Ulucak Höyük is situated about nine km east of the ?zmir Bay (38° 27’ N 27° 21’ E), on the landlocked plain of Kemalpa?a, east of the Belkahve Pass, which separates it from the coastal plain of Bornova. The main water source of the Kemalpa?a Plain is the perennial Nif Stream. The plain is located in the east-west lying depression between the Spil Mountains to the north and the Nif Mountain to the south. Excavations at Ulucak started with a research perspective oriented towards the Neolithic period, a time period barely known from the Anatolian coast of Aegean. The site represents one of the few prehistoric settlements investigated in the eastern Aegean and therefore presents critical information regarding the understanding of the Neolithization of western Anatolia and the subsequent cultural contact with the rest of the Aegean. However, cultural layers later than the Neolithic period, namely the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age architectural remains were also discovered at the site. The site has been investigated by Altan Çilingiro?lu since 1995, and recently (since 2009), under the directorship of Özlem Çevik.

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