Gürcütepe is a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

site on the southeastern outskirts of

Şanlıurfa Urfa, officially called Şanlıurfa (), is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. The city was known as Edessa from Hellenistic times and into Christian times. Urfa is situated on a plain about east of the Eup ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, consisting of four very shallow tells along Sirrin Stream that flows from Şanlıurfa. All four hills are now covered by modern buildings, so they are no longer recognizable. In the late 1990s a German archaeological team under the direction of Klaus Schmidt carried out soundings on all four hills and made extensive excavations on the second hill seen from the east. Originally it was assumed that the four hills were settled in a specific time sequence, that one of these settlement phases would coincide with the nearby

Göbekli Tepe Göbekli Tepe (, ; Kurdish: or , 'Wish Hill') is a Neolithic archaeological site in Upper Mesopotamia (''al-Jazira'') in modern-day Turkey. The settlement was inhabited from around to at least , during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. It is famou ...

. However, the excavations have indicated that all four hills were settled during the

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) is part of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, a Neolithic culture centered in upper Mesopotamia and the Levant, dating to years ago, that is, 8800–6500 BC. It was Type site, typed by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon ...

period; the easternmost hill is from the later

Pre-Pottery Neolithic C The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) represents the early Neolithic in the Near East, dating to years ago, (10000 – 6500 BCE).Richard, Suzanne ''Near Eastern archaeology'' Eisenbrauns; illustrated edition (1 Aug 2004) p.24/ref> It succeeds the ...

period. Gürcütepe joins a group of Neolithic localities in

, all rammed-earth buildings possessing space subdivisions next to larger community buildings. The small finds correspond to what archaeologists previously knew already. Overall, the Gürcütepe gives the impression of a rural settlement which was significantly younger than Göbekli Tepe.

References

* M. Belle Bohn, Ch Gerber, M. Morsch, Klaus Schmidt:. ''Neolithische Forschungen in Obermesopotamien. Gürcütepe und Göbekli Tepe'' , In: Istanbul Releases 48, 1998, 5-78. * Klaus Schmidt: ''Zuerst kam der Tempel, dann die Stadt. Bericht zu den Grabungen am Gürcütepe und am Göbekli Tepe 1996-1999'' , In: Istanbul Releases 50, 2000, 5-40. * Klaus Schmidt: ''Gürcütepe'', in ''Die ältesten Monumente der Menschheit. Vor 12.000 Jahren in Anatolien'' reat National Exhibition in 2007 in Baden Baden-Württemberg Landesmuseum Karlsruhe Palace, 20 January to 17 June 2007 ed. from the Badische Landesmuseum Karlsruhe. Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, , p 94th * Klaus Schmidt: ''Sie bauten die ersten Tempel. Das rätselhafte Heiligtum der Steinzeitjäger, die archäologische Entdeckung am Göbekli Tepe.'' Munich, 3rd, expanded and updated edition of 2007.

External links

Gürcütepe - Ancient Village or Settlement in Turkey
Archaeological sites of prehistoric Anatolia Megalithic monuments in the Middle East Tells (archaeology) History of Şanlıurfa Province Neolithic Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Archaeological sites in the Southeastern Anatolia region {{Turkey-geo-stub