MegalithFringe site
Gürcütepe
DatedEst. 4000 BCE–600 CE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
Gürcütepe is a Neolithic site on the south-eastern outskirts of Şanlıurfa in Turkey. It consists of four very shallow tells along the Sirrin Stream, which flows from Şanlıurfa.
All four hills are now covered by modern buildings and are no longer recognisable. The site is thought to have been a rural settlement significantly younger than the nearby Göbekli Tepe.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Gürcütepe
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): GürcütepeCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): GürcütepeCC BY-SA 4.0
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.
It was first assumed that the four hills were settled in a specific time sequence, and that one of these settlement phases would coincide with the nearby Göbekli Tepe.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): GürcütepeCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): GürcütepeCC BY-SA 4.0
It was first assumed that the four hills were settled in a specific time sequence, and that one of these settlement phases would coincide with the nearby Göbekli Tepe. The excavations indicated instead that all four hills were settled during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period, while the easternmost hill dates from the later Pre-Pottery Neolithic C period.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): GürcütepeCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): GürcütepeCC BY-SA 4.0
Gürcütepe belongs to a group of Neolithic localities in Turkey with rammed-earth buildings that have subdivided interior space next to larger community buildings. The small finds correspond to what archaeologists already knew from other sites.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): GürcütepeCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): GürcütepeCC BY-SA 4.0
Göbekli Tepe in south-eastern Turkey is among the oldest monumental sites known, inhabited from about 9500 BCE to at least 8000 BCE during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. The Taş Tepeler (Stone Mounds) are a group of Neolithic sites near Urfa that date to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, about 10,000 to 7000 BCE.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Göbekli Tepe and the Pre-Pottery enclosures
Göbekli Tepe ("Potbelly Hill") in south-eastern Turkey is among the oldest monumental sites known. The settlement was inhabited from about 9500 BCE to at least 8000 BCE, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. It is known for large circular structures that contain large stone pillars, among the world's oldest known megaliths. Many of the pillars are T-shaped and decorated with anthropomorphic details, clothing and sculpted reliefs of wild animals, giving archaeologists insight into prehistoric religion and iconography. The hill is a tell 15 metres high and 8 hectares in area, covered with ancient domestic structures, quarries and stone-cut cisterns.
Göbekli Tepe is not alone. The Taş Tepeler, "Stone Mounds", are a group of Neolithic sites near Urfa that date to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, about 10,000 to 7000 BCE, during the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to settled farming communities. Their people had not yet developed herding or well-developed agriculture, and relied on hunting and selective harvesting of wild cereal grasses; the domestication of animals seems to have begun within the broad region of the Taş Tepeler culture. Karahan Tepe, about 46 kilometres east of Göbekli Tepe and regarded as its sister site, has T-shaped steles as well; it may be the earliest known human village, dated to between 10,000 and 9500 BCE, and was discovered in 1997 by Bahattin Çelik.
Their purpose is debated. When visiting, look at the T-shaped pillars and the animals carved on them.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Göbekli Tepe, Wikipedia: Karahan Tepe, Wikipedia: Taş Tepeler, Wikipedia: Pre-Pottery Neolithic · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000 BCE–600 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a other in the Near East is normally dated between 4000 BCE and 600 CE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- Location
- southeastern outskirts of Şanlıurfa, TurkeySource: Location
- Original form
- four shallow tells beside Sirrin StreamSource: Original form
- Present condition
- all four hills are covered by modern buildingsSource: Present condition
- Excavation leader
- Klaus SchmidtSource: Excavation leader
- Excavation period
- the late 1990sSource: Excavation period
- Site character
- a rural settlement of rammed-earth buildings with subdivided spacesSource: Site character
Where it stands
Turkey
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 37°07′12″ N, 38°50′45″ EFor a GPS or map app: 37.11987, 38.84593
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1117607wikidata.org
- 02Fringe claim sourceen.wikipedia.org
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Gürcütepe" (English), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (English): GürcütepeCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1117607CC0