Byzantine Poterry from the Smyrna Acropolis/Kadifekale (2015)
Project no. 963 · Status: Kapanmış · 2017
Summary
Named as Pagos in ancient resources and presently known as Kadifekale, Acropolis Hill of the City of Smyrna had been home to various settlements from Hellenistic Period to Ottoman Period. Although some information was generated relating to the Acropolis of New city of Smyrna in the light of architectural, epigraphic and archeologic data in the course of time, a rich pottery antique group regarding Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Periods was obtained in a short-term excavation carried in 2015. All the finds from the Byzantine period are red paste, cream / white slip, glazed products and belong to open and closed vessels. Typical and chronological findings of the earliest finds; It belongs to the 13th century ceramics grouped under two main types called Zeuxippus Family. Smaller amounts of late 13th-14th century finds (Purpur-Brown Strained Ware, Green-Orange Strained Ware) are of Western Anatolian origin. The ceramics of the Paleologos Period (from Constantinople) identified within the Kadifekale finds are a small but important group that is much less common in the Byzantine sites of Western Anatolia. The ceramics of the first half of the late 13th-14th centuries originating from the capital Constantinople (Istanbul), which is not found in the Smyrna Agora, are important in pointing to the Byzantine population trying to hold onto the castle.