The village Halkapınar is located north of Ephesus between Belevi and Büyükkale. A landmark declaring possession to the Artemis temple shows that the area belonged to Ephesus in antiquity. Emergency excavations in 1973 revealed two pithos graves dating to the Late Bronze Age. Another pithos next to the previous ones was excavated Ephesus excavation team in 2005. The fill around the graves contained bone and ceramic fragments. The burial type is typical for western Asia Minor. It was used both for cemeteries as well as for single graves. Barbara Horejs dated the necropolis to Late Helladic IIB–IIIA2, thus 1450-1300 BCE. A Mycenaean Alabastron from LH IIIA2 has also been reported from the site. Along the edge of the valley north of the village Halkapınar, numerous traces of a large settlement from the imperial period are known, but there have been no systematic excavation yet. Thus far, traces of the Bronze Age settlement are missing.
More Information
- Horejs, Barbara. 2008. “Eine Spätbronzezeitliche Bestattung in Halkapınar Bei Ephesos.” Jahreshefte Des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien 77:107‒129.