MIDDLE CHALCOLITHIC FINDS FROM DAGDERE IN THE AKHISAR-MANISA REGION

This paper aims to examine a small assemblage of marble objects and related pot sherds identified on the surface of the prehistoric site of Dağdere lying about 500 m south of the homonymous village. These finds were collected from the site after the ground subsided due to the modern coal mining activity. The assemblage in general could broadly be dated to the mid fifth millennium BC in the Middle Chalcolithic period. Because all the fragments of marble Kilia figurines, conical rhyta and bowls found on the surface of Dağdere once belonged to finished objects, it may be assumed that they were actually imports from the region’s well-known marble workshop site of Kulaksızlar, located nearly 30 km from the site. Considering the question of who the craftsmen of Kulaksızlar produced these marble figurines and vessels for, and why these objects appear at places far from their workshop, the Dağdere finds could be accepted as archaeological manifestation of intra-regional exchange between the settlers of Kulaksızlar and other settlements located around it in the Akhisar-Manisa region during the Middle Chalcolithic period. This data complements our knowledge of the existence of a developed network of inter- regional interaction involving the marble products of Kulaksızlar workshop.