New Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites and cult centres in the Urfa Region

Herzo Tepe, Basaran Höyük, Kocanizam Tepe, Sefer Tepe, Taslı Tepe and İnanlı Tepe sites (Map 1), which are being investigated in the Sanlıurfa Province Cultural Inventory studies since 2011, are located within the borders of Sanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey. All sites are located within borders of today’s Viransehir and Siverek boroughs of Sanlıurfa (Urfa) Province. The recently discovered sites extend in a north-south direction and were founded within a distance of 3– 5km. Tools made from flint stone and obsidian were discovered during the field survey at these sites. The archaeological material from the sites features finds dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period. T-shaped pillars, known from locations such as Nevali Çori, Göbekli Tepe, Sefer Tepe and Hamzan Tepe, were ABSTRACT – The present study assesses the sites and the corresponding artefacts that were recently discovered during cultural inventory studies in the Urfa region in south-eastern Turkey. The studies were conducted at PPN sites located at Herzo Tepe, Basaran Höyük and Kocanizam, Taslı Tepe and İnanlı Tepe within the borders of Viransehir and Siverek boroughs; the already known site at Sefer Tepe is also re-examined. The sites extend in a north-south direction and were founded within a 3–5km distance, and they exhibit unique characteristics for this region. Recently discovered sites are compared to already known PPN sites in the region to reveal similar features and characteristics. In particular, the article elaborates similarities and discrepancies between sites with T-shaped pillars and sites with circular structures. The recently discovered sites demonstrate that the pillar tradition is predominant in the region and that the settlements have a distinct layout.


Introduction
Herzo Tepe, Basaran Höyük, Kocanizam Tepe, Sefer Tepe, Taslı Tepe and I ˙nanlı Tepe sites (Map 1), which are being investigated in the Sanlıurfa Province Cultural Inventory studies since 2011, are located within the borders of Sanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey.All sites are located within borders of today's Viransehir and Siverek boroughs of Sanlıurfa (Urfa) Province.
The recently discovered sites extend in a north-south direction and were founded within a distance of 3-5km.Tools made from flint stone and obsidian were discovered during the field survey at these sites.The archaeological material from the sites features finds dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period.T-shaped pillars, known from locations such as Nevali Çori, Göbekli Tepe, Sefer Tepe and Hamzan Tepe, were ABSTRACT -The present study assesses the sites and the corresponding artefacts that were recently discovered during cultural inventory studies in the Urfa region in south-eastern Turkey.The studies were conducted at PPN sites located at Herzo Tepe, Basaran Höyük and Kocanizam, Taslı Tepe and I ˙nanlı Tepe within the borders of Viransehir and Siverek boroughs; the already known site at Sefer Tepe is also re-examined.The sites extend in a north-south direction and were founded within a 3-5km distance, and they exhibit unique characteristics for this region.Recently discovered sites are compared to already known PPN sites in the region to reveal similar features and characteristics.In particular, the article elaborates similarities and discrepancies between sites with T-shaped pillars and sites with circular structures.The recently discovered sites demonstrate that the pillar tradition is predominant in the region and that the settlements have a distinct layout.
KEY WORDS -Pre-Pottery Neolithic; T-shaped pillar; circular structures; Siverek; Viransehir DOI> 10.4312\dp.40.23 also discovered at some of the sites.Moreover, architectural remains with a circular layout are also encountered at some sites.The other characteristics of these sites will be elaborated in this article according to the region where they were discovered.

