Until the 2000s, it was known that human settlement in İzmir dated back 5,000 years. However, in 2003, excavation work conducted on a plot of land located within the borders of Karacaoğlan neighborhood in Bornova district led to a discovery that would change the history of İzmir. During the dumping of soil from the excavation into a park in Buca, stone tools and fragments of pottery found within the soil were noticed by Ali Beke Özkan, a retired art teacher. He immediately informed the authorities about the situation. Thanks to this attentive citizen, the history of İzmir was rewritten, opening the door to discovering the city’s inhabitants from 8.500 years ago.
The initial examinations of the stone tools and pottery found in the excavation soil indicated that these artifacts belonged to the Neolithic Age. Subsequent surface surveys conducted in the area where the soil originated supported this finding, initiating a process that would rewrite İzmir’s history.
Since 2008, excavations led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zafer Derin have provided significant information about the city’s earliest inhabitants. The settlement, now buried under a thick layer of alluvium, spans an area of over 70.000 square meters. It has been identified that the Neolithic Age layer, divided into three sub-phases, contains ten architectural strata built on each other. The mud and clay deposits among these layers indicate that the settlement frequently struggled with floods and inundations. Toward the end of the Neolithic Age, the settlement expanded toward Yassıtepe Höyüğü.