Çayönü

38.21639.725Koordinaten: 38 ° 12 ' 58 " N, 39 ° 43' 30" E

Çayönü is an important archaeological site in Anatolia. Located at the edge of the Taurus Mountains on the north bank of the Boğazçay, a tributary of the Tigris, opposite the village of Hilar seven kilometers west of Ergani and about 40 km north- west of Diyarbakir in the Turkish province of Diyarbakir.

Excavation

The site was discovered in 1963 and explored 1964-1991 by Robert John Braidwood, Halet Çambel and Mehmet Özdoğan.

Dating

At this place of settlement, the development of the first round buildings of an early farming community from the 10th millennium BC to comprehend a large settlement with differentiated development in the 9th and 8th to the beginning of the 7th millennium.

Settlement history

The oldest settlement is the preceramic Neolithic A - expected (about 10 9th millennium BC) and consists of round (4-5 m diameter) slightly sunken huts with a superstructure of Lehmflechtwerk. The next layer of the early PPNB - or about 9th to 8th millennium - is called a grill plan phase because of their characteristic foundations. The buildings are long rectangular approximately 5.5 tall and NS oriented at 11 m. 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 area with hearth, the northern part contains the eponymous barbecue grill similar parallel wall strips. It involves a series of parallel low stone walls on which lay a wooden floor and possibly paved. The function is unclear (moisture protection, air conditioning ). In addition to these normal ( residential ) homes there is a " special building " with probably cultic or social function. The special building this phase is characterized by a complex formed from limestone slabs flooring ( Kalkplattengebäude, flagstone building ). In the middle of the one-room, square building there are two stele -like upright, freestanding stone slabs.

The inhabitants of the grill plan phase feed predominantly as hunters of wild boar, deer, wild sheep and wild goat. Later, the cow is important. The pigs are starting to domestication. In addition, the harvesting of wild cereals is detected in this stage.

In the following channel plan phase (from 8500 BC) stone or mud walls of the EW oriented houses set in a criss-crossed by canals platform surrounding a stone porch. The settlement of this phase includes - as the previous phase - not only these buildings with residential and work places, but in the eastern part a slightly dug in into the hillside special building. In this building ( skull building) the remains of several hundred individuals (mostly incomplete skeletons ) were found including the previously well of stored in racks in cellar-like skull covered by stone slabs chambers. The building itself was a large, altar -like stone slab. Menhir stone settings surrounded the building adjacent to the open space. In the Channel Plan phase, the previously frequent pig bones in the excavation findings, suggesting a change in eating habits lacking.

The subsequent phase of the cell plan building (late PPNB, from 7500 BC) takes its name from the fact that the interior of the houses is divided into many chambers. The buildings are now two storeys. On the stone walls of the completed multi-chambered basement floor was built of mud bricks one. Lehmmodelle show about a flat roof with parapet as a border. In the eastern part of this settlement was a 60 × 20 -foot-tall, partially paved with fired clay bricks square, where there were several to 2 meter high stones. To the northeast of this place the 12 × 9 -meter " Terrazzogebäude ", which was named because of its floor was so. This consists of an approximately 12 cm thick layer of white and red limestones, connected by lime mortar together, tamped and were sanded smooth, so that was a concrete -like floor. It was used reddish limestone, were embedded in the white lime mutually parallel streaks. One pair of white stripes framing the west and east, the center of the room, which was destroyed. The preserved part of the building was like in the skull building an altar -like slab that was provided at one edge with a stylized, almost life-size human face in high relief. In this phase, sheep and goats are domesticated for the first time, the proportion of hunting falls to one-tenth. In addition, snails, mussels and fish are eaten from the river. In addition, the residents perform agricultural experiments with Einkornweizen.

This period is followed by the so-called Greater phase (from about 7000 BC) with one-room buildings. At this stage there are no special buildings or places as the previous. It seems to have come to a profound change in the ritual area and also in dietary habits.

Sculptures and cabaret

Except for the mentioned life-size human face in high relief no monumental art was in Çayönü as found in Gobekli Tepe and Nevali Çori, but over 400 clay figures of people and animals, as well as stone vessels, but no traces of pottery. Although the residents processed Native copper, they found about 20 km away, to jewelery include, but apparently knew no metallurgical pyrotechnics.