Along the Aegean coastline in Turkiye (formerly Turkey), an all-female archeologist team recently discovered more than 130 artifacts that indicate the area might have once been home to a now-undersea landmass.
These lithic (stone) artifacts were found at 10 sites along the coastline of the present-day town of Ayvalık. According to a press release from Taylor & Francis, the items reveal a Paleolithic presence in the area that was not previously known.
“It was a truly unforgettable moment for us. Holding the first tools in our hands was both emotional and inspiring,” said Dr. Göknur Karahan from the Department of Archaeology-Prehistory at Hacettepe University in Turkiye, part of the team that made the discovery in June 2022. She said the findings exceeded their expectations.
Among the findings were levallois (stone tools often associated with Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens) from various Paleolithic periods, as well as handaxes and cleavers. In a study published last month in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, the archaeologists also argue that the findings could change our understanding of how ancient people moved between Europe and the Middle East.
“Continuous landmasses, now submerged, may have made it possible for early humans to cross between present-day Turkiye and Europe,” Taylor & Francis explained. Prior to this research, it had long been thought that Homo sapiens reached Europe through the Balkans and the Levant, traveling to the Middle East through Africa.
A connection between Turkiye and Europe still exists, with Istanbul near the center leading to the Balkans. Ayvalık, on the other hand, is further southwest, with islands now near its coastline, which is aimed at modern-day Greece rather than the Balkans. According to the authors of the recent study, Ayvalık may have previously been part of a land bridge, “another route for early humans navigating a changing prehistoric world.”
“Our archaeological discovery has unveiled that this now-idyllic region once potentially offered a vital land bridge for human movement during the Pleistocene era – when sea levels dropped and the now-submerged landscape was briefly exposed,” said Karahan.
For reference, the Pleistocene epoch spanned from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. By the end of that era – which included the era of mammoths and saber-toothed cats – humans had spread around the world, per UC Berkley.
During this period, “the present-day islands and peninsulas of Ayvalık would have formed interior zones within an expansive terrestrial environment,” explained co-author Professor Kadriye Özçelik from Ankara University.
Previously, environmental processes and the depth of deposits limited the ability to detect and preserve remains in Ayvalık. Now, this research highlights the importance of the region when it comes to archaeological research.
“The results confirmed that Ayvalık – which had never before been studied for its Paleolithic potential – holds vital traces of early human activity,” Karahan said.
In North America, there is also a theory about a hidden landmass that brought ancient people across continents – the Bering Land Bridge between modern-day Russia and Canada.
The team of archeologists is excited about what they already found, but they stress that the research indicates that “Ayvalık as a potential new frontier in the story of human evolution,” and that more study of the area is warranted. In the future, they recommend that a “multidisciplinary approach to outline absolute dating, stratigraphic excavation, and paleoenvironmental reconstruction,” should be taken to further explore the history of Ayvalık.
“It feels like we are adding an entirely new page to the story of human dispersal. Our research raises exciting possibilities for future exploration, and we hope it emerges as a body of work that will shift the approach of Pleistocene archaeology for decades to come,” said Karahan.