Çayönü
Coordinates: 38 ° 13 ′ 5 ″ N , 39 ° 43 ′ 32 ″ E
Çayönü is an important archaeological site in Anatolia . It is located on the edge of the Taurus Mountains , on the northern bank of the Boğazçay , a tributary of the Tigris opposite the village of Hilar (today Sesverenpınar), seven kilometers southwest of Ergani and about 40 km northwest of Diyarbakır in the Turkish province of Diyarbakır .
Dig
The site was discovered in 1963 and explored between 1964 and 1991 by Robert John Braidwood , Halet Çambel and Mehmet Özdoğan .
Dating
The development of the first circular buildings of an early farming community from the 10th millennium BC can be seen on this settlement site. To a large settlement with differentiated buildings in the 9th and 8th to the beginning of the 7th millennium.
Settlement history
The oldest settlement belongs to the akeramischen Neolithic (PPN) A (approx. 10th - 9th millennium BC ) and consists of round (4–5 m diameter) lightly sunk huts with a superstructure made of clay wickerwork. The following layer from the early PPNB - approx. 9th to 8th millennium - is called the grill plan phase because of its characteristic foundations. The buildings are rectangular in size, approx. 5.5 by 11 m, and are NS-oriented. The floor plans of the houses are divided into three parts. The southern part consists of three small cells, the middle part of a paved room with a hearth, the northern part contains the eponymous grill-like parallel wall strips. It is a series of parallel low stone walls on which a wooden and possibly paved floor lay. The function is unclear (moisture protection, air conditioning). Next to these normal (residential) houses there is a "special building" with a presumably cultic or social function. The special building of this phase is characterized by a floor made of limestone slabs ( flagstone building ). In the middle of the one-room, square building there are two free-standing stone slabs erected like steles.
As hunters, the inhabitants of the barbecue plan phase mainly feed on wild boar, deer, wild sheep and wild goat. Later the beef becomes more important. The pigs show the first signs of domestication. In addition, the harvesting of wild grain has been proven in this phase.
In the subsequent canal planning phase (from 8500 BC) the stone or clay walls of the OW-oriented houses stand on a platform with canals that surrounds a stone veranda. The settlement of this phase - like the previous phase - not only includes these buildings with residential and workplaces, but also a special building slightly dug into the slope in the eastern part. In this building (skull building), the remains of several hundred individuals (mostly incomplete skeletons) were found in cellar-like chambers covered by stone slabs, including skulls that were probably stored on shelves. There was a large, altar-like stone slab in the building itself. Menhir-like stone setting surrounded the open spaces adjacent to the building. In the canal plan phase, the previously common pig bones are missing in the excavation findings, which suggests a change in eating habits.
The subsequent phase of the cell plan building (late PPNB, from 7500 BC ) got its name from the fact that the interior of the houses is divided into many chambers. The buildings are now two-story. An upper floor made of adobe bricks was built on the stone walls of the closed, multi-chambered basement. Clay models show a flat roof with a parapet as a border. In the eastern part of this settlement there was a 60 × 20 meter square, partly paved with burnt clay bricks, on which stones several to 2 meters high stood. In the northeast of this square was the 12 × 9 meter "terrazzo building", which was so called because of its floor. This consists of an approximately 12 cm thick layer of white and red limestone, which were connected to each other with lime mortar, tamped firmly and sanded smooth, so that a concrete-like screed was created. Reddish lime was used, in which white lime strips of color were embedded parallel to one another. A pair of white stripes frame the center of the room, which was destroyed, in the west and east. In the remaining part of the building, as in the skull building, there was an altar-like stone slab with a stylized, almost life-size human face in high relief on one edge. In this phase sheep and goats are domesticated for the first time, the proportion of hunting falls to a tenth. Snails, mussels and fish from the river are also eaten. In addition, the residents conduct agricultural experiments with einkorn wheat .
This period is followed by the so-called large-scale phase (from approx. 7000 BC) with one-room buildings. In this phase there are no special buildings or spaces as in the previous ones. There seems to have been a profound change in the ritual and also in eating habits.
Sculptures and cabaret
Except for the life-size human face mentioned as a high relief, no monumental art was found in Çayönü as in Nevalı Çori and Göbekli Tepe , but over 400 clay figures of people and animals, as well as stone vessels, but no traces of clay vessels. The residents processed genuine copper, which they found about 20 km away, into jewelry and the like. a., but apparently knew no metallurgical pyrotechnics.
literature
- Halet Çambel , Robert J. Braidwood: Çayönü Tepesi. Steps to New Lifestyles. In: RM Boehmer, Harald Hauptmann (Hrsg.): Contributions to ancient history of Asia Minor. Festschrift for Kurt Bittel. Mainz 1983, pp. 155-166.
- Wulf Schirmer : Three buildings of Çayönü Tepesi. In: RM Boehmer, Harald Hauptmann (ed.), Contributions to the ancient history of Asia Minor. Festschrift for Kurt Bittel. Mainz 1983, pp. 463-476.
- A. Özdogan, M. Özdogan: Çayönü. A Conspectus of Recent Work. Paléorient 15, 1989, pp. 65-74.
- Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (ed.): The oldest monuments of mankind. 12,000 years ago in Anatolia . Book accompanying the exhibition in the Badisches Landesmuseum from January 20 to June 17, 2007. Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2072-8 .
- Klaus Schmidt : You built the first temple. The enigmatic sanctuary of the Stone Age hunters, the archaeological discovery at Göbekli Tepe. 3rd, expanded and updated edition. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-53500-0 .
