YENİKAPI KURTARMA KAZILARINDA BULUNAN NEOLİTİK DÖNEME AİT AHŞAP BİR FİGÜRİN

Abstract

During the recent years, a major construction activity has been taking place by the historic centre of Istan­bul for the construction of a tube-tunnel below the bed of the Sea of Marmara to connect the Asian part of the city with that on the European part. Within the framework of this major undertaking extensive res­cue excavations is being carried out by the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, revealing exciting finds and data, not only on the historic background of the city, but also on the changes that took place in the envi­ronmental conditions. Among the exciting finds, over 30 Late Roman-Byzantine ships, some still holding their cargo are to be accounted. The area of the rescue excavations is actually one of main harbours of Byzan­tine Istanbul, later silted up with the alluvium carried by the Lykos/Bayrampasa stream. At the base of this area, at about minus 9 meters below the present level of the Sea of Marmara, the remains of a Neolithic settlement had been encountered, representing the time when the sea levels was much lower then at pres­ent. It became evident that the prehistoric settlement was founded at about 6400 BC living through the Archa­ic- Classical Fikirtepe, Yarimburgaz and Toptepe cultural stages before inundating. Due to the humid con­ditions, organic material has been exceptional well preserve, enabling for the first time to view the wood­en implements of the Neolithic period. A wooden figurine, found in association with the context of Fikirte­pe type of material, is among the most interesting of the organic materials recovered at the site. This unique object presents a hitherto unknown type of human depiction during the Neolithic period.