Seyitömer Höyük

Seyitömer Höyük is a mound located 24–25 km northwest by air from the center of Kütahya province, to the northwest of Seyitömer village. It lies within the reserve land of the Seyitömer Lignite Enterprise Directorate (SLİ), a TKİ institution. The hill measures 150 x 140 meters and is 24 meters high. At the top of the mound there is roughly a 2,000 square meter flat area.

Excavations

Excavation work funded by the Seyitömer Lignite Enterprise began in 1989. The first year’s excavations were led by N. Aydın from the Eskişehir Museum, the 1990‑92 excavations by A. Topbaş from the Afyon Museum, and the 1993 excavation again by A. İlaslı from the same museum. The excavations were paused for a period and resumed in 2006 by the Department of Archaeology of Dumlupınar University. The excavation is chaired by Prof. Dr. A. Nejat Bilgen of the same university.

Stratigraphy

The lowest, i.e., the oldest cultural layer is indicated as the Late Chalcolithic – Early Bronze Age transition phase. Above it lies the Early Bronze Age Phase II. In the uppermost layers, settlements from the 2nd millennium BC, Roman, Hellenistic, Classical, Archaic and Phrygian periods are observed. The first settlement is an Early Bronze Age settlement, located by a stream and surrounded by a wall in the Hittite Period. In the Phrygian Period a thick and high wall also surrounded the settlement. The hill’s occupation extends back to before the 5th millennium, and it is understood that it saw intensive settlement in the Bronze Age, Achaemenid, Hellenistic and Roman periods. In addition, the Middle Bronze Age settlement dated to the first quarter of the 2nd millennium BC (Assyrian Trade Colonies period) is understood to have been destroyed and burned by an earthquake around 1800 BC.

Finds

The pottery finds recovered from the mound are important. This pottery, used from the end of Early Bronze Age Phase II to the end of Phase III, is said to explain the development of the pottery industry in Western Inner Anatolia. It is known that this group of material, taken from the burnt layers of Seyitömer Höyük, spread from the Eskişehir Plain to the Dardanelles region.

It is stated that in the Early Bronze Age pottery was hand‑shaped, while later it was made in stone and clay molds. The Seyitömer Höyük is the only settlement in Anatolia in the 3rd millennium BC where molds were used in ceramic production, and the earliest use of molds in ceramic making in the archaeological literature is also observed at this settlement.

In the excavations, furnaces, workshops and iron blooms used for iron smelting, dated to the final phases of the Early Bronze Age, have been found.

The abundant acquisition of heavy weights made of baked clay (weights used on weaving looms) indicates the presence of a developed weaving industry at the settlement.

The belief system of the settlement became a Mother Goddess cult from the Early Bronze Age onward, but in the Roman Period the Mother Goddess was replaced by a Zeus cult.

The finds reached in the excavations are exhibited in the Private Dumlupınar University Museum in the Rectorate building of Dumlupınar University. In the museum, where a total of 1,381 study and inventory items are displayed, there are also models and informational panels. It is stated that Seyitömer Höyük is one of the richest tells in Turkey in terms of finds.

Among the finds, a hammer‑head seal from the Assyrian Trade Colonies period is emphasized as a very important find. However, it is noted that this seal type, displayed in several major museums, is not surpassed anywhere in the world.

The different typologies observed in the pottery finds recovered in the excavations show that Seyitömer Höyük was within a trade network linking Central Anatolia, Syria and Mesopotamia.