-Sariket Mezarligi
tayproject.org

Chronology

The EBA I and II occupation at the site spanned the range of about 500 years between 3.000 and 2.500 BC. Then followed the Transitional period of about 500 years at Demirci, as well as in various other places in western Anatolia. Küllüoba is a related site in the western part of the Upper Sakarya Plain, 35 km south-east of Eskişehir. It was settled much later, compared to Demirci. Thanks to the recent excavations led by Dr. Turan Efe in Küllüoba and Demircihüyük, an uninterrupted EBA chronological sequence of the Eskişehir region has been established. Turan Efe started his recent excavations in 1996 and they continue for many years. The Transitional period in western Anatolia into the Middle Bronze Age was marked by important cultural changes. The pottery of this Transitional period is accepted as the predecessor of early Hittite pottery, such as Hüseyindede vases that appeared later on. The earliest examples of this pottery seem to have occurred in the Eskişehir region, as the stratigraphy of Küllüoba attests. The Demircihüyük Culture spread quite widely, and it covered the geographical area of what later came to be known as the territory of

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

. Its most important centre may have been the big settlement mound of

Doryleion Dorylaeum or Dorylaion (; ) was an ancient city in Anatolia. It is now an archaeological site located near the city of Eskişehir, Turkey. Its original location was about 10 km southwest of Eskişehir, at a place now known as Karaca Hisar ...

-Sharhöyük, about 20 kilometres east of Eskishehir, the modern centre of the region.

Luwian connections

Linguist

Craig Melchert Harold Craig Melchert (born April 5, 1945) is an American linguist known particularly for his work on the Anatolian branch of Indo-European. Biography He received his B.A. in German from Michigan State University in 1967 and his Ph.D. in Lingui ...

suggested that the

Luwians The Luwians (also known as Luvians) were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke the Luwian language. During the Bronze Age, Luwians formed part of the population of the Hittite Empire and adjoining states such as Kizzuwatna. During the Hittite ...

were related to Demirci Hüyük culture, implying entry into Anatolia from ancient

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

circa 3000 BC. Competing theories are that the Luwians were related to

Kura–Araxes culture The Kura–Araxes culture (also named ''Kur–Araz culture, Mtkvari–Araxes culture, Early Transcaucasian culture, Shengavitian culture'') was an archaeological culture that existed from about 4000 BC until about 2000 BC, which has traditionally ...

(located in present day Armenia and Georgia), or descended from migrating

Lulubi Lullubi, Lulubi (: ''Lu-lu-bi'', : ''Lu-lu-biki'' "Country of the Lullubi"), more commonly known as Lullu, were a group of Bronze Age tribes of Hurrian and Semitic origin who existed and disappeared during the 3rd millennium BC, from a region kn ...

from the

Zagros Mountains The Zagros Mountains are a mountain range in Iran, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey. The mountain range has a total length of . The Zagros range begins in northwestern Iran and roughly follows Iran's western border while covering much of s ...

.Audias Fabulas Veteres, p. 383-385. Anatolian Studies in Honor of Jana Součková-Siegelová. (2016). Netherlands: Brill
Google Books
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References

Bibliography

* Pinar Durgun
Social organization in the early bronze age Demircihöyük: A re-evaluation
Koç University 2012 - academia.edu * Michele Massa, Early Bronze Age burial customs on the central Anatolian plateau: a view from Demircihöyük-Sarıket, in: Anatolian Studies / Volume 64 / January 2014, pp. 73 - 93 * Jürgen Seeher , ILIPINAR, BARCIN HÖYÜK AND DEMIRCIHÜYÜK Some Remarks on the Late Chalcolithic Period in North-western Anatolia, ANATOLICA XXXVIII, 2012 * Turan Efe, “Early Bronze Age III Pottery from Bahçehisar: The Significance of the Pre-Hittite Sequence in the Eskişehir Plain, Northwestern Anatolia.” American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 98, no. 1, Archaeological Institute of America, 1994, pp. 5–34, https://doi.org/10.2307/506219 * Firth, Richard. 2012. The textile tools of Demircihüyük. In ''KOSMOS: Jewellery, adornment and textiles in the Aegean Bronze Age,'' Marie-Louise Nosch & Robert Laffineur (eds.), 131–138. Peeters: Liège, Belgium. * JURGEN SEEHER. Die Bronzezeitliche Nekropole von Demircihuyuk-Sariket: Ausgrabungen des Deutschen Archaologischen Instituts in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Museum Bursa 1990-1991 (Istanbuler Forschungen 44). ix+331 pages, 90 figures, 23 tables, 28 plates, 7 plans. 2000. Tubingen: Ernst Wasmuth; 3-8030-1765-3 (ISSN 0723-4333) hardback DM198. * Korfmann, Manfred. 1983. ''Demircihüyük: Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen 1975-1978.'' P. von Zabern. {{DEFAULTSORT:Demirci Hüyük Former populated places in Turkey Archaeological sites of prehistoric Anatolia

Excavations

Finds

Chronology

Luwian connections

See also

References

Bibliography