Eskiyapar Mound
Eskiyapar Mound lies on the Alaca–Sungurlu highway, about 5 kilometres from the centre of Alaca district. Excavations at the mound have revealed an uninterrupted sequence of settlement from the Early Bronze Age through to the Byzantine period.
Excavation History
The mound has been excavated by the Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations since 1968; work resumed in 2010 and continues today. Layers of Early Bronze Age, Old Hittite and Phrygian material lie above the Chalcolithic-period first settlement, and have yielded significant finds.
A Link to Alacahöyük
The gold, silver and electrum ornaments recovered from Eskiyapar’s Early Bronze Age layer closely resemble both the contemporary Troy II treasures and the finds from the royal tombs of Alacahöyük. A rich hoard from Early Bronze III is now displayed at the Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations; the spiral motifs on its gold earrings match those on earrings from Schliemann’s Troy excavations, a connection considered among the clearest evidence of the region’s ties to Troy in this period.
The Old Hittite Layer
The pottery, house remains and street layouts uncovered at Eskiyapar date to the Old Hittite Kingdom, showing that the mound was a settlement closely linked, in material terms, to the royal tombs of Alacahöyük. Built up above the Chalcolithic-period first settlement, this unbroken sequence of habitation also makes Eskiyapar one of the few mounds proving that the Çorum plain saw continuous settlement from the third millennium BC through to the Byzantine period.
An Ongoing Excavation
Eskiyapar is one of the sites presented by the Alaca District Governorship under “Mounds and Ancient Sites of Our District”, and remains an active excavation: work continues to yield new material each season. The mound has no regular visitor infrastructure at present, but for those visiting the Alacahöyük site and museum, it stands as an important reference point for the district’s archaeological depth.
Visiting
Eskiyapar Mound is one of the sites rounding out the district’s pre-Hittite and Hittite archaeological wealth. For the district’s general history, see History of Alaca; for the neighbouring ancient site on the same road, see Pazarlı Mound.