Oylum Höyük
Coordinates: 36 ° 41 ′ 56.9 ″ N , 37 ° 10 ′ 42.5 ″ E
Oylum Höyük is a settlement mound that has been inhabited since the fourth millennium BC near the hamlet of Oylum, today Mahalle (district) of the provincial capital Kilis , in the central district of the Turkish province of Kilis on the Akpınar River.
history
Oylum Höyük was the main town on the Kilis plain from the Neolithic to the Hellenistic period. This plain forms the watershed between the Orontes (now Asi Nehri ), which flows into the Mediterranean, and the Euphrates , which flows into the Persian Gulf. It was also the cultural interface between the Mediterranean civilizations and Mesopotamia . The place was at a junction of the trade routes running from Aleppo to Anatolia. In Roman times the place was moved to the western bank of the river, where it was inhabited until the Byzantine period. The role of the regional center was taken over by Kyrrhos , located around 20 km to the west , today in Syria .
Finds and Findings
The oldest archaeological finds come from the Middle to Late Chalcolithic . These include a terracing wall from the early 4th millennium BC at the western foot of the hill. Chr., Traces of village development and ceramics on the west terrace and on the east slope as well as three primeval building layers on the east hill side. The early Bronze Age is mainly represented by graves with extensive inventory on the east side of the hill. In the Middle Bronze Age , extensive terraced development began again on the eastern slope. Among other things, they found an entrance lavishly designed with basalt blocks and, under the rich inventory, a stele of a warlike god from the middle of the second millennium BC. Then the character of the settlement changed towards the village , a massive adobe building from the Iron Age was excavated on the western tip of the hill (late 1st millennium BC). From the Hellenistic period, there is evidence of brisk building activity. A silver coin hoard was found in a jug in a building on the western hilltop. The latest coins were made in the time of Antiochus III. dated. The most recent finds are late Roman graves on the northern tip. At this time the place had already been relocated to the west side of Akpınar, where the mosaic floor of a Byzantine basilica was found.
Research history
During surface inspections by Bahadır Alkım in 1968 and Italian researchers in 1971, the importance of the place as a regional center was recognized for the first time. After renewed, systematic inspections in 1984/85, Engin Özgen from Hacettepe University Ankara began regular excavations in 1987. Barbara Helwing from the German Archaeological Institute , Olivier Nieuwenhuyse from the University of Leiden and Alan Greaves from the University of Liverpool have been involved in the excavations since 1995 .
literature
- E. Özgen / B. Helwing / H. Tekin; Preliminary report on the excavations at Oylum Höyük. in Istanbuler Mitteilungen 47 , 1997, pp. 39-90 ISBN 978-3803016386
- E. Özgen / B. Helwing / A. Engin / O. Nieuwenhuyse / R. Spoor: Oylum Höyük 1997-1998. The late Chalcolithic settlement on the west terrace in Anatolica Antiqua 7 , 1999, pp. 19–67 ISBN 978-2906053502
- E. Özgen / B. Helwing: Excavations on the Oylum Höyük, 1997-2000. Second preliminary report in Istanbuler Mitteilungen 51 , 2001, pp. 51–132 ISBN 978-3803016423
- E. Özgen / B. Helwing: On the shifting border between Mesopotamia and the West: Seven seasons of joint Turkish-German excavations at Oylum Höyük in Anatolica 29 , 2003 pp. 61-85
- Ahmet Ünal: A Hittite treaty tablet from Oylum Höyük in southeastern Turkey and the location of Ḫaššu (wa), in: Anatolian Studies 65 (2015), 19–34.
Web links
- DAI - Oylum Höyük ( Memento from August 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- Oylum Höyük Survey and Excavations
- Kilis Museum - Oylum Höyük