Mezraa Teleilat
Coordinates: 36 ° 58 ′ 39 ″ N , 37 ° 59 ′ 10.5 ″ E
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Mezraa-Teleilat is a flat tell on the left, eastern bank of the Euphrates south of Mezra in the Birecik district of the Turkish province of Şanlıurfa . During excavations between 1999 and 2004, traces of settlement were discovered on the approximately 350 × 150 meter hill, which range from the PPNB to the Chalcolithic . This site also documents the transition from the Akeramikum to the ceramic Neolithic , which makes it stand out from the multitude of ancient oriental sites. Based on DNA analyzes, it is also assumed that cattle domestication began in the region around this site .
The transition from the Akeramikum to the ceramic Neolithic is marked by a massive change in the appearance of the settlement. Cellular structures made of rammed earth were replaced by round huts made of twigs or reeds. At least part of the younger settlement was also protected by a 3 meter high city wall , in front of which there was a moat. A large number of limestone figurines also originate from this settlement phase .
In the following phase, several large corridor houses with a rectangular floor plan and stone foundations were built. In general, this settlement phase seems to be based on spatial planning. The next phase contained some finds of the Hassuna culture as well as the so-called Impresso ceramics, known from the Mediterranean area, whereby entire building complexes were created with a complicated room division, between which alleys remained free. Before the settlement was abandoned, a style of ornament reminiscent of the Halaf culture came into use.
After a hiatus that was around 2000 years old , Tell was repopulated from the early Iron Age to the Achaemenid period. The Iron Age settlement is characterized by a monumental complex, which may be an administrative center. The settlement can be divided into three phases: The Early Iron Age , the New Babylonian Period and the Achaemenid Period .
Footnotes
literature
- Y. Kamış: Geç demir çağı Mezraa - Teleilat Pişmiş Toprak Astarte Levhaları ve Pers Atlı Figürleri. Arkeolojik ve Kültürel Bir Değerlendirme , Ankara 2005.
- Mehmet Özdoğan : Mezraa-Teleilat. In: The oldest monuments of mankind. 12,000 years ago in Anatolia [Large State Exhibition Baden-Württemberg 2007 in the Badisches Landesmuseum Schloss Karlsruhe, January 20 - June 17, 2007] , ed. from the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe. Darmstadt, Scientific Book Society 2007, p. 100.
- Mehmet Özdoğan: Mezraa-Teleilat. In: M. Özdoğan, N. Başgelen, P. Kuniholm (Eds.): The Neolithic in Turkey. Vol. 2. The Euphrates Basin. Istanbul 2011, pp. 204-206.