10. Arkeometri Sonuçları Toplantısı - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

to investigating the context of the hominoid fossils the aims of the SinapProject have increasingly tumed towards use of the long stratigraphicsections and rich faunas to establish local geo- and biostratigraphies thatcan be tied to global chronologies. If this end is achieved and sufficientlyrich faunas are recovered, the Sinap Formation has the potential of tyingthe floating European Neogene biochronology (the MN system; Mein,1975, 1990) to the global chronology, and further of becorning a standardfor intercontinental stratigraphic correlaıions for the Old World Neogene.The mapping and survey team of 1993 was managed under the directorshipof Prof.Dr.Berna Alpagut, Dr.Mikael Fortelius and ProfjohnKappelman. The team included Dr.Şevket Şen, Philip Gibbard, Dr.Juha­Pekka Lunkka, Mr.Hakan Aygün, Ms.Joy Becker, Mr.Hürkan Çelebi,Mr.Alexander Duncan, Mr.Ayhan Ersoy, Mr.Unal Karaduman, Mr.BrianRichmond, Ms.Lena Selanne. Ms.Phoebe Stubblefield, Ms.Banu Taşçı,Ms.Suvi Viranta and, as govemment observer, Ms. Sena Mutlu. To allthese we wish to express our sineere gratitude. We also wish to thank thestudents from the Ankara University Faculty of Language, HistoryandGeography, who participated for various lengths of time.We would like to express our thanks to the General Director of Antiquityand Museums and to the Head of the Exeavation Department fortheir kind help in obtaining the necessary permissions. We would alsolike to express our gratitude to our excellent workmen, Mr.Ali Ozcan,Mr.Bahattin Demir, Mr.Murat Metin and Mr.Ramazan Koçak, and toMr.Celal Metin of Kazan Taksi for solving a hecatornb of logistic problemsduring the field season. Finally, our most sineere thanks toMr.Ibrahim Abacı of Yassıören village for valuable and patient instructionconcernirıg the history of previous excavations and old placenames around Sinaptepe. The survey was supported by grants from theNational Science Foundation (to John Kappelman) and the Academy ofFinland (to Mikael Fortelius).THE SINA? FORMATIONThe sediments of the Sinap Formatiorı are well preserved and representedaround the Village of Yassıören located about 55 km northwest ofAnkara in central Anatolia. The sediments in this fossiliferous Formationconsist mainly of mudstone (clay and silt), sandstone (sand) and conglomerate(gravel and boulder gravel). Several continuous siliclastic sedimentarysequences are over 100 m thick and the total thickness of theformation is expected to be ca. 500 m.178