ITU’s First Archaeological Excavation, The Hacımusalar Mound, has Completed Its Second Season

Season 2 of the Hacımusalar Mound excavation, headed by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bülent Arıkan, a faculty member of the ITU Eurasian Institute of Earth Sciences, and the geophysical studies carried out by Assist. Prof. Dr. Caner İmren and his team have been completed.

Hacımusalar, located in Elmalı/Antalya, is the largest of 13 mounds in the Elmalı Plain in southwestern Türkiye. The first phase of archaeological research at Hacımusalar Mound began in 1994 and continued until 2019. The Hacımusalar mound covers an area of about 65,000 m2 and the structures uncovered so far are limited in number. Excavations in the past quarter century have uncovered Early and Middle Byzantine churches, Hellenistic buildings, an Iron Age industrial sector, and an Early Bronze Age castle with houses.

Since the summer of 2022, the second phase of archaeological research has been initiated at Hacımusalar Mound, a multi-layered settlement, with the official permission of the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums.

In the scope of the studies carried out, ITU Geophysical Engineering Assist. Prof. Dr. Caner İmren and R.A. Beril Karadöller started to perform geophysical studies in 2022 to determine the geophysical signatures of the buried remains, to reveal the architectural plan of the mound and to guide archaeological excavations. In the summers of 2022 and 2023, ground-penetrating radar surveys were completed over 8000 square meters in area. 

The preliminary findings of the studies were presented by R.A. Beril Karadöller at the ¨Near Surface Geoscience’23¨ symposium organized by the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) in Edinburgh/Scotland between September 3-7, 2023, with the title of ¨A Case Study for Archaeo-geophysics: GPR Application on Hacımusalar Mound/Elmalı/Antalya¨

In addition, the geophysical studies carried out in the region were orally presented by our researchers at the 43^rd International Symposium on Excavation, Research, and Archaeometry¨, organized yearly by the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In this symposium, our researchers also shared the findings of their other project, the ancient city of Perinthos and its environs, in another session.

GPR Studies in Hacımusalar Mound

GPR Studies in Hacımusalar Mound

(From left to right) Assist. Prof. Dr. Caner İmren, Prof. Dr. Zeynep Koçel Erdem, and R.A. Beril Karadöller at 43rd International Symposium on Excavation, Research, and Archaeometry.