Karaburun Archaeological Survey Project
Project no. 935 · Status: Kapanmış · 2015
Summary
Karaburun Archaeological Survey Project, KASP, discovered and recorded 82 archaeological sites from the Lower Paleolithic to Ottoman era in three fieldwork seasons implementing the theoretical approach of Landscape Archaeology. The project is conducted using the extensive pedestrian survey methods. Project data is entered into MS-Access and ArcGIS databases for statistics and spatial evaluation. All the archaeological finds are photographed, technically hand-drawn and finally dijitally drawn. Archaeological small finds are submitted to the Çeşme Museum. Materials to work and analyse are brought to the KASP Lab located at Ege University Faculty of Letters. Our project discovered that the earliest human remains from Karaburun date as early as 250,000 years (Lower Paleolithic). Also our fieldwork found evidence of open-air sites dated to ca. 12,000-10,000 BP which contain chipped stones produced by Final Pleistocene foragers of Karaburun. These discoveries are not only unique to the Karaburun Peninsula, but they also constitute the first of their kind for whole western Turkey. KASP also discovered sites of Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. These all represent different epochs in human history from egalitarian village societies to hierarchical complex societies. We also recorded multiple Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman sites as well as epigraphic objects. Our project ensured that all the archaeological material is studied and published by the specialists. Until the closure of the project, our team produced two international and two national articles. As project leader, I have presented the project results in multiple occasions in abroad and in Turkey. We continue our publication work and aim to publish 2 international and 1 national journal articles in 2018-2019.