Scientists Uncover a Lost Land Bridge Linking Türkiye to Europe, Rewriting Early Human Migration Routes

A remarkable archaeological survey along the Aegean coast of Türkiye has revealed a long-lost prehistoric land bridge that may have once connected Anatolia to mainland Europe, potentially rewriting the story of how early humans spread across continents. The findings come from a detailed investigation in the Ayvalık region, located in western Türkiye, and were published in September 2025 in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology.

Led by a team of Turkish archaeologists — Dr. Göknur Karahan from Hacettepe University, Prof. Kadriye Özçelik from Ankara University, and Dr. Hande Bulut from Düzce University — the study marks the first evidence of Paleolithic human activity ever documented in the Ayvalık area. What they discovered could have major implications for our understanding of human evolution, adaptation, and movement during the Pleistocene epoch, when sea levels were far lower than today.

The Discovery in Detail

The research team carried out a two-week survey in June 2022, covering roughly 200 square kilometers across the Ayvalık region. Their exploration yielded a total of 138 Paleolithic stone tools, scattered across 10 separate archaeological sites. These artifacts were found along today’s coastlines — areas that would have been part of a much broader landmass during the Ice Age, when sea levels dropped by over 100 meters.

The tools include Levallois flakes, handaxes, cleavers, and other stone implements from various Paleolithic periods — from the Lower Paleolithic (hundreds of thousands of years ago) through the Middle and possibly Upper Paleolithic. Many of these artifacts reflect sophisticated Levallois technology, a hallmark of Mousterian tool-making traditions often linked to both Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens.

According to the researchers, the presence of Levallois and handaxe technologies in this part of Türkiye suggests strong cultural and technological connections with the wider prehistoric world — spanning Africa, Asia, and Europe. These tools are not only functional artifacts but also symbols of early human ingenuity, showing that ancient populations in Ayvalık shared the same advanced methods of shaping stone as their distant relatives elsewhere.

Why This Matters for Human Migration

For decades, the dominant theory of human migration into Europe has focused on two main routes:

Through the Balkans, entering from southeastern Europe.
Via the Levant, moving northward from the Middle East.

The Ayvalık discovery now suggests there may have been a third route — an Aegean corridor that connected Anatolia and Europe during periods when sea levels were much lower.

During the Pleistocene, vast portions of the continental shelf were dry land, meaning regions now beneath the Aegean Sea may once have formed continuous pathways between what are now Greek islands and western Türkiye. The Ayvalık region would have sat right in the middle of this network — a crucial stepping stone for ancient humans migrating westward.

The study argues that this area could have been more than just a temporary crossing zone. It might have served as a long-term habitat, providing access to freshwater sources, raw materials like flint and chalcedony, and a variety of landscapes suitable for human settlement. The researchers emphasize that Ayvalık was likely part of a dynamic system of interaction and movement, rather than an isolated location.

Challenges and Preservation Issues

Despite the exciting findings, the team acknowledges the difficult conditions they faced during their survey. The North Aegean coast is a geologically active and dynamic environment. Erosion, sediment buildup, and sea-level changes have buried or disturbed many potential archaeological layers. In some locations, a thick muddy cover makes it hard to detect or preserve ancient artifacts.

Nevertheless, even with these limitations, the researchers managed to identify multiple high-quality raw material sources — especially flint and chalcedony — which early toolmakers would have used to produce sharp-edged implements. These natural deposits were found across different terrains, including coastal plains, lowland basins, and rocky slopes, offering insights into how prehistoric people selected and worked with their materials.

Because the study was a surface survey rather than a full excavation, the exact chronology and context of the artifacts remain uncertain. Dating the tools will require future excavations, stratigraphic studies, and absolute dating methods like optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) or radiocarbon dating, depending on the site conditions.

What the Tools Tell Us

Among the artifacts, the researchers identified several types of tools that correspond to different cultural phases of the Paleolithic period:

Levallois flakes and cores — characteristic of the Middle Paleolithic, typically associated with both Neanderthals and early modern humans.
Handaxes and cleavers — typical of the Lower Paleolithic, some of the earliest and most iconic stone tools used for cutting and chopping.
Blade fragments — likely belonging to the Upper or Epipaleolithic, representing later technological advancements.

