Barcın Höyük
Barcın Höyük · Barcın · Barcın Höyük (Yenişehir)
Late Neolithic–Early Chalcolithic (Fikirtepe)·Marmara Neolithic (Fikirtepe)·🇹🇷 Bursa Province, Marmara, Turkey
About
About Barcın Höyük
Type-site for the Marmara Neolithic (c.6600–6000 BCE, Fikirtepe horizon) on the Yenişehir plain south of Lake İznik. Six metres of stratification expose wattle-and-daub houses with plastered floors, impressed and Fikirtepe painted wares, and an extramural cemetery of 80+ flexed inhumations. Archaeobotany documents einkorn, emmer, lentil and fully domestic caprines; Cappadocian and Aegean obsidian trace long-distance exchange bridging Central Anatolia to the Balkans, central to Neolithisation models for southeast Europe.
Why it mattersType-site for Marmara Neolithic; earliest extramural cemetery in NW Anatolia; documents demic diffusion toward Europe.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Genetic relation to Central Anatolia vs Levant?
- 02Why extramural vs intramural burial?
Theories
- 01Demic diffusion via Marmara corridor
- 02Local forager adoption with obsidian network
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.6600–6000 BCE
- Period
- Late Neolithic–Early Chalcolithic (Fikirtepe)
- Culture
- Marmara Neolithic (Fikirtepe)
- Builders
- Early sedentary farming communities
- Purpose
- Farming village with extramural cemetery and obsidian exchange
- Abandoned
- c.6000 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 1993 survey; 2007– Fokke Gerritsen & Rana Özbal (NIT/Koç Univ.)
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
c.6600 BCE
Village founded on lacustrine terrace above Lake İznik
c.6200 BCE
Fikirtepe horizon – wattle-and-daub quarter and cemetery established
c.6000 BCE
Abandoned; sterile hiatus before Chalcolithic
2007
Systematic excavations reveal 6 m stratigraphy and 80+ burials
On the ground
Structures & features
40.3037° N · 29.6085° E · 145 m · 3 mapped features
- Barcın Höyük — Northwest extramural cemeterycemetery80+ flexed inhumations outside settlement, Late Neolithic40.3040° N · 29.6082° E
- Barcın Höyük — Central architectural quarterhouseSuperimposed wattle-and-daub houses with plastered floors Levels VI–IV40.3037° N · 29.6085° E
- Barcın Höyük — Eastern midden/workshopmiddenOpen midden with Fikirtepe sherds, chipped stone and bone tools40.3034° N · 29.6090° E