- Çayönü
Çayönü is a
Neolithic settlement in southernTurkey inhabited around 7200 to 6600 BC. It is located forty kilometres north-west ofDiyarbakır , at the foot of the Taurus mountains. It lies near theBogazcay , a tributary of the upperTigris River and theBestakot , an intermittent stream.Archeology
The first excavations were conducted by
Robert John Braidwood between 1964 and 1978, and later between 1985 and 1991. The settlement covers the periods of thePre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), thePre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), and thePottery Neolithic (PN).The stratigraphy is divided into the following subphases according to the dominant architecture:
*round, PPNA
*grill, PPNA
*channeled, Early PPNB
*cobble paved, Middle PPNB
*cell, Late PPNB
*large room, final PPNBOrigin of Domestication
Animal Life - Domestication of Pigs
Çayönü is probably the place where the
pig ("Sus scrofa") was first domesticated. The wild fauna include wild boar, wild sheep, wild goat and cervids. The Neolithic environment included marshes