The combination of these tool types suggests that the Ayvalık area was used repeatedly across different time periods, possibly over tens or even hundreds of thousands of years. This paints a picture of a region that served as both a corridor and a habitat for early human populations navigating the complex prehistoric landscape of the Aegean.

A New Page in Human Prehistory

Until this discovery, the Ayvalık region had been largely ignored in Paleolithic research, mainly because no prior evidence of ancient human activity had been documented there. Now, with these new finds, Ayvalık has emerged as a potential new frontier in the study of early human dispersal.

The researchers describe this work as a “new foundation” for re-examining how Anatolia and Europe were connected during glacial periods. Their results suggest that Ayvalık was not a peripheral area but rather a central node in the prehistoric geography of human movement.

Future studies could use paleoenvironmental reconstruction and underwater archaeology to explore the now-submerged landscapes that may still hide more clues to this forgotten land bridge. The team emphasizes that a multidisciplinary approach — combining geology, archaeology, and environmental science — will be crucial for understanding the full story.

The Bigger Picture: Understanding the Pleistocene World

To grasp the importance of this discovery, it helps to consider what the Pleistocene epoch was like. This era, lasting from about 2.6 million years ago to 11,700 years ago, was dominated by repeated ice ages that dramatically altered global geography. During glacial periods, massive ice sheets locked away vast amounts of water, causing sea levels to fall and exposing continental shelves.

This meant that areas we now consider islands or seafloors — including parts of the Aegean Sea, North Sea, and Sunda Shelf in Southeast Asia — were once habitable land. These temporary land bridges were crucial for the migration of humans and animals.

In the Aegean, the landscape would have looked very different from today. The scattered islands off Türkiye’s coast were once connected by broad plains and rolling valleys, dotted with freshwater streams and vegetation. Such environments would have been ideal for hunter-gatherer groups, offering game, raw materials, and access to both land and coastal resources.

The Ayvalık discovery adds new evidence that this region played an active role in the human story, linking Africa, Asia, and Europe in a vast prehistoric network. It supports the growing view that multiple migration routes — not just one or two — helped humans spread across continents.

Ongoing Debates and Future Research

While the findings are exciting, archaeologists caution against jumping to conclusions. Because no stratified excavation has yet been done, it’s still unclear when exactly these tools were made, who made them, and whether they represent continuous habitation or sporadic use over many millennia.

Some tools may belong to Neanderthals, who were active across Europe and western Asia between 400,000 and 40,000 years ago. Others could belong to early Homo sapiens, who appeared in the region later and interacted — sometimes even interbred — with Neanderthals.

Only precise dating and contextual analysis will determine which species crafted these tools. Yet, regardless of who made them, their existence in Ayvalık confirms that this now-submerged landscape was once teeming with prehistoric life.

Future work in the area will likely involve marine geophysical surveys and underwater exploration, using sonar mapping and core sampling to trace ancient coastlines and potential habitation zones beneath the sea. If underwater sites can be located and excavated, they could reveal preserved layers of human occupation — something that would truly transform our knowledge of early migration routes.

A Window into Humanity’s Deep Past

The story of the Ayvalık discovery is not just about one region — it’s about understanding how climate, geography, and adaptability shaped the journey of early humans. As global sea levels rose and fell, new routes opened and closed, forcing populations to move, adapt, and innovate.

The tools uncovered along Türkiye’s coast are silent witnesses to these shifts. Each flake and handaxe represents not just survival, but the ability of our ancestors to navigate change, to explore new lands, and to connect worlds that are now separated by water.

This research opens the door to an entirely new perspective on how humans reached Europe — suggesting that the Aegean coastline may have been as crucial as the Levant or Balkans in that ancient journey.

Research Reference:
Discovering the Paleolithic Ayvalık: A Strategic Crossroads in Early Human Dispersals Between Anatolia and Europe