The 2007 Season of the Salvage Excavations at Keçiçayırı (Seyitgazi-Eskişehir)

Abstract

The site Keçiçayırı is situated near Bardakçı Village, 18 km south of Seyitgazi, in the eastern part of the Phrygian Highlands. The excavations here were initiated in 2006 with the cooperation of the Eskiþehir Archaeological Museum and Prof. Dr. T. Efe of Istanbul University. This article is a brief report on the work carried out here in the 2007 season. Excavation concentrated in three different areas: the fields to the NW, the so-called “Höyük” itself, and the EB II citadel on the Cıbırada hill. In Trench b 88 newly opened in the northwestern fields, we encountered Early Neolithic levels above earlier strata possibly indicative of to pre-ceramic settlement. The trench opened on the “Höyük” (the so-called “mound”) yielded Neolithic artifacts of chipped stone mixed with deposit from Roman times. At the EB II citadel we worked in three different trenches on the perimeter to expose segments of the fortification wall and the houses that adjoined it at their backs. The Keçiçayırı salvage excavations contribute not only to our knowledge of the Pre- and Early Neolithic periods so little known within the entirety of Northwestern Anatolia, but also to the awareness and characteristics of EB II citadels in the area.