Neolithic in Siverek region
Siverek is located in the borough in the north-eastern part of Sanlıurfa province.Karacadag, the only dormant volcanic mountain in Sanlıurfa, with an altitude of 1938m, is located on the northeast border of the region.The geological formation of the mountain is dominated by basaltic rocks in the north, while the southern and south-western sections are made of calcareous rocks.The southern and southwestern areas are in the form of plains and low plateaus.
Areas with water sources cover large parts of the Siverek region compared to other regions in Sanlıurfa province.Water sources arising from Karacadag flow to the Habur stream in a north-south direction.The southern side of Karacadag and the northern sections of the region have an abundance of water sources.The period of drought starts in Siverek region in the middle of the summer and encompass fields serving as pastureland.In general, the Siverek region is on average 3°C cooler than the Sanlıurfa city center.
No inventory studies have been conducted in the region, but are currently in progress in the region at the sites of Taslı Tepe (Çelik et al. 2011b.225-236)and I ˙nanlı Tepe dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period that were discovered during the studies since 2011.The site at I ˙nanlı Tepe will be presented for the first time in the present article (Map 1).

Taslı Tepe
The Taslı Tepe site is located in the north-eastern part of the Sanlıurfa Province (Çelik et al. 2011).Located c. 740m above sea level, the site covers a surface area of c. 12 000m 2 (Map 1).The site extends c. 4m above the bedrock.Today, this location is used for agriculture (Fig. 1).Two dry stream beds extend in an east-west direction c. 300m to the north and 250m to the south of the site.The examination of the geological structure revealed that the region is formed by calcareous and basalt platforms.The closest source of basalt to the site is 2km to the south.Flint stone outcrops are encountered 2km southeast of the site.High plateaus with heights varying from 800 up to 850m are present in the southwest, east and north of Taslı Tepe.The southern and western sides of the site, on the other hand, extend as partially plain terrain.
The Taslı Tepe site was inhabited only during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period.The archaeological finds have been divided into two categories: architectural elements and small finds.Accordingly, the small finds might be listed as tools made of flint stone, small flat axes made of river pebbles, stone beads, stoneware pottery pieces, grind stones and pestles.The finds comprise 6 small finds and 7 architectural elements.All the architectural elements are pieces of a T-shaped pillar.As a result of the examinations of the flint stone finds and architectural elements discovered at the site, it is understood that Taslı Tepe settlement site was used as a cult centre during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period.

Pre-Pottery Neolithic assemblage in Tas slı Tepe
Architectural elements.The architectural remains at Taslı Tepe were destroyed by agricultural activity.However, during an excavation carried out on the south-eastern slope of the site, fragments of T-shaped pillars were found in an area of 7 x 8m and 1m deep.All pillars are made of limestone.One of the fragmented pillars has been restored and reassembled; its apparent length is 152cm; the width of the capital section is 93cm, while the thickness is 22cm (Fig. 2).The dimensions of the T-shaped pillar pieces discovered at Taslı Tepe site demonstrate a significant similarity with the Level II pillars at Göbekli Tepe (Schmidt 2002.8,Fig. 7)1 , the pillars of the temple building at Nevali Çori (Hauptmann 1991/ 1992.28, Abb. 21), and in-situ pillars located on the surface of Karahan Tepe (Çelik 2000b.6-7, Fig. 1) and Sefer Tepe (Çelik 2006a.23-25, Fig. 2).The Taslı Tepe pillars had no preserved relief or engravings.A fragment of terrazzo floor was also discovered from the same excavation site (Fig. 3).Similar terrazzo floors were also discovered in Göbekli Tepe, Nevali Çori and the Sanlıurfa-Yeni Mahalle mound unearthed in the region (Çelik 2007.Fig. 16;Hauptmann 2007.142, Fig. 7-8a-b).
Small finds.A total of 16 small finds were collected from the Taslı Tepe site.The finds comprise 7 flint tools (Fig. 4. 1-7), 1 small flat axe made of river pebble (Fig. 4.9) and 1 stone bead (Fig. 4.8).The other finds are 2 basalt pestles, 1 stone dish (Fig. 5), 3 upper parts of a grind stone and 1 lower part of a grind stone (Fig. 6), respectively.Flint finds are com-mon in the entire area.The number of flint tools discovered is around 12 per m2 .
The small finds at Taslı Tepe are mostly flint and a small number of obsidian tools.The majority of the flint and obsidian tools are blades.High-quality flint stones were used as raw materials and the nearest flint deposits were found 2km southeast of the site.The flint tool assemblage comprises 4 arrowheads (Fig. 4.4-7) and 1 round end scraper (Fig. 4.3).Only one core was discovered at Taslı Tepe, i.e. a naviform core, which appears to be bipolar (Fig. 4.1).Moreover, 1 piece of crested blade was also unearthed as a core renewal piece (Fig. 4.2).An examination of the colour distribution of all flint finds revealed 3 dark gray and 4 light and dark brown colours.The blade flaking of the bipolar cores varies from 1 to 1.5cm.One core is grey; cores of similar colour were also found at Göbekli Tepe (Beile-Bohn et al. 1998.54) and Nevali Çori (Schmidt 1988.162).
The T-shaped pillars discovered at Taslı Tepe greatly resemble the pillars discovered at Sefer Tepe, Karahan Tepe and Level II of Göbekli Tepe with respect to their dimensions.In the light of all these artefacts, Taslı Tepe appears to be contemporaneous with the excavated sites at Göbekli Tepe (Level II) and at Nevalı Çori (Level III).Therefore, we can date the Taslı Tepe site into the early PPNB period.

