Abstract
Excavations at Kaymakçı on the shore of Lake Marmara in Manisa province, Turkey, have uncovered stratified remains associated with defensive, domestic, storage, and other features over five seasons of excavation under the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project (KAP) since 2014. Even before excavation, surface finds suggested dates in the second-millennium BCE that are now confirmed by excavated ceramics.
While ceramic evidence allows for a local periodization of Middle Bronze Age (MBA) and Late Bronze Age (LBA) phases at Kaymakçı, a regionwide re-evaluation of synchronisms and connections across second-millennium BCE western Anatolia is still needed, similar to the ARCANE project's goal for the third millennium BCE. Imported, locally produced, and imitated Mycenaean Decorated Wares provide relative sequences for the narrow strip of coastal western Anatolia, yet they have decreasing utility further inland.
Absolute dates on samples from Troy, Aphrodisias, and Beycesultan also provide certain chronological anchors, yet they are few and far between. Here we report the results of the first sets of Bayesian radiocarbon analyses of samples from selected stratified levels at Kaymakçı, providing absolute dates for local ceramic developments.
The results broadly confirm recent analyses of ceramic development in western Anatolia, situating the local assemblage among existing data and highlighting Kaymakçı's cultural connections. Considering the periodization of the larger geographic area, we provide definition to the western Anatolian MBA and argue for inclusion of the seventeenth and sixteenth centuries BCE in the western Anatolian LBA, matching the widespread appearance of various Gray Wares.