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Archaeologists working at Ugurlu-Zeytinlik Hoyuk on the island of Gokceada have brought to light five architectural structures dated to around 8,800 years ago, revealing how the first farming communities on the Aegean islands began to build and live.
Excavations—carried out since 2009 with the authorization of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism—are led by Akdeniz University archaeologist Professor Burcin Erdogu.
The team describes Ugurlu as the earliest settlement in the Aegean islands, extending back to the 6,800s B.C., where agriculture and animal husbandry shaped daily life. They report seeing the earliest pottery, early metallurgy and monumental building, along with the first signs of urban planning on the islands.
Focusing on the deepest layers, this season, researchers identified five house structures attributed to the first farmers who arrived on Gokceada. The buildings are round in plan with sunken floors and were built with a wattle-and-daub technique—woven reed or stick walls coated with mud. The team says this kind of architecture has been recorded for the first time on the Aegean islands.
“We reached the architecture of the first farming communities to arrive on Gokceada,” said Professor Erdogu. The Ugurlu settlement is presented together with Knossos on Crete as the sole Aegean island sites tied to the earliest farming groups.
Archaeologist Erkan Gurcal notes that the site began as a small cluster of roughly nine to ten houses, then grew around 5,800 B.C. and spread to other parts of the island, although evidence between 5,800 and 5,500 BC remains limited.
By about 5,300 B.C., changes in settlement layout and building traditions appear across the material culture, and the architecture becomes more developed in line with the period.
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