Çeşme – Bağlararası: Cultural Transformation and the End of a Coastal Aegean Bronze Age Settlement in Izmir, Türkiye

Prof. Dr. Vasıf ŞAHOĞLU Ankara University
Invité par Bastien Rueff École française d’Athènes

Interdisciplinary research undertaken at Çeşme – Bağlararası (Ankara University Excavation in İzmir, Türkiye), revealed the transformation of the site during the first half of the second millennium BC from a local settlement into a regional borderline hub. The combined results of material culture studies have begun to reveal important changes including new cultural practices and technologies associated with pottery, but also textile manufacture and crop cultivation. The transfer of new technologies, as well as imported types of material culture, mark the appearance of new traditions and new life styles that echo strong connections with both Cretan fashions and Anatolian traditions. Habitation at this international hub came to an end with the arrival of a series of devastating tsunamis generated by the eruption of Thera. The new evidence will be discussed both in the context of the site’s history but also in relation to its changing role in regional networks and connections within a wider Aegeo-Anatolian world.