TEPEKULE – Old Smyrna

Yeşilova Höyük is the oldest settlement area in Izmir. Before it was discovered in 2003, Izmir’s history was thought to base on 5000 years ago but after the discovery of Yeşilova and the findings found in excavations, Izmir got a reputation as one of the oldest settlement area in Western Anatolia. Mound settlement, located under 0,80 m of Bornova that surrended by mountains except its western part leaning to sea, has 3- 4 m of thickness. In surface of the mound, except late Roma keramik, nothing was found. Mound is in the middle of Bornova plain and in the meeting point of Gökdere and Manda Brook. Settlement area is 4- 5 km away from the today’s settlement area.It is thought that settlement area includes 200-300m area.

The cultural history of Izmir has had to be re-defined in the light of the discoveries of Yeşilova Höyük. It becomes more plausible to advance that the ancient culture of Izmir had been shaped by residents who had lived some 8000-9000 years ago, rather than by those who inhabited the Bayraklı Höyük as of the 3rd millenium B.C. Yeşilova Höyük is the birth-place of Izmir, and Bornova plain constituted the habitat of early settlers for a few thousand years. The two adjacent mounds of Bornova plain (Yeşilova and Yassıhöyük) initiated sedentary life in Izmir, and sedentarization gained a further impetus later with the Old Smyrna mound dating from the 3rd millenium BC. The culture had developped on the basis of all of these sites.