A group of Chalcolithic pottery discovered at Asopos Tepesi

Abstract

Although the material culture of the Early and Late Chalcolithic periods are well defined and illustrated in Western Anatolia, the nature of the 5th millennium B.C. material culture is not clear, probably because of the limited number of excavations. The pottery assemblage unearthed in a thin cultural layer above the main rock in the Laodikeia/Asopos Tepesi belonging to the province of Denizli, provides valuable information on this barely known period. The forms and surface features of this pottery group reveal the existence of a settlement dated to the first half of the 5th millennium B.C. Though local qualities are dominant in the settlement, the traces of the interaction with the Aegean Islands are clearly visible.