I ˙nanlı Tepe
I ˙nanlı Tepe is located c. 697m above sea level in the northern end of the I ˙nanlı village, 64km east of Urfa, 80km south of Siverek and c. 12km north of Sefer Tepe (Map 1).Founded on a calcareous hill, the site covers an area of c. 15000m 2 .The mound soil extends c. 2m high, starting from the bedrock.The site is comprised of two small, low hills presenting an ample structure (Fig. 7).The area, on which the site was founded, is currently used as pasture.A dried stream bed is located 700m to the south.The geological structure of the region is formed by calcareous plateaus.Such plateaus present an extremely low and frequent structure.The closest source of basalt is c. 5km northwest of the site.Plain areas are present to the east and southeast, 7km from the site.
Flint stone artefacts could be collected over the entire area at I ˙nanlı Tepe; the number of flint tools discovered is c. 7 per m 2 area.The results of the examinations on flint tools and architectural elements discovered at the site show that I ˙nanlı Tepe was used as a settlement during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period.
Small finds.Lithics dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period were found during the field survey at the site.The assembladge is comprised of blades, flakes and flint by-products.The flint is mostly dark grey, light and dark brown.The flint tools consist of arrowheads, a scraper and silica flakes (Fig. 9.1-6).Rare flakes of obsidian are also present at I ˙nanlı Tepe.
The circular structures discovered at I ˙nanlı Tepe, pieces of Byblos and Nemrik arrowheads made of flint stone discovered on the surface, and unavailability of any Çayönü tools and Palmyra points most probably indicate that the settlement should be dated to the early PPNB period.

The Neolithic of the Viransehir region
Viransehir is a borough of the Sanlıurfa province, located in the eastern part of the province.The mountain of Karacadag is located on the northeast border of the region and is dominated by basaltic rocks in the north and calcareous rocks in the south and south-west.The southern and south-western areas are in the form of plains and low plateaus.
Areas with water sources cover large parts of this region, similarly to the Siverek region in this province.The Asagı Cırcıp and Yukarı Cırcıp streams rising from Karacadag and flowing north-south to the Habur stream are the most significant water sources in the region.There is also a large number of springs on the southern side of Karacadag and in the northern parts of the region.In spring the drought starts in the Viransehir region which encompasses broad fields serving as pasture land.

