Finds from the 3,400-year-old Mycenaean civilization were unearthed at Yassıtepe Mound in Turkey

During the Yassıtepe excavations in the Bornova district of Izmir, 3,400-year-old tombs, vessels, and jugs thought to be from the Mycenaean civilization were discovered.

The Yassıtepe excavations in Yeşilova Mound are carried out with the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Excavations continue under the presidency of Associate Professor Zafer Derin (Ege University Faculty of Letters, Archeology Department) with the support of Izmir Metropolitan and Bornova municipalities. The excavations carried out take the history of Izmir back 8,500 years.

Prof. Dr. Derin stated, “This year’s partial excavation work has been completed. As a result of the excavations carried out with the participation of the Izmir Archeology Museum teams, a very important burial area and finds belonging to the Mycenaean civilization were found.”

“History of Mycenaean civilization?”

Derin also stated, “The cemetery started to be used 5,000 years ago. During the excavations, we encountered a group of tombs dating back 3,400 years. There are stone chests and pithos graves in the grave. The tombs are thought to be from the period when the first commercial life in Izmir started. Because they are tombs of Mycenaean merchants, a civilization in Greece. “

The Mycenaean civilization was the first advanced civilization that lived in Ancient Greece between 1600 and 1100 BC. This period dates back to the last stages of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece. Derin stated that traces of this society were found in the Yassıtepe Mound excavations in Western Anatolia.

“People were not burned at that time. They put the dead in stone graves and chests. A double-handled jug called ‘pelike’, in which fragrant olive oil was carried, and ‘pyxis’, used to carry cream, were placed next to the dead. They also left jewelry made of agate stone in the graves.”

Such discoveries are made throughout Western Anatolia, but the cemetery in the heart of Izmir is significant since it is the first, according to Derin.