Kilise Tepe
Coordinates: 36 ° 30 ′ 9 ″ N , 33 ° 33 ′ 12 ″ E
The Kilise Tepe ( Turkish for church hill , formerly also known as Maltepe ) is a settlement hill in southern Turkey . It was from the early 3rd millennium BC. Populated over the time of the Hittite Empire up to the Byzantine period, with an interruption between the Middle Iron Age in the 6th century and Hellenism from the 4th century BC. Chr.
location
The hill is near the village of Kışlaköy in the Mut district of Mersin Province , about 400 meters southwest of the modern D-715 highway from Karaman to Silifke and one kilometer north of the Göksu River , the ancient Kalykadnos. The hill has a height of 10–12 meters above the surrounding area, its plateau measures about 120 × 100 meters. A spring rises at the northern foot of the hill.
Research history
James Mellaart was the first to report on the settlement mound as part of a survey of the Göksu Valley in the early 1950s, followed a decade later by David Henry French . Both referred to the site as Maltepe , which is actually the name of a hill on the opposite side of the river. The designation was adopted in the literature until the error could be cleared up in the course of the next excavation campaign. This was carried out from 1994 by the British Institute at Ankara as a rescue excavation, as a dam project on the lower Göksu threatened the site. In collaboration with the University of Cambridge and the Museum Silifke , a survey was carried out in 1994, which was followed by a five-year excavation. After the publication of the results in 2007, new excavations were decided together with Newcastle University , which lasted until 2011. On the Turkish side, the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi and later the Bitlis Eren Üniversitesi were involved, the excavation was led by the ancient orientalist Nicholas Postgate , who were involved as Hittiteologists John David Hawkins and Dorit Symington, Tevfik Emre Şerifoğlu for the findings from the early and middle Bronze Age as well Mark Jackson for the Byzantine period.
Findings and finds
The excavations revealed five main layers, labeled I to V from top to bottom. The oldest layers V and IV are the early and middle Bronze Age from the early 3rd millennium BC. Assigned. Layer V produced wall remains, ceramics and a copper earring, Layer IV pits and hearths as well as ceramic finds. In layer III, which is assigned to the late Bronze and early Iron Ages, a building (North-West Building) from the time of the Hittite Empire from 1600 BC came to the north-west of the hill . BC to the surface. Due to a stamp seal found there, it can be regarded as an administration building. Later, but some time before the collapse of the Hittite Empire (after 1200 BC), it was replaced by another structure (stele building) , which was also identified as the administrative center by seals found. This had dimensions of about 18 × 4 meters and consisted of eight to nine rooms in the course of its existence. The construction corresponded to the pattern known from other Hittite sites with stone foundations, above wooden beams and walls made of mud bricks. The dating of the buildings is based on ceramic finds , which were compared, among other things, with finds from Ḫattuša . The stele building was renewed several times and fell victim to fire twice. The second fire could be due to Mycenaean pottery to around 1170 BC. BC, which is thus after the end of the great empire, but can possibly be assigned to the successor state Tarḫuntašša .
In the Iron Age layer II that follows, some of the late Bronze Age houses in the middle of the hill are replaced by less durable structures, including a round wooden structure at times. The following period is characterized by little architectural evidence, but ceramic finds are still present. The last testimony of residents are ovens and deposits that were built in the early 7th century BC. Were created. It is unclear what the subsequent settlement gap is due to. Possibly during this time the center of the region shifted to Mut, 20 kilometers to the north, which later became the Roman Claudiopolis. A connection with the activities of Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian rulers in southern Anatolia is also possible.
It is not clear when exactly the settlement of the hill began again. However, clay finds from the Hellenistic , Roman and Byzantine times were found in the surface survey and in the top layer I. In addition to several residential and farm buildings, the foundation walls of a Byzantine church came to light. It was a three-aisled basilica with the side rooms typical of early Cilician churches next to the apse and a gallery behind the choir . A fighter found in the process can be dated to the late 5th or early 6th century AD by comparison with specimens from Constantinople . After the building was destroyed at an unknown point in time, a smaller, single-nave church was built over the eastern part. A skeleton that was found in a grave a little to the east of the later church could be used in the 12th / 13th centuries using the radiocarbon method. Century to be dated. This means that the surrounding cemetery and probably also the church can be assigned to the Middle Ages.
The finds from the excavations are exhibited in the Silifke Museum.
literature
- HD Baker et al .: Kilise Tepe 1994 In: Anatolian Studies 45 (1995) pp. 139-191.
- CK Hansen, JN Postgate: The Bronze to Iron Transition at Kilise Tepe In: Anatolian Studies 49 (1999) pp. 111-121.
- Dorit Symington: Hittites at Kilise Tepe In: Éric Jean, Ali M. Dinçol, Serra Durugönül (eds.): La Cilicie: Espaces et Pouvoir Locaux (2 e millénaire av. J.-C. - 4 e siècle ap. J. -C.) , Paris 2001 ISBN 2-9060s3-64-3 pp. 167-184. ( Digitized version )
- Mark Jackson: Byzantine Settlement at Kilise Tepe in the Göksu Valley In: Michael C. Hoff, Rhys F. Townsend (Eds.): Rough Cilicia - New Historical and Archaeological Approaches Oxford 2013 ISBN 978-1-84217-518-7 pp. 219-232.
Web links
- University of Cambridge: Kilise Tepe Archaeological Project 2007–2012
- British Institute at Ankara: Kilise Tepe Excavations
- Kilise Tepe 2012 Final field report
Individual evidence
- ↑ James Mellaart: Iron Age pottery from Southern Anatolia In: Belleten XIX pp. 115-136
- ^ DH French: Prehistoric Sites in the Göksu Valley In: Anatolian Studies 15 (1965) pp. 177-201