Bas saran Höyük
Basaran Höyük is located inside the Basaran village, 62km east of Urfa and 26km southwest of Viransehir (Map 1).Sefer Tepe (Çelik 2006a.23-25),discovered in 2003, is located at 652m altitude above sea level and 5km south of the settlement at Basaran Höyük.The mound is elevated and conical, and located on a calcareous hill; the village cemetery which is currently in use covers a part of the mound (Fig. 10).The mound soil is c. 10m high, measured from the bedrock.The mound covers an area of c. 20 000m 2 .The geological structure of the region is formed by calcareous plateaus.A stream bed is located to the 5.5km north of the site.The closest source of basalt is c. 6km north and the area is used primarily as pasture land.
The flint artefacts discovered at Basaran Höyük site are not concentrated throughout the entire area; the number of flint tools discovered is 3 per m 2 area.The site was inhabited as a settlement during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period as presented by the flint tools.However, it is difficult to estimate the actual size of the settlement during the PPN period, since the site was covered with remains of younger cultural periods.

Small finds.
During the studies conducted at Basaran Höyük, pottery from the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Byzantine periods was discovered in addition to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic finds.The flint tools are comprised of flint blades, flakes and by-products.The flint is mainly light and dark brown, beige and grey.Arrowheads, scrapers, piercing tools and crested blade pieces from this period were discovered (Fig. 12.1-9).Also rare obsidian blade pieces were found at the site (Fig. 12.10).
The presence of cut-out groups chiselled on the bedrock surrounding the mound and used for pool construction technique, as well as the Nemrik and Byblos arrowheads indicates that Basaran Höyük was probably occupied at the end of the late PPNA and in the early PPNB period.

Herzo Tepe
Herzo Tepe is located 62km east of Urfa and 3.5km south of Sefer Tepe (Map 1) and is 574m above sea level.The geology of the region is formed by calcareous plateaus.Founded on a calcareous hill, the mound is a low and ample structure (Fig. 13).The mound soil is c. 3m above the bedrock and covers an area of c. 10 000m 2 .The closest water source is 4km north of the site.The closest basalt source, on the other hand, is c. 4.5km north of the site.A large area of the settlement was destroyed due to the construction of rock-cut tombs in the early Byzantine period and modern agricultural activity.
The flint tools at Herzo Tepe site were discovered throughout the entire area, with a density of c. 20 per m 2 .As a result of the examinations of the flint tools, it is understood that The site was inhabited as a settlement during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period.
Small finds.The field survey revealed pottery from the early Byzantine period, as well as hand-made straw-tempered ceramic pieces and lithics from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period.Flint tools are comprised of flint blades, flakes, production waste, unipolar and bipolar cores.The flint is principally light and dark brown, beige and grey.Arrowheads, scrapers, piercing tools, crested blades and blades with a silica sheen were discovered from this period (Fig. 15.1-4, 6, 7).In addition, rare obsidian blade pieces were also found (Fig. 15.5).The tools include small Nemrik arrowheads (Fig. 15.9-13) and one Byblos type arrowhead (Fig. 15.8).Basalt grind stones and pestle pieces were also found.
The circular building at Herzo Tepe and the Nemrik type arrowheads found in the surface survey indi-cate that the site dates to the end of the PNA period and early PPNB period.

Kocanizan Tepe
Kocanizam Tepe is c. 653m above sea level and located in the Kocanizam village, 60km east of Urfa, 25km west of Viransehir and 3km north of Sefer Tepe (Map 1).The region is formed by calcareous plateaus.Founded on a calcareous hill, the mound is low and ample (Fig. 16).The height of the mound soil is around 6m above the bedrock.Kocanizam Tepe covers a surface area of c. 15000m 2 .The closest water source is 1.5km east of the settlement.The closest basalt source is c. 1km to the east of the site.A significant portion of the site was destroyed by later construction in the early Byzantine period.
The flint tools discovered at Kocanizam Tepe were spread over the entire area at a density of around 10 per m 2 .As a result of the examinations of the flint tools discovered at the site, the site is dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period.

Pre-Pottery Neolithic assemblage at Kocanizam Tepe
Architectural elements.A calcareous stone believed to be the body of a T-shaped pillar was unearthed in an illegal excavation site at the centre of the settlement area.The stone is flat and chiselled into rectangular shape, with both short edges broken (Fig. 17).

