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SITE LOCATION & HISTORY

Seyitömer Höyük is located 26km north of Kütahya , Turkey , within property owned and operated by the Seyitömer Lignite Company.

The marker points to the location of Seyitomer.

The ancient habitation mound measures c.150×150m in size with its summit at a height of 23.5m above the surroundings. The site is being cleared and studied under the direction of Prof. Dr. A. Nejat Bilgen, the chairman of the Department of Archaeology, Dumlupınar University (with the assistance of members of the Lignite Company, students and faculty from other departments at Dumlupinar University, [the late] Prof. Samuel M. Paley, University at Buffalo, and Learning Sites, Inc.).

The site had been previously excavated briefly by various other teams during the 1980s & 1990s.

So far, settlement activity has been detected from the following periods: Roman, Hellenistic (334-30 BCE), Achaemenid (500-334 BCE), Bronze Age (c.3000-1200 BCE), and the Late Chalcolithic period (4th millennium BCE).

General view of the mound (click to enlarge).

Aerial view of the mound (2008; click to enlarge).

There is one really serious problem facing the archaeological team: as much of the mound as possible must be excavated and documented by the end of 2010, because there is a 12-million ton exploitable coal reserve underneath it that will be mined by the lignite company thereby destroying the habitation site completely !

The company was kind enough to provide a 5-year window of excavation before they will move in; but for a site of this size and historical complexity, the task is daunting.

Learning Sites was called in to use its Digital Site Seer® techniques to build interactive 3D models of the excavated remains. These techniques are useful for:

ensuring that all evidence is fully documented before it is removed;

providing quick visualizations to help fieldteams interpret their finds;

providing virtual reality models so reseachers can simulate re-visiting the site, once key remains have been cleared; and

providing publication-ready images as the field seasons progress.

SITE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aydın, N. 1991. Seyitömer Höyük Kurtarma Kazısı 1989. I. Müze Kurtarma Kazıları Semineri, Ankara , Turkey , May 19-10 1990, 191–204.

Bilgen, A.N.(in press) Seyitömer Höyüğü Kurtarma Kazısı Projesi,2006. 28^th International Symposium of Excavations, Survey and Archaeometry. İzmit, Turkey , May 28 – June 1 2007 .

İlaslı, A. 1996. Seyitömer Höyüğü 1993 Yılı Kurtarma Kazısı. VI. Müze Kurtarma Kazıları Semineri. Didim , Turkey , April 24–26 1995 , 1–20.

Topbaş, A.1994. Seyitömer Höyüğü 1992 Yılı Kurtarma Kazısı. IV. Müze Kurtarma Kazıları Semineri. Marmaris , Turkey , April 26-29 1993 , 297-310.

----- 1993. Seyitömer Höyüğü 1991 Yılı Kurtarma Kazısı. III. Müze Kurtarma Kazıları Semineri. Efes , Turkey , April 27-30 1992 , 1-30.

----- 1992. Kütahya Seyitömer Höyüğü 1990 Yılı Kurtarma Kazısı. II. Müze Kurtarma Kazıları Semineri. Ankara , Turkey , April 29-30 1991 , 11-34.

To follow progress online, visit: http://www.freewebs.com/seyitomer/index.html

Seyitömer Höyük

Kütahya, Turkey

Project Homepage & Index

Seyitömer Höyük is located 26km north of Kütahya , Turkey , within property owned and operated by the Seyitömer Lignite Company.

The site had been previously excavated briefly by various other teams during the 1980s & 1990s.

So far, settlement activity has been detected from the following periods: Roman, Hellenistic (334-30 BCE), Achaemenid (500-334 BCE), Bronze Age (c.3000-1200 BCE), and the Late Chalcolithic period (4th millennium BCE).

The company was kind enough to provide a 5-year window of excavation before they will move in; but for a site of this size and historical complexity, the task is daunting.

Learning Sites was called in to use its Digital Site Seer® techniques to build interactive 3D models of the excavated remains. These techniques are useful for: