Domuztepe (meaning ''Pig Hill'' in Turkish) was a large,

Late Neolithic In the archaeology of Southwest Asia, the Late Neolithic, also known as the Ceramic Neolithic or Pottery Neolithic, is the final part of the Neolithic period, following on from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and preceding the Chalcolithic. It is so ...

settlement in south east Turkey, occupied at least as early as c.6,200BC and abandoned c.5,450BC. The site is located to the south of

Kahramanmaraş Marash (Armenian: Մարաշ), officially Kahramanmaraş () and historically Germanicea (Greek: Γερμανίκεια), is a city in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey and the administrative center of Kahramanmaraş Province. Before 1973, Kahra ...

. Covering 20 hectares, it is primarily a

Halaf Tell Halaf ( ar, تل حلف) is an archaeological site in the Al Hasakah governorate of northeastern Syria, a few kilometers from the city of Ra's al-'Ayn near the Turkish border. The site, which dates to the 6th millennium BCE, was the fir ...

site of the 6th millennium BC and is the largest known settlement of that date. The site was investigated between 1995 and 2006 by a team from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Unive ...

and the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. Work resumed in 2008, since when the excavation has been a joint project between the

and the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docu ...

History of occupation

The site was certainly founded by the Ceramic Neolithic (c.6400BC) but earlier occupation may well be present. By the late

almost all of the 20 hectare area of the site was probably occupied. Prehistoric occupation ended towards the end of the

Halaf period The Halaf culture is a prehistoric period which lasted between about 6100 BC and 5100 BC. The period is a continuous development out of the earlier Pottery Neolithic and is located primarily in the fertile valley of the Khabur River (Nahr al-K ...

(c.5450 BC). The site was reoccupied during the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium i ...

period and was occupied by a significant settlement during the first millennium AD. There is evidence for a church at this time, and a small Christian cemetery has been excavated. The excavated part of the prehistoric sequence starts at the transition between the Ceramic Neolithic and the Early Halaf (c.6100 BC) and continues until c.5450 BC. The Halaf occupation has been traced in a series of trenches across the site, providing rich evidence for both circular and rectangular buildings, ceramics, stone bowls, beads, figurines, chipped stone, bone tools and stamp seals, as well as a rich assemblage of animal bones and botanical remains. Excavation has concentrated on Operation I, on the summit of the southern mound. In the Early Halaf an east-west terrace was built up from red clay, with a series of occupational deposits to the south, and maintained in subsequent phases.

The Death Pit

Between 1997 and 2003 a highly complex burial was excavated, called the ‘Death Pit’. This pit was more than 3m in diameter and about 1.5m deep, filled with layers of dis-articulated human and animal bones, broken pottery and other artifacts. The ceremonies that produce this feature probably took place over a few weeks and had several phases. The earliest layer of the Death Pit mainly contained animal bones, apparently from large-scale feasting. Later deposits included the remains of up to 40 people. The bodies had been heavily fragmented and cannibalism may have taken place. After the Death Pit was filled, it was covered in a thick layer of ash and marked with large posts. Further deposits of human remains were placed around its edges.

Obsidian trade

Recent research identified some Armenian obsidian at Domuztepe. Electron microprobe analysis and portable X-ray fluorescence were used. 15 artifacts from Domuztepe match :de:Pokr Arteni, a common obsidian source in Armenia. Thus, the Late Neolithic settlement of Domuztepe traded over a walking distance of 800 km. Four other obsidian sources from the Kura-Araxes basin were also identified at Domuztepe.

Notes

References

Campbell, S., E. Carter, et al. (1999) ‘Emerging complexity on the Kahramanmaras Plain, Turkey: The Domuztepe Project 1995-1997’ ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 103: 395-418. Carter, E., S. Campbell, et al. (2003) ‘Elusive Complexity : New Data from late Halaf Domuztepe in South Central Turkey’ ''Paléorient'' 29(2): 117-133. Campbell, S. "Domuztepe 2004 Excavation Season", ''Anatolian Archaeology'' 10 (2004) 4-6 Campbell, S. "Domuztepe 2005", ''Anatolian Archaeology'' 11 (2005) 13-15 Campbell, S. "Domuztepe 2006", ''Anatolian Archaeology'' 12 (2006), 17-18 Campbell, S. "Domuztepe 2008", ''Anatolian Archaeology'' 14 (2008), 13-14

External links