THE EARLY BRONZE AGE CEMETERY AT ÇEŞME–BOYALIK IN COASTAL WESTERN ANATOLIA

Abstract

Early Bronze Age burial practices in western Anatolia have been much discussed, and the general developmental stages of these traditions have been defined by scholars over the course of years. The first half of the third millennium sees the use of a variety of grave types, namely, stone cist, pithos and simple pit burials; meanwhile, during the second half of the millennium, pithos burials seem to predominate. Short-term rescue excavations at Boyalık, in Çeşme District, Izmir Province, reveal the presence of a new type of burial tradition in coastal western Anatolia dating to the middle of the third millennium BC. The cemetery revealed the use of rock-cut chamber tombs for the first time in this region. This paper presents the unique graves and their finds from Boyalık cemetery and discusses the implications of this new tradition for the third-millennium archaeology of the wider Aegeo-Anatolian region.