Small finds.
During the field survey, pottery and architectural remains from the early Byzantine period were discovered, as well as blades, flakes and waste production made of flint stone and unipolar and bipolar cores that could be dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (Fig. 18.1-2).The flint is light and dark brown, beige and gray in colour.The most significant lithic artefacts are the Nemrik type arrowheads, scrapers, crested blades and blades with silica sheen (8)(9)(10)(11).Furthermore, blade pieces made of obsidian are also encountered (Fig. 18. 6-7) as well as grinding stones and pestle pieces made of basalt.
The Neolithic settlement located inside Kocanizam village should be dated to the end of the PPNA period (LPPNA) and early PPNB period (EPPNB) according to the Nemrik arrowheads discovered at the site and the presence of calcareous stone estimated to be a part of a T-shaped pillar.

Sefer Tepe (Yukarı Darik Harabesi)
Sefer Tepe is a small, broad and shallow mound (Fig. 19) located c. 72km east of Sanlıurfa, within the modern province borders of Viransehir (Map 1).The mound is located at 600m altitude above sea level and covers a surface area of c. 7000m 2 .A country house is located in the south-eastern corner of the site.The closest water source is Yukarı Cırcıp creek, 1.5km to the east.The geological foundation is of calcareous rock and the closest basalt source is located 1km to the east.

Pre-Pottery Neolithic Assemblage at Sefer Tepe (Yukarı Darik Harabesi)
Architectural elements.The most intriguing aspect of the Sefer Tepe site are the 16 in-situ T-shaped pillars (Kürkçüoglu, Karahan Kara 2005.62-63;Çelik 2006a.23-25).Most of the pillars were buried and placed side-by-side in a conjugate formation at c. 1.5 up to 2m intervals (Fig. 20).The upper sections above the surface are c.50cm long and 20cm wide.The positioning of the pillars is very similar to the architecture at Göbekli Tepe Level II (Schmidt 2002. 8, Fig. 7) 5 and the monolithic in-situ pillars on the surface at Karahan Tepe (Çelik 2000b.6-7;2011. 241-242, Fig. 7).Moreover, another pillar was revealed during the construction of the country house in the south-eastern corner of the site.This pillar was found intact (Fig. 21); its length is 198cm and the width of the head section is 72cm, the width of the body section 54cm and the thickness 25cm.The head section of this undecorated stele is extremely flattened; it has features identical with the pillars discovered at Nevali Çori, Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Hamzan Tepe and Taslı Tepe.
The Viransehir Plain extends to the north and east of Sefer Tepe; the site is located c. 20km from Karahan Tepe, 28km from Taslı Tepe, 50km from Göbekli Tepe and 63km from Sanlıurfa-Yeni Mahalle and Hamzan Tepe 6 .The Sefer Tepe site dates to the early PPNB as it has features identical to Level II of Göbekli Tepe.

Concluding remarks
Circular structures were not discovered during the excavations of the Urfa region, except at Hamzan Tepe and Yeni Mahalle discovered in previous studies.We are used to observing such Early PPNB structures in the catchment area of the Tigris River.The circular structures here, on the other hand, are generally from the PPNA period that has different construction materials.The walls discovered at Hamzan Tepe, Herzo Tepe and I ˙nanlı Tepe were built with large, partially dressed stone.The walls of the structures in the catchment area of the Tigris River, however, were built with small rubble.The flint tools from the surface at Herzo Tepe and I ˙nanlı Tepe, that include circular structures, show that these sites date to the early PPNB period.
The cult/ritual structures recognised at Göbekli Tepe and Nevali Çori include T-shaped pillars with and without reliefs and statues.We acquired plenty of information on this type of buildings from the excavations at Göbekli Tepe.In particular, Level II, dated to the Early PPNB and contemporaneous with the cult structure at Nevali Çori, and Level III, dated to the PPNA period, offer new information on these cult structures.Thus far, no sites or cult centres from the PPNA period, which is contemporaneous with Level III of Göbekli Tepe, have been found.
All the new sites discovered in the Siverek and Viransehir region are dated to the early PPNB period.Such dating is proven particularly by the resemblance of the pillars discovered at Taslı Tepe and Sefer Tepe, characterised as cult centres, with pillars similar to Göbekli Tepe Level II in terms of dimensions.The same feature is also found in pillars in the cult structure at Nevali Çori Level III.The pillars here also date to the Early PPNB.
The most significant feature of Taslı Tepe is the fact that it is the only example occupied in a single period, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic.Unfortunately, the architectural elements found on the surface were removed during levelling works by farming activities on the hill.Taslı Tepe is characterised as a cult centre with T-shaped pillars.The contemporaneous sites are the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Sefer Tepe, 28km to the southeast, Karahan Tepe, 30km south, and Göbekli Tepe, 35km to the west.The fact that the distance between Taslı Tepe and Sefer Tepe, Karahan Tepe and Göbekli Tepe is approximately identical indicates that the distance between the sites where Tshaped pillars are present was arranged to a certain pre-planned layout.The sites in the region are generally founded either on or immediately beside high plateaus (Özdogan 2011.229).This fact might be used to designate the borders between the sites.Therefore, Taslı Tepe is considered a site characterised by T-shaped pillars, such as Göbekli Tepe, Nevali Çori, Karahan Tepe, Sefer Tepe and Hamzan Tepe.The fact, that the number of sites increases gradually, means that they not only comprise cult centres in this period, but that they are also independent cult structures within the settlements as can be seen at Nevali Çori.
The absence of T-shaped pillars at Herzo Tepe and I ˙nanlı Tepe and the presence of circular structures indicate that this type of sites were settlements not cult or ritual centres.The distances between Basaran Höyük, Herzo Tepe, Kocanizam Tepe and Sefer Tepe vary from 2 to 8km.Moreover, all four sites are aligned in a north-south direction.Sefer Tepe, which has T-shaped pillars, is located at the centre of the other four sites; the distance to the other settlements varies from 3 to 5km.This arrangement might indicate that Sefer Tepe was a cult centre for the other settlements.It is of particular importance with respect to presenting territorial areas in the region in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period.This fact also suggests a settlement type we encountered at other PPN sites in the region.
Sites dating to the early periods of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period were generally founded on, or on the hillside of, high plateaus in the region.Likewise, Basaran Höyük, Herzo Tepe and Kocanizam Tepe were founded on high plateaus and down bedrock.This type of settlement tradition is also seen at the Sefer Tepe, Taslı Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Göbekli Tepe, Sanlıurfa-Yeni Mahalle and Hamzan Tepe Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in the region.
6 Such distances are calculated as beeline distances.The distance between the settlements via modern highway network is longer.
The presence of circular structures constructed at Herzo Tepe and Hamzan Tepe settlements is important, as it demonstrates that two distinct architectural traditions were present in the region during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period.The presence of sites characterised as cult or ritual centres, such as Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Taslı Tepe and Sefer Tepe, suggests that other settlements must have been present in the region.In the future, it might be possible to find other cult or ritual centres, settlements, or a combination of the two types in the region with systematic studies and excavations.
The absence of Palmyra points and Çayönü tools at Taslı Tepe, I ˙nanlı Tepe, Basaran Höyük, Herzo Tepe, Kocanizam Tepe and Sefer Tepe, and the fact that these sites have features similar to those in Level II at Göbekli Tepe and Level III of Nevali Çori, enable us to date such sites to the early PPNB.studies mentioned in the paper are being conducted within the TUBITAK project 'Determination, Inventory and Assessement of Immovable Cultural Assets in Sanlıurfa Province and Boroughs'.We would like to thank Mr. Nuri Okutan, the Governor of Sanlıurfa during the period concerned, and Mr. Mahmut Hersanlıoglu, District Governor of Siverek.