Yeşilova Höyük & Yassıtepe – İzmir's 8,500-Year Story

Why Visit Yeşilova Höyük & Yassıtepe?

İzmir is famous for ancient Smyrna, Roman remains and the great archaeological landscapes of the Aegean.

Yeşilova takes the story much further back.

Thousands of years before monumental Greek and Roman cities appeared, people were already building homes, cultivating crops, raising animals, making pottery and establishing permanent communities on the Bornova Plain.

That makes Yeşilova especially valuable because it introduces visitors to ordinary human life at the beginning of settled society.

There are no monumental marble theatres here.

There are no imperial temples or triumphal arches.

Instead, archaeology reveals houses, ovens, tools, food remains, pottery, animal bones and traces of production.

These smaller discoveries can sometimes tell us more about everyday life than monumental architecture.

Nearby Yassıtepe then moves the story forward several thousand years.

By the Early Bronze Age, the settlement had developed fortifications, organised building plans, storage systems, specialised production and extensive trade connections.

Visiting the two sites together therefore allows you to follow an extraordinary transformation: from İzmir's earliest village to one of its earliest organised towns.

İzmir's Prehistoric Settlement Area

Yeşilova should not be understood as an isolated mound.

It forms part of a much broader archaeological landscape in the Bornova Plain.

Official archaeological information identifies an approximately 1,200-metre-wide prehistoric settlement area including Yeşilova Höyük, Yassıtepe Höyük and İpeklikuyu Höyük.

Today this ancient landscape lies within the modern metropolitan city.

Roads, housing, universities and urban development surround archaeological deposits that were created thousands of years before İzmir existed in anything resembling its modern form.

This contrast is one of the most striking elements of a visit.

You are not travelling into a remote archaeological landscape.

You are discovering deep prehistory inside one of Türkiye's largest modern cities.

Yeşilova Höyük – İzmir's First Known Village

The earliest settlement at Yeşilova dates to approximately 8,500 years ago.

This places the community within the Neolithic period, when farming, animal husbandry and permanent settlement were reshaping human life across Anatolia.

Yeşilova eventually spread across a substantial area, with archaeological deposits covering more than 70,000 square metres.

The people who lived here were not simply wandering through the Bornova Plain.

They built houses.

They cultivated crops.

They kept domesticated animals.

They hunted and gathered wild resources.

They produced pottery and tools.

They participated in networks through which materials travelled considerable distances.

In other words, Yeşilova represents a community that had committed itself to a settled way of life.

What Did İzmir's First Settlers Eat?

One of the most fascinating aspects of Yeşilova is that archaeology can reconstruct parts of the prehistoric diet.

Plant and animal remains indicate a mixed economy based on farming, animal husbandry, hunting, gathering and aquatic resources.

Long-Distance Connections Before Cities Existed

Permanent village life did not mean isolation.

Materials recovered at Yeşilova demonstrate connections extending beyond the immediate Bornova Plain.

Obsidian is particularly important.

This volcanic glass was prized throughout prehistory because it could be fractured into exceptionally sharp cutting edges.

Since good obsidian sources are geographically limited, finding the material at archaeological sites allows researchers to explore prehistoric exchange networks.

Other stone materials also reached Yeşilova from outside the local area.

These discoveries show that even during the Neolithic period, people, objects and ideas were moving through networks linking different parts of Anatolia and the Aegean.

Why Did Settlement Shift Away from Yeşilova?

Yeşilova's prehistoric settlement did not continue unchanged forever.

Official archaeological accounts indicate that the main Yeşilova settlement was abandoned around 5700 BC.

The precise causes behind major prehistoric settlement changes can be complex.

Environmental conditions, water systems, social change, economic choices and movement of communities can all affect where people choose to live.

Approximately three centuries later, new communities established themselves nearby at Yassıtepe.

This shift is crucial because Yassıtepe eventually records a very different type of social organisation.

The story of prehistoric İzmir was moving from village life toward something increasingly urban.

Why Yassıtepe Barely Looks Like a Mound Today

Yassıtepe provides an excellent example of how modern appearance can be misleading in archaeology.

The archaeological mound originally accumulated to a height approaching seven metres.

Today much of that height is visually concealed because the surrounding plain gradually filled with sediments deposited by nearby streams.

The visible mound therefore appears much lower and flatter than its archaeological depth would suggest.

Modern construction has also transformed the surrounding landscape.

Part of the prehistoric settlement lies beneath later development, making protection of the surviving archaeological zone particularly important.

Why Is Yassıtepe Compared with Early Troy?

Yassıtepe has increasingly been compared with the earliest settlement phases of Troy.

The comparison does not mean the two sites were identical.

Rather, they developed during broadly comparable periods within the Early Bronze Age world of western Anatolia and the Aegean.

Both reveal increasingly organised settlements with substantial architecture, storage, craft activity and regional connections.

The archaeological team has therefore used the memorable comparison of Yassıtepe as an “İzmir Troy” to communicate its significance to the wider public.

For visitors, the comparison helps place Yassıtepe within a much larger prehistoric world that existed long before the famous Homeric narratives associated with later Troy.

Grapes, Figs & Olives – A 5,000-Year-Old Aegean Story

Some of Yassıtepe's most fascinating discoveries concern foods that remain inseparable from the identity of the Aegean today.

Archaeological investigation has identified traces connected with grapes and figs.

Evidence from containers and plant remains indicates that grapes were not simply eaten fresh.

They were processed in different ways, with archaeological interpretations including dried grapes, grape syrup and wine-related production.

During the 2026 excavation season, archaeologists also reported approximately five-thousand-year-old olive stones.

Grapes, figs and olives therefore appear together in the prehistoric agricultural record — three crops that would remain central to western Anatolian food and trade for millennia.

Bronze & Specialised Production

The Early Bronze Age takes its name from one of the period's most important technological developments.

At Yassıtepe, metal objects and evidence of bronze production form part of the settlement's archaeological record.

Finds include objects such as axes and pins, while production evidence indicates that metalworking was part of local economic life.

Bronze required access to raw materials, technical knowledge and specialised craftsmanship.

Its presence therefore adds another dimension to Yassıtepe's increasingly complex economy.

The inhabitants were no longer simply cultivating crops and maintaining households.

They were participating in specialised systems of production and exchange.

Latest Discoveries at Yassıtepe – 2026

The archaeological story of Yassıtepe is still developing. Excavations continued in 2026 and produced important new evidence.

Because these interpretations are based on active archaeological research, future excavation and laboratory analysis may refine parts of the picture.

That is one of the most exciting reasons to visit Yeşilova and Yassıtepe: the history is still being discovered.

Burials & Ideas About Death

Yassıtepe's cemeteries provide evidence for the way inhabitants treated the dead.

Some individuals were buried inside large ceramic containers known as pithoi.

Bodies could be placed in a contracted position, while vessels containing food or drink and personal objects were deposited as grave goods.

The excavation team has connected certain decorative motifs, including imagery associated with pregnancy and female symbolism, with possible ideas of regeneration or rebirth.

Such interpretations remain archaeological reconstructions rather than written explanations from the people themselves.

Nevertheless, burial practices provide some of the most powerful evidence available for investigating prehistoric concepts of identity, memory and the afterlife.

From Prehistory to the Roman Period

Neither Yeşilova nor Yassıtepe represents a single moment frozen in time.

The wider archaeological zone contains traces belonging to multiple periods.

Yeşilova is particularly important for the Neolithic period, while Yassıtepe provides major evidence for the Early Bronze Age.

Later activity continued intermittently across the landscape.

Archaeological evidence extends through later prehistoric phases and into periods associated with the classical and Roman worlds.

This long sequence demonstrates how attractive the Bornova Plain remained as a place for farming, movement and settlement.

The Reconstructed Neolithic Village

One challenge at every prehistoric site is that the surviving archaeological remains are usually incomplete.

Stone foundations may survive, while walls, roofs, wooden supports and household objects have disappeared.

Visitors looking at excavated wall lines therefore have to imagine much of the original building.

The reconstructed village at Yeşilova helps bridge that gap.

Buildings inspired by archaeological evidence show how prehistoric architecture may have appeared when walls rose to full height and roofs covered domestic spaces.

This is particularly useful for families and visitors encountering Neolithic archaeology for the first time.

The reconstruction should be understood as an educational interpretation rather than a claim that every missing architectural detail is known with certainty.

Why the Guided Archaeology Experience Matters

Prehistoric sites can be difficult to understand without explanation.

At first glance, one stone wall can look very much like another.

An archaeologist can explain why one wall belongs to a house, why another represents a later reconstruction, and why a small change in soil colour may indicate a floor, hearth or destruction layer.

Guidance also helps separate what archaeologists know from what they are still investigating.

That distinction is particularly important at an active excavation such as Yassıtepe, where each season can introduce new evidence.

The experience therefore offers something very different from simply walking through monumental ruins.

It introduces visitors to archaeology as a process of asking questions, testing interpretations and building history from physical evidence.

How Long Do You Need?

Photography at Yeşilova & Yassıtepe

The archaeological landscape offers excellent opportunities for documentary photography.

Accessibility & Mobility

The Visitor Centre is a modern purpose-built cultural facility, but the archaeological areas themselves contain outdoor surfaces and active excavation terrain.

Ground conditions can include uneven paths, soil, archaeological trenches and temporary working areas.

Visitors with reduced mobility should therefore contact the centre before travelling and explain their specific requirements.

Staff can advise which parts of the site are accessible and how the guided route can best be organised.

Yeşilova vs Yassıtepe – What Is the Difference?

Places to Combine with Yeşilova & Yassıtepe

Suggested Yeşilova & Yassıtepe Half-Day

Arrange your Yeşilova appointment in advance and use the visit as the beginning of a chronological journey through İzmir's history.