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In 2005, during the annual ‘intensive’ archaeological survey in the peri-urban zone of Sagalassus (Pisidia, southwest Anatolia), the remains of an extensive Classical-Hellenistic settlement were identified at Düzen Tepe, 1.8km southwest of Sagalassus. The results of three seasons of site investigation (2005–2007), comprising archaeological and geophysical surveys, architectural and topographical mapping, test soundings, and archaeometric and environmental research, are presented here, together with a discussion of the settlement's most probable socio-economic background. According to the latest results of all excavated or sampled survey ceramic artefacts and AMS C14 dating of faunal remains, the (proto-)urban settlement at Düzen Tepe was inhabited during the fifth to second century BC. It is the first of its kind to shed light on the material culture of the ancient inhabitants of the region, the ‘Pisidians’.

At the Classical-Hellenistic settlement at Düzen Tepe (SW Turkey), magnetite particles were observed in the majority of the excavation contexts and a considerable amount of metal production waste and metal objects was found in a wide variety of archaeological contexts. In order to find out the origin of the magnetite ore and to determine whether or not the ores, production waste and objects all originated from local metal production activities, a series of archaeological and archaeometric studies were executed. A petrographic study of production waste samples and X-ray fluorescence analysis of production waste and a magnetite ore sample indicated that indeed magnetite was used in the process from which the waste samples resulted. Several inherent characteristics of the magnetite sample used in this study, are likely reflected in the production waste samples. Through a combination of geomagnetic survey and archaeological test soundings a couple of areas probably related to iron production activities could be determined. One location was identified as an area for ore preparation. Although mutual links could not be determined for all three find categories related to metal production (ore, production waste and objects), the study yielded sufficient arguments to assume that metal was produced locally, local magnetite sources were exploited for that reason and at least part of the metal finds from the excavations resulted from that local production.