Systematic research into the prehistory of Ephesos has hardly occurred during the course of the many years of research activity at the ancient city and its surrounding area. This new project should address that need.
It is precisely the geographical location of Ephesos, in a region with rivers serving as a means of communication into the hinterland and with its connection to the Aegean by means of its coastal location, that presents immense research potential regarding questions concerning its prehistoric development. Furthermore, questions about its cultural and topographical beginnings are also significant for the micro-region of the area, and constitute an important contribution to the understanding of the diachronic development of a settlement from the prehistoric epoch up until the historical period.

With the current research on the Çukuriçi Höyük, the first groundwork for addressing these questions has been laid. The hill lies to the south-east of the later ancient city of Ephesos, and was first investigated in 1995 by a team from the Ephesos Museum Selçuk during a short excavation activity in the form of two small sondages (Evren - İçten 1997). Over the following years, a large part of the settlement hill, which today is encircled by fertile fruit gardens (fig. 1), was dug out and levelled, planted and watered (fig. 2). These massively destructive methods led, amongst other things, to Çukuriçi Höyuk finding a place at the centre of the first multi-year research project into the prehistory of Ephesos.
The first explorations were financed by the OEAI in 2006, and led to the first archaeological definition of the site. It is identified as a "proper Tell" (Gogâltan 2005), comprising at least five architectural phases with levels of usage, which are preserved to a height of at least 5 m. above the ground level of the surrounding planted area (fig. 3). The investigations in the northern sector of the Tell (fig. 4) revealed a settlement sequence with architectural phases dating to the early and late Chalcolithic according to Anatolian terminology (Schoop 2005), as well as a variety of phases of the Early Bronze Age (figs. 5-6).

The ceramic spectrum in the individual periods incorporates a wide variety of wares with analogies to the lake region (Bademağacı, Höyücek, Hacılar, Kuruçay) to Aphrodisias-Pekmez, up to the region around Izmir (Ulucak, Limantepe) and from the eastern Aegean islands such as Chios (Agio Gala, Emporio) and up to Demircirhüyük and the Troad (Troia I-II) (figs. 7-8). Numerous objects of obsidian, as well as pestles and mortars of stone, bone artifacts and loom whorls provide evidence of a broad spectrum of handiwork activities for the individual settlement periods.

The archaeological research planned for the future at Çukuriçi Höyuk will be financed up until 2010 by the Austrian Science Fund (Project no. P 19859-G02), and include a number of goals for both a micro- and supra-regional context. Excavations lasting for several weeks, the analysis of finds, and interdisciplinary analysis should clarify the erection and structure of the settlement and its individual periods, as well as the groundwork for their existence and their resources of raw materials. An immediate first priority is the creation of a chronological basic framework based on the archaeological finds and carbon-14 dating, as well as through connections to a far-reaching context within Anatolia and the Aegean during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. In addition to geophysical prospection, geomorphological drilling will also occur, in order to elucidate fundamental questions regarding the topography, sedimentation, coastline changes, and original extent of the Tell.

Preliminary Results 2007

During the course of a seven-week excavation campaign and twelve weeks of analysis of finds, constituting the continuation of the first excavations of 2006, two areas of the Tell were comprehensively examined (fig. 4):
At the north, the area was extended in a westerly direction. In spite of massive recent damage to the regions near the surface, clear traces of settlement activity dating to the Early Bronze Age (EBA) and to the Chalcolithic period could be identified. Relating to this settlement context, directly at the modern northern edge of the Tell, an inhumation burial in a stone slab chest was excavated (fig. 9). The burial, carefully deposited on its right side, was located beneath a badly damaged horizon of usage, from which a few single areas of a packed clay floor have been preserved.

The massive cone in the southern area of the hill was the focus of attention during this season of research. Well-preserved settlement structures of the EBA (Troy I-II), below massive layers of debris, came to light (fig. 10). So far, it can be postulated that these represent the remains of three contemporary, multi-room houses built of walls with stone socles, and clay brick walls, which are partially preserved having collapsed onto the floors within the rooms (fig. 11).

After a violent destruction - possibly by earthquake (?) - the houses were obviously abandoned and not rebuilt; this has resulted in the preservation not only of numerous inner architectural elements (hearths, platforms, etc.) but also of many objects from the final phase of usage. The spectrum of finds encompasses, in addition to numerous ceramic vessels, stone implements and stone tools, blades, bone artifacts, loom whorls, various elements of jewellery, wall plastering, as well as bronze needles and metal clinker (fig. 12).

Picture Captions
Fig. 1: View from the north over the fruit plantations towards Çukuriçi Höyuk in the background (© OEAI)
Fig. 2: Satellite photograph of the Tell after the destruction of the entire southern half and areas in the north (© Google Earth 2006)
Fig. 3: Digital land model of the Tell from a north-eastern perspective (© OEAI, Ch. Kurtze 2006)
Fig. 4: Topographical photograph of the Tell with excavation sections (© OEAI, Ch. Kurtze 2006)
Fig. 5: Stone foundations and packed clay floor from the early Chalcolithic period (6th millennium B.C.) (© OEAI)
Fig. 6: Red burnished, narrow-mouthed jar with four vertical lugs, from the area of the early Chalcolithic packed clay floor (© OEAI, Foto: N. Gail)
Figs. 7-8: Beaked jar of red to red-brown ware, of the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium B.C.)
Fig. 9: Stone slab chest grave with inhumation burial in the northern sector of the Tell (Photo B. Horejs)
Fig. 10: Overview photograph of the architectural remains on the southern cone (Photo B. Horejs)
Fig. 11: Schematic groundplan of Early Bronze Age architecture (S1, southern area) (M. Braun/B. Horejs)
Fig. 12: Early Bronze Age tripod cooking pot from the earliest phase of usage of the settlement (Photo N. Gail)

Bibliography (selected):
A. Evren - C. İçten, Efes Çukuriçi ve Arvalya (Gül Hanım) Höyükleri. Müze Kurtarma Kazıları Semineri 8, 1997, 111-133.
A. und H. Erkanal, Vorbericht über die Grabungen 1979 im prähistorischen Klazomenai/Limantepe. Hacattepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 1983, 163-178.
H. Erkanal - S. Günel, 1993 Liman Tepe Kazısı in: XVI. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı I (Ankara 1995) 263-279.
H. Erkanal - S. Günel, 1994 Liman Tepe Kazısı, in: XVII. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı I (Ankara 1996) 305-328.
H. Erkanal - S. Günel, 1995 Liman Tepe Kazısı, in: XVIII. Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı I (Ankara 1997) 231-260.
R. C. S. Felsch, Das Kastro Tigani. Die spätneolithische und chalkolithische Siedlung (Bonn 1988).
F. Gogâltan in: B. Horejs u. a. (Hrsg.), Interpretationsraum Bronzezeit. Bernhard Hänsel von seinen Schülern gewidmet, Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie 121 (Berlin 2005) 161-179.
S. Hood, Excavations in Chios 1938-1955. Prehistoric Emporio and Ayio Gala (Oxford 1981).
S. Lloyd - J. Mellaart, Beycesultan I. The Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Levels. Occasional Publications of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara 6 (London 1962).
J. Mellaart, Excavations at Hacılar (London 1970).
U. D. Schoop, Das anatolische Chalkolithikum. Eine chronologische Untersuchung zur vorbronzezeitlichen Kultursequenz im nördlichen Zentralanatolien und den angrenzenden Gebieten, Urgeschichtliche Studien 1 (Großschönau 2005).

Contact:
Barbara Horejs
http://www.barbarahorejs.at/