ISTANBUL, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Archaeologists have uncovered a specialized pottery workshop dating back about 8,000 years at Ulucak Mound in Türkiye's western port city of Izmir, experts said on Sunday.

Excavation director Ozlem Cevik said the workshop spans about 300 square meters, including one room measuring 48 square meters.

Cevik said the discovery is significant because, while researchers have long inferred from standardized clay recipes that pottery production became specialized around 6000 B.C. across a region stretching from northern Mesopotamia to Greece, no direct evidence of such workshops had previously been found.

The find at Ulucak offers the first physical proof of organized pottery production in Anatolia and highlights the deep roots of ceramic craftsmanship in Türkiye, underscoring the region's long history as a center of skilled manufacturing. ■