Nevalı Çori

37.51833333333338.605555555556Koordinaten: 37 ° 31 '6 " N, 38 ° 36' 20" E

Nevalı Çori is an early Neolithic ( PPNB ) settlement on the middle Euphrates, in the province of Şanlıurfa in Turkey. The settlement is situated on both sides of the Kantara - Bach, a tributary of the Euphrates River in the hilly Taurus foothills, and is flooded since 1992 by the Atatürk Dam.

Excavation

The settlement was in the course of a rescue excavation for the construction of the Ataturk dam ( Ataturk Baraji ) below Samsat in seven campaigns in 1983, 1985-87 and 1989-1991 by a team at the University of Heidelberg under the direction of Prof. Dr. Harald Hauptmann in collaboration examined with the Archaeological Museum Şanlıurfa.

Dating

The relative chronological time position of Nevalı Çori results from the range of types of flint industries that justifies an approach of the settlement in the phase 3 to O. Aurenche because of the occurring here Byblosspitzen of narrow shape and lack of surface retouching, what the early to mid preceramic Neolithic B ( PPNB ) corresponds. Various forms of apparatus show, however, a continuation of the settlement to phase 4, which can be equated with the late PPNB. An even finer chronological division into Phase 3 is due to the architecture of the settlement, as the typical for the layers I-IV Type with underbody channels is also characteristic of the " Channel Plan " phase in Çayönü, while the only building features of layer V, Building 1 is already strongly oriented with its non-standard layout type of the buildings of the cell layer in Çayönü plan.

For absolute dating of the settlement of Nevalı Çori are four 14C dates. Three of them come from the layer II and date these with any certainty in the second half of the 9th millennium BC ( 8600-8000 ), which corresponds to the early data from Çayönü Mureybet IVA support and classification in phase 3 to Aurenche. The fourth, however, dates from the 10th millennium, which in Nevalı Çori a very early phase of the PPNB would be occupied.

Houses

The settlement has five building levels. Long rectangular houses with 2-3 parallel cell-like room escapes are interpreted as magazines. This is followed by a likewise rectangular, structured by wall projections stem joins, which would be interpreted as a living space. Characteristic of this house form are thick, multi-layer foundation packs of large quarry stones with smaller stones in the interstices as a support for the rising masonry. These are at a distance from 1 to 1.5 m arranged transversely to the longitudinal axis, traversed stone-tiled underfloor channels that were open to the outside of a vent and possibly served for drainage, cooling or ventilation. There were excavated 23 of these buildings, the great similarity with the so-called canals ( channeled subphase ) from Çayönü have. The excavator adopts light flat roofs.

In the northwestern part of the settlement, a sunken into the hillside cult system, which consists of three superimposed buildings, of which the youngest was the building level III, the medium to layer II and the oldest should belong to layer I. In the two more recent buildings in a misplaced Terrazzotechnik cement floor was exposed, which was not detectable in the oldest building phase. Parallels can be found in Çayönü and Gobekli Tepe on the. In the building, there were a monolithic pillars, similar to those on the Gobekli Tepe and are arranged similarly, two central, arranged all the others around it and built into a kind of revolving seat. Built into the east wall of this building ( the youngest and middle construction ), several fragments of large Kalkskulpturen found (see sculptures).

The west side of the valley has been studied with some excavation sections, which also came to light in architecture design rectangle in 2-3 building layers.

Sculptures

Numerous statues and statuettes were made from the local limestone pending; they were the first large sculptures from the Neolithic period when they were discovered. A larger than life head were walled up in the east wall of the special building ( recent construction ), among others, found with a snake at the back of the head, the face was cut off, and a bird whose beak ending in a human face. From the mean phase of construction of the building date back a pelican -like bird sculpture, the body of another bird and fragmentary a strange creature with a human head and body vogelartigem. In one of the houses fragments of sculpture were found, the items could be put together into a totem pole -like, consisting of bird and bird -to-human mixed figures sculpture. Also, some of the pillars bear reliefs. The T-shaped pillars are interpreted as anthropomorphic beings (perhaps gods, ancestors, supernatural beings ), the T- piece is the head ( the shorter part than mind ). Sometimes angled arms are shown in high relief on the broad sides of the shaft, which move to the front narrow side into the hands. There you can find two straight, parallel to each other hanging ribbons, which are interpreted by the excavators as a stole -like garment.

Furthermore, numerous ceramic figurines were found, with depictions of people predominate.

Burials

Some of the houses included skull depositions and incomplete skeletons.