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Sefer Tepe: A New Pre-Pottery Neolithic Site in Southeastern Turkey.

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Abstract

Sefer Tepe is a small, broad and shallow mound located c. 72km east of Sanlıurfa, within the modern province borders of Viransehir. The mound is located at 600m altitude above sea level and covers a surface area of c. 7000m2. 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. The most intriguing aspect of the Sefer Tepe site are the 16 in-situ T-shaped pillars. Most of the pillars were buried and placed side-by-side in a conjugate formation at c. 1.5 up to 2m intervals. 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 and the monolithic in-situ pillars on the surface at Karahan Tepe. 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; 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 Taşlı Tepe.
... Envanteri Projesi" kapsamında 1997 yılında keşfedilen Karahan Tepe (Çelik, 2011b) ve Adıyaman Kilisik'te bulunmuş olan T-biçimli heykel yontusu (Verhoeven, 2001) dışındaki T-biçimli dikilitaş buluntusu veren diğer tüm yerleşimler (Sefer Tepe, Hamzan Neolitik Dönem ve Öncesi Çağlara Ait Yüzey Araştırması" kapsamında keşfedilmiştir (Çelik, 2004;Çelik, 2005;Çelik, 2006a;Çelik, 2010;Çelik, 2015a;Çelik, 2016a;Çelik, 2017a;Güler vd. 2013). ...
... Při odkrytí Göbekli Tepe byly již známé dříve objevené pilíře tohoto typu na nedaleké lokalitě Nevalı Çori, které mají obdobně znázorněné paže v profilu. Další byly nalezeny i na Karahan Tepe, 5 Sefer Tepe, 6 Hamzan Tepe, 7 Harbetsuvan Tepesi, 8 Kurt Tepesi 9 či Taşlı Tepe. 10 Pro tuto interpretaci svědčí jednoznačně i podobně stylizované sošky s hlavou ve tvaru "T", nalezené např. na Kilisik Höyüku, v Gaziantepu 11 a rovněž Socha z Şanlıurfy. ...
Article
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The archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe in southeast Turkey has garnered attention over the last two decades thanks to circles of megalithic T-shaped stone pillars dating to the 10 th –9 th millennium BCE. These stone pillars, which could be considered as representing figures, reach as far as 5.5 metres in height, weigh between 10 and 15 tons and, in many cases, are covered in animal reliefs or geometric motifs. Both the monumentality of the circular structures and their symbolism raise many questions and bring a whole new insight into the life and rituals of early Neolithic societies.
Chapter
The conventional, reversed historical perspective of Old World Archaeology has colored many an interpretation of its iconographic repertoire. The motif of the “Master of Animals” is a case in point, with recent surveys having traced its beginnings to pre-urban Mesopotamia. This chapter critically examines the Old World concept of this theme and focuses on one particular compound motif consisting of a hero and an animal adversary. Our emphasis on this classic combination has overshadowed the antiquity of its constituent parts and their likely origin among hunter-gatherer societies, who believe in a symbiotic relationship between shamans and animal gamekeepers. What happened to these two prominent characters as societies transitioned from foraging to food-producing? Göbekli Tepe and Çatalhöyük, two early Neolithic sites in modern-day Turkey, suggest different scenarios, but neither involves a clear break with the past. Instead, the evidence supports cultural continuity while highlighting the distinct trajectories of the animal gamekeeper and his human counterpart, each of which undergoes modification in the face of social, economic, and environmental issues arising from local processes of neolithization.
Thesis
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Şanlıurfa Neolitik Döneme Ait Harbetsuvan Tepesi Obsidiyen Buluntuların İncelenmesi ve Değerlendirilmesi
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Article
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The most famous Pre-pottery Neolithic site of Anatolia, Göbekli Tepe, since 1994 has been the subject of intensive studies due to its peculiar characteristics , linked to the presence of both circular buildings and the so-called anthropomorphic T-shaped pillars. It was supposed that its discovery would have been one of a kind, but in the next few years scholars revealed the existence of similar settlements in the area of Şanlıurfa Province. These sites, still far from being investigated, share with Göbekli Tepe the same archaeological evidences, including chronological features, size and architectural and iconographic traits. The aim of this article is to focus on the new available data, which could lead us to re-discuss the interpretive models valid up to a few years ago, as recent publications point out. New inter-pretive tools and excavations are required to better understand what seems to be the clue of the presence of a real cultural facies with precise connotations, amongst which an high specialized craftmanship, that was able to exploit the best limestone morphology of the territory for the construction of monumental complexes.
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Ayanlar Höyük (Gre Hut), located 30km west of Şanlıurfa, was discovered during surface surveys conducted in 2013. Ayanlar Höyük dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period, is a large- scale mound like Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe, covering an overall surface area of 14 hectares. It was learned recently that three artefacts dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period which are held by Şanlıurfa Museum were brought from Ayanlar Höyük. The artefacts in Şanlıurfa Museum and the finds recovered from Ayanlar Höyük during a surface survey have been identified as having characteristics similar to those from Körtik Tepe, Göbekli Tepe, Nevali Çori and Karahan Tepe. Con­sequently, Ayanlar Höyük should be dated between the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period B (EPPNB) and the mid-Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period B (MPPNB).
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