Archaeologists working near the ancient Greek city of Assos (Greek: Ἄσσος) on Turkey’s Çanakkale coast have uncovered a dense cluster of early Stone Age tools.
The discovery, described as the most extensive Lower and Middle Palaeolithic collection on the coast of Turkey, could reshape ideas about how the first humans reached Europe.
Researchers say the stone age tools near Assos reveal how a once-connected landscape guided movements between Asia and Europe.
The site of Biber Deresi
The study, led by Göknur Karahan and published in the European Journal of Archaeology, focuses on Biber Deresi, an open-air site linked to rivers and rich stone sources.
Fieldwork in 2021 and 2022 documented 504 artifacts from 12 findspots across approximately two square kilometers (just over three-quarters of a square mile). Seasonal floods and erosion exposed the tools in olive groves, on low hills, and on slopes. Despite surface reworking, the assemblage shows a clear technological pattern.
Tools shaped for survival
The collection is striking for its large cutting tools. Handaxes dominate, ranging from heavy, archaic forms to thinner, more refined shapes. Trihedral picks and a cleaver add to the set.
Researchers also identified numerous pebble core tools, mainly chopping implements, and a broad suite of flakes struck from both unprepared and carefully prepared cores. Among the latter are Levallois and related techniques, which required planning before each strike.
Raw materials and natural forces
Most tools were made of flint, with smaller amounts of basalt, quartz, quartzite, and limestone. Many show abrasion and patina, signs of long exposure in a shifting landscape shaped by water and sediment. Even so, their shared features suggest a single cultural horizon rather than unrelated episodes.
A new route into Europe
For decades, models of early dispersal into Europe focused on three routes out of Africa: Gibraltar, Sicily, and the Levant. The Levantine corridor into Anatolia and then the Balkans has long appeared strongest due to widespread Acheulean handaxes in the region. But coastal western Turkey and the Aegean islands yielded little evidence.
Biber Deresi changes that picture, placing a dense Acheulean signature on the Anatolian side of the northern Aegean.
During Pleistocene low sea levels, the Aegean likely acted as a land bridge rather than a barrier. Karahan’s team reports that Biber Deresi would have been connected to Lesbos and onward through the eastern Aegean islands to mainland Greece. This corridor could have supported hominin movement, communication, and the spread of toolmaking traditions.
The place where Aristotle lived
Biber Deresi lies only two kilometers from Assos, a city founded in the 7th century BC by settlers from Lesbos. In classical times, Assos became famous as the place where Aristotle lived and taught philosophy.
The same landscape that once guided early humans with Acheulean tools later supported Greek communities that traded, built temples, and spread ideas across the Aegean. The Lesbos–Assos route, which may have been a Stone Age land bridge, later became a cultural bridge of the Greek world.
Technology across ages
Technically, the toolkit spans what archaeologists call Mode 2 and Mode 3. Mode 2 includes large cutting tools such as handaxes and cleavers, while Mode 3 refers to prepared-core techniques like Levallois that produced standardized flakes. At Biber Deresi, recurrent Levallois flaking is common.
Retouched tools are also abundant, including denticulates, notches, and side scrapers made mostly on flakes. The mix suggests the site belongs to a transitional phase between the late Lower Palaeolithic and early Middle Palaeolithic.
A crossroads of human history
On Lesbos, excavations at Rodafnidia have produced Acheulean material, and other Aegean sites show similar tool traditions, even if many come from surface contexts. Biber Deresi, however, offers the densest concentration yet along the Aegean coast of Turkey.
Karahan and colleagues argue that this corridor deserves a central place in debates about early human routes into Europe. The discovery grounds that claim in a robust dataset. With absolute dating underway, the chronology should soon sharpen.
The current evidence shows that the northern coast of Turkey held both the resources and the strategic position to channel human movement. From Pleistocene toolmakers to Aristotle’s students in Assos, this stretch of coast has long stood as a crossroads between worlds.
