A Byzantine Settlement in Kalabakli Valley in the Hellespontus: Kepez (original) (raw)

The Hellespont stood out with its geographical location in the production-consumption and shopping relationships between the Aegean and the Marmara regions in the close distance and between the Black Sea and the Mecliterranean regions in the long clistance in the Byzantine period. The geographical characteristics of the strait displayed three distinct characters. The common feature of the Byzantine coastal cities and settlements in these three regions is that they had a port on the shore of the strait. These ports were generally located at the mouth of the valleys formed by the streams that had reached the Hellespontl. We are conducting a project to detect the finds of the Byzantine period and to understand the setdement models on these valleys. The data we obtained from these project studies indicate that the valleys had been densely settled in the Byzantine period. It is understood that one of the densely settled valleys in the Byzantine period was the Kalabakh Valley (Fig.1) on the Anatolian shore of the middle section of the strait. During our surveys, considerable ceramic and roof covering materials of Byzantine period were documented in Kepez at the northwestern mouth of the Kalabakh Valley2. In addition, there are four coins of Byzantine period that were found in Kepez and conserved in Çanakkale Archaeology Museum, i.e. a half follis of Justin II and Queen Sophia3 (565-578) (Fig.19.1), a half follis of Leo IV and Constantine VI (775-80) 4 (Fig.19.2) and two class A2 anonymous folles of Basil II (976-1025) 5 (Fig.19.3-4). The finding areas of the pottery and roof covering materials are concentrated in three different areas (Fig.2). The first one among them is an approximately 350-meter-long and 75meter-wide area on the shore of the Hellespont. In this area there are two units, which extend parallel to the coast in north-south direction and remain under water in the periods