Nevali Cori

Nevalı Çori was an early Neolithic settlement on the middle Euphrates, in the province of Şanlıurfa (Urfa), eastern Turkey. The site is famous for having revealed some of the world's most ancient known temples and monumental sculpture. Together with the site of Göbekli Tepe, is has revolutionised scientific understanding of the Eurasian Neolithic.

The settlement was located about 490 m above sea level, in the foothills of the Taurus mountains, on both banks of the Kantara stream, a tributary of the Euphrates.

Excavation

The site was examined in 1993 in the context of rescue excavations during the erection of the Atatürk Dam below Samsat. Excavations were conducted by a team from the University of Heidelberg under the direction of Professor Harald Hauptmann. Together with numerous other archaeological sites in the vicinity, Nevali Cori has since been inundated by the dammed waters of the Euphrates.

Dates

Nevalı Çori could be placed within the local relative chronology on the basis of its flint tools. The occurrence of narrow unretouched Byblos-type points places it on O. Aurenche's Phase 3, which, ie early to middle PPNB. Some tools indicate continuity into Phase 4, which is similar in date to Late PPNB. An even finer chronological distinction within Phase 3 is permitted by the settlement's architecture; the house type with underfloor channels, typical of Nevalı Çori strata I-IV, also characterises the "Intermediate Layer" at Çayönü, while the differing plan of the single building in stratum V, House 1, is more clearly connected to the buildings of the "Cellular Plan Layer" at Çayönü.

In terms of absolute dates, 4 radiocarbon dates have been determined for Nevalı Çori. Three are from Stratum II and date it with some certainty to the second half of the 9th millennium BC, which coincides with early dates from Çayönü and with Mureybet IVA and thus supports the relative chronology above. The fourth dates to the 10th millennium, which, if correct, would indicate the presence of an extremely early phase of PPNB at Nevalı Çori.

Houses

The settlement had five architectural levels.The excavated architectural remains were of long rectangular houses containing two to three parallel flights of rooms, interpreted as magazines. These are adjacent to a similarly rectangular ante-structure, subdivided by wall projections, which should be seen as a residential space. This type of house is characterized by thick, multi-layered foundations made of large angular cobbles and boulders, the gaps filled with smaller stones so as to provide a relatively even surface to support the superstructure. These foundations are interrupted every 1-1.5m by underfloor channels, at right angles to the main axis of the houses, which were covered in stone slabs but open to the sides. They may have served the drainage, aeration or the cooling of the houses. 23 such structures were excavated, they are strikingly similar to structures from the so-called channeled subphase at Çayönü.

An area in the northwest part of the village appears to be of special importance. Here, a cult complex had been cut into the hillslope. It had three subsequent architectural phases, the most recent belonging to Stratum III, the middle one to Stratum II and the oldest to Stratum I. The two more recent phases also possessed a terrazzo-style lime cement floor, which did not survive from the oldest phase. Parallels are known from Cayönü and Göbekli Tepe. Monoltihic pillars similar to those at Göbekli Tepe were built into its dry stone walls, its interior contained two free-standing pillars of 3 m height. The excavator assumes light flat roofs. Similar structures are only known from Göbekli Tepe so far.

Soundings cut to examine the western side of the valley also revealed rectilinear architecture in 2-3 layers.

culpture and clay figurines

The local limestone was carved into numerous statues and smaller sculptures, including a more than life-sized bare human head with a snake or sikha-like tuft. There is a also a statue of a bird. Some of the pillars also bore reliefs, including ones of human hands. The free-standing anthropomorphic figures of limestone excavated at Nevali Cori belong to the earliest known life-size sculptures. Comparable material has been found at Göbekli Tepe.

Several hundred small clay figurines (about 5 cm high), most of them depicting humans, have been interpreted as votive offerings. They were fired at temperatures between 500-600°C, which suggests the development of ceramic firing technology before the advent of pottery proper.

Burials

Some of the houses contained depositions of human skulls and incomplete skeletons.

Bibliography

* Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (ed.): "Die ältesten Monumente der Menschheit. Vor 12.000 Jahren in Anatolien, Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung im Badischen Landesmuseum vom 20. Januar bis zum 17. Juni 2007". Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2072-8.
* MediaCultura (Hrsg.): "Die ältesten Monumente der Menschheit. Vor 12.000 Jahren in Anatolien". DVD-ROM. Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2090-2.
*Hauptmann, H. Nevalı Çori: "Architektur". (1988) "Anatolica" 15, 99-110.
*Hauptmann, H. Nevalı Çori: "Eine Siedlung des akeramischen Neolithikums am mittleren Euphrat" (1991/92) "Nürnberger Blätter" 8/9, 15-33.
*Hauptmann, H., "Ein Kultgebäude in Nevalı Çori", in: M. Frangipane u.a. (Hrsg.), "Between the Rivers and over the Mountains, Archaeologica Anatolica et Mesopotamica Alba Palmieri dedicata" (Rome 1993), 37-69.
*H. Hauptmann, "Frühneolithische Steingebäude in Südwestasien". In: Karl W. Beinhauer et al., "Studien zur Megalithik : Forschungsstand und ethnoarchäologische Perspektiven" / "The megalithic phenomenon : recent research and ethnoarchaeological approaches" (Mannheim : Beier & Beran, 1999). "Beiträge zur Ur- und Frühgeschichte Mitteleuropas" 21.
*M. Morsch, "Magic figurines? A view from Nevalı Çori", in: H.G.K. Gebel, Bo Dahl Hermansen and Charlott Hoffmann Jensen. (Hrsg.) "Magic Practices and Ritual in the Near Eastern Neolithic". (Berlin: ex oriente, 2002) SENEPSE 8.

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