Polatli

remains of a multilevel settlement dating from the third and second millennia B.C., on the outskirts of a city of the same name in central Turkey. It was excavated in 1949 by S. Lloyd and N. Gökçe, who discovered that the cultural layer, which measured 24 m thick, had 31 building horizons. The horizons are divided into four major phases: The first and second date from the central Anatolian early Bronze Age (the middle and second half of the third millenium B.C.), the third from the period of the ancient Assyrian colonies in central Anatolia (first quarter of the second millenium B.C.), and the fourth from the Hittite period (mid-17th to 12th centuries B.C.). All the phases are characterized by rectangular buildings of stone and sun-dried clay brick. Each phase yielded characteristic pottery. The first phase yielded modeled vessels with a dark glaze; the second, loving cups and vessels with decorations over the glaze; the third, potter’s wheels and dishes decorated in a single color; and the fourth, pitchers with narrow necks and high spouts equipped with filters. Metal articles and casting molds were found in all phases. The lower horizons also yielded primitive clay statuettes. Polatli is one of the main stratigraphic standards of central Anatolia’s culture of the Bronze Age.