🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Stratonikeia and Lagina Sanctuary of Hekate
Hellenistic to Roman Imperial 281 BCE–300 CE · Seleucid Greek over Carian; later Roman
Seleucid league city and Hekate crossroads sanctuary linked by 8 km sacred way with frieze.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Suberde (Göğrem Su Göleti)
Aceramic Neolithic to Early Pottery Neolithic · Central/West Anatolian Neolithic
Aceramic Neolithic lakeside tell (c.7500–6500 BCE) on terrace of Lake Suğla near Karadağ, excavated 1965–71 by Jacques Bordaz.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sultantepe
Middle Bronze to Neo-Assyrian · Hurrian → Mitanni → Assyrian
Neo-Assyrian library mound Huzirina with 600 tablets outside the gate – scholarly twin to Nineveh.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sultantepe Höyük
Halaf → Mitanni → Neo-Assyrian (615 BCE lib) → Hellenistic → Islamic · Halaf → Mitanni Hurrian → Middle & Neo-Assyrian → Islamic
Neo-Assyrian library tell — 400 tablets of Gilgamesh (615 BCE Huzirina).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Sumaki Höyük
Early Bronze I–II (c.3100–2600 BCE) with later BA · Ninevite 5 → Akkadian → Khabur ware
Ninevite 5 period settlement (250 × 200 m, 10 m high) on the Beşiri plain, Ilısu salvage zone, excavated by Barbara Helw...
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Sumatar Harabesi (Soğmatar)
Roman–Syriac (1st–5th century CE) with Bronze/Iron Age antecedents · Harranian Sabian / Edessan Aramaean → Roman / Byzantine
Tektek hilltop Sin-cult oasis with seven baetyl sanctuaries and Syriac rock inscriptions.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Temple complex
Sumatar Harabesi — Moon Cult Hill Sanctuary
Roman (2nd c. CE) over Bronze Age cave · Roman Syriac Moon cult (Sin of Harran)
Tek Tek ridge excavated by Drijvers 1960s, Syriac dedications to Sin/Maralhe, Byzantine reuse, moon-cult processional road.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Uluburun Late Bronze Age Shipwreck
Late Bronze Age (14th c. BCE, c. 1320±15 BCE) · Canaanite/Cypriot/Mycenaean international (hull possibly Levantine)
1320 BCE merchantman off Grand Cape — 10 t copper, tin and exotic cargo revealing Bronze Age world-system.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Uluburun Wreck — Late Bronze Age Royal Cargo Reef (Kolpos)
Late Bronze Age (c.1320 BCE) Palatial cargo ship 15–16 m · Canaanite (?) mixed Levantine-Mycenaean-Egyptian royal cargo with Uluburun copper/tin 10 t/1 t
Uluburun excavated by Bass & Pulak, 1300 BCE greatest bronze age cargo 10 t copper.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Uşaklı Höyük
MBA → LBA Hittite → Iron → Byzantine (2000 BCE–1400 CE) · Hittite (Kizzuwatna?) → Phrygian → Byzantine
Hittite Zippalanda candidate (LB) — 10 ha lower town, monumental Temple B with tablet, Florentine project.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Uşaklı Höyük (candidate Zippalanda)
Early Bronze to Iron Age (3000–600 BCE; Hittite peak 1400–1200 BCE) · Hattian → Hittite → Phrygian
Zippalanda candidate — Hittite storm-god city with palace letters and queen's festival archive.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Hydraulic works
Valens Aqueduct (Bozdoğan Kemeri) — Istanbul
Late Roman to Ottoman (4th–19th c. CE) · East Roman (Byzantine) Constantinople
Valens 971-m double-tier bridge head of 426-km Thracian late Roman water network 373 CE.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Xanthos-Letoon
Bronze Age to Byzantine (peak Classical Lycian 6th–4th c. BCE and Roman) · Lycian (Anatolian Indo-European) → Persian satrapy → Hellenistic → Roman
Lycian capital Xanthos and marsh sanctuary Letoon — trilingual stele solved Lycian.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Cave
Yarımburgaz Cave
Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Ages (c.400,000 BP–1400 CE) · Acheulean → Mousterian → Neolithic (Fikirtepe) → Byzantine
Bosphorus Palaeolithic twin cave (400 ka) with Acheulean and Fikirtepe burials on Küçükçekmece.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Rock art
Yazılıkaya Hittite Sanctuary
Late Bronze Age, Hittite Empire (~1300–1180 BCE; refurbished under Tudhaliya IV) · Hittite (Hatti–Hurrian)
Two natural limestone chambers behind Hattusa where 90 reliefs carved into living rock depict the Hurrian–Hittite pantheon procession: Chamber A shows 12 underworld gods, sword-god Nergal and the…
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Yumuktepe (Yümüktepe)
Neolithic through Byzantine; Cilician corridor · Cilician Neolithic → Hittite Kizzuwatna → Neo-Hittite Que → Greco-Roman
Mersin coastal tell with 25 m deposit from Aceramic Neolithic (7000 BCE) to Roman — Garstang’s Cilician Neolithic–Hittite maritime gateway sequence.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Fortress
Zerzevan Castle — Mithraeum on Frontier Limes
Roman (4th c. CE Severan) to Byzantine · Roman Eastern limes
Diyarbakır frontier fort excavated by Coşkun 2014–, easternmost confirmed Mithraeum, Sassanid siege evidence 359 CE.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Zeugma
Hellenistic to Sassanid sack 252 CE · Seleucid → Roman → Parthian frontier
Twin Hellenistic foundation (Seleucia on Euphrates + Apamea opposite) bridging the Euphrates by Alexander's engineers, Roman legionary base and Parthian toll city (wealth from Euphrates crossing).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient village
Zeytinli Bahçe Höyük
Halaf-Ubaid to Early Bronze (5500–3000 BCE; peak LC 3800–3300 BCE) · Halaf-Ubaid → Late Chalcolithic Euphrates → Uruk fringe
Euphrates Ubaid–Uruk terrace tell with tripartite elite hall and wall painting.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Zincirli
Iron Age (c.1000–676 BCE) plus Bronze substrate · Aramaean–Neo-Hittite Samʾal
Iron Age Samʾal 40 ha triple-walled (Kuttamuwa Stele, lion orthostats) in Islahiye valley.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Zincirli Höyük (Samʾal)
Late Bronze–Neo-Assyrian (c.1600–700 BCE; Kilamuwa dynasty 9th c.) · Hittite → Aramaean Samaliyya → Assyrian province
Perfect circular Aramaean capital Samʾal with inner citadel (double-entry) and outer town 40 ha.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Ancient city
Çadır Höyük
Chalcolithic to Byzantine (5200 BCE–1200 CE; peak Hittite and Phrygian) · Central Anatolian Chalcolithic → Hattian → Hittite → Phrygian → Roman
Yozgat tell with 5200 BCE-to-Byzantine sequence bridging central plateau and Hittite north.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Çadır Höyük (Sorgun)
Late Chalcolithic through Byzantine; EBA II-III, Hittite, Phrygian, Byzantine · Central Anatolian; Late Chalcolithic, EBA, Hittite Empire, Phrygia
Pleiades Bronze-Iron Age plateau tell (240×140 m) with Chalcolithic to Hittite-Phrygian stratigraphy on Kanak Su, Yozgat — type-site for plateau continuity.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Tell
Çakmaktepe
PPNA–PPNB (Taş Tepeler) · Taş Tepeler PPN foragers (Göbekli–Karahan sphere)
Taş Tepeler ridge PPNA enclave (9300–8500 BCE) with T-pillar in round enclosure and terrazzo hamlet — 9th Stone Hill on Karahan ridge.