Beycesultan Höyük Eastern Cone Late Bronze Age Studies

Abstract

The new excavations started in 2007 at Beycesultan Höyük, an important center for understanding the Late Bronze Age cultural process in Western Anatolia, has provided important data for reevaluating the Late Bronze Age chronology in the region and understanding regional relations. The excavations in mound’s western and eastern cones have added new data to our knowledge of Late Bronze Age architecture, space utilization, and settlement planning. Especially the multi-roomed buildings with mudbrick walls with stone foundations and built adjacent to each other in both cones played an important role in understanding the architectural tradition. Compared to the western cone, the Late Bronze Age research in the Eastern Cone, where the studies are still at the beginning stage, contributes to understanding this cultural process in the settlement with the information it provides as a complementary element of the cultural process in the western cone. The presence of pottery from the Hittite period and Hittite-influenced finds identified in a large space during the studies conducted in this area appear as the archaeological reflection of the Hittite presence in the settlement.