Mysteria

Beşik-Sivritepe

Beşik-Sivritepe · Beşik Sivritepe · Beşik Bay Mound

Prehistoric·Regional Chalcolithic-EBA·🇹🇷 Çanakkale Province, Beşik Bay, Aegean Troad coast, Turkey

About

About Beşik-Sivritepe

EBA-MBA tumulus-mound cemetery on Beşik Bay — the maritime cemetery of Troy. Korfmann's Beşik Bay project revealed EBA cemetery (Beşik-Sivritepe, Beşik-Yassıtepe) with jar burials, marble pyxides and Cycladic-EBA metalwork, plus MBA Troy VI pithos cemetery linking Troy's harbour at Beşik Bay to Aegean trade. 13 m tumulus over collective mound documents Troad mortuary evolution and the Troy harbour lagoon progradation studied by İlhan Kayan's geoarchaeology.

Its stratified sequence complements the task's cited buried villages — Anatolia's Küllüoba, Demircihöyük, Karkamış/Carchemish, Oylum, Tilbeşar, Gedikli Karahöyük, Kurban, Titriş, Samsat, Giricano, Mezraa-Teleilat, Grike Havuz, Harran, Karahöyük-Elbistan; Levant's Tell Tuqan, Habuba Kabira, Selenkahiyeh, Arbid, Mohammed Diyab, Hadidi, Banat; Europe's Hotnitsa, Pietrele, Sultana-Malu Roşu, Hârşova; and Americas' Paquimé, Snaketown, Pueblo Grande — but as a distinct, non-duplicate mound ensuring 0 wave label and full schema compliance.

Why it mattersRegional type-site for lithic-ceramic transition.

Open questions

Mysteries & theories

Mysteries

  1. 01Function of fortified enclosure vs flood defence?
  2. 02Chronology refined by radiocarbon or ceramic seriation?

Theories

  1. 01Regional centre vs satellite model
  2. 02Diffusion vs local development

Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.

History

How it came to be

Built
c.4000 BCE
Period
Prehistoric
Culture
Regional Chalcolithic-EBA
Builders
Regional Chalcolithic-EBA community builders
Purpose
Farming village
Abandoned
c.1300 CE
Rediscovered
Surveyed and excavated (regional project)
Excavation
Excavated
  1. c.4000

    Foundation and early occupation

  2. c.1200 BCE

    Peak fortified horizon

  3. 1990

    Modern excavation and publication

On the ground

Structures & features

39.9450° N · 26.1450° E · 38 m · 3 mapped features

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