Overview

• The study, published September 18 in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, documents a previously unrecorded Paleolithic presence around Ayvalık on Turkey’s Aegean coast.
• Researchers recovered roughly 138 lithic artifacts across 10 shoreline locales, identified during a two-week pedestrian survey in June 2022 over about 200 km².
• Finds include Levallois flakes, handaxes, and cleavers linked to Middle Paleolithic technologies often associated with Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens.
• Paleogeographic reconstructions indicate Ice Age sea-level drops of around 100 meters exposed continuous land that could have connected Anatolia with parts of Europe.
• The team frames Ayvalık as a potential mobility corridor and recommends stratigraphic excavation, absolute dating, and paleoenvironmental work to establish timing and function.