TRABZON İLİ YÜZEY ARAŞTIRMASI 2021 YILI ÖN SONUÇLARI

Pre-classical period of Trabzon region has been undervalued in Anatolian Archaeology to date. Although Trabzon is one of the most important settlements on the Black Sea shore, concrete archaeological material dated to pre-classical period has not been recorded. This is also the case for the data about the region in ancient written sources. The local people who were referred in these sources had rather primitive life styles when compared to their contemporaneous populations, in fact, it is obvious that this is the case for the Roman period. However, Trabzon Survey Project started in 2018 has begun to change the picture of the region's remote past. The third season of the survey has been run in Maçka, Akçaabat, Düzköy, Tonya, Beşikdüzü and Şalpazarı which together compose the west half of the region. In these 20 days long season in September 2021 detection of a new cave with the lithic assemblage emphasized the increasing importance of this region in Paleolithic period. Additionally, to the north of Eastern Black Sea mountains, with re-evaluation of Kalecik Castle which was detected in 2019 for the first time, more data has been obtained related to north-east Anatolia and Caucasia in the Early Iron Age. It is evident that continuation of this survey project will contribute to the chronological perspective of the Eastern Black Sea region in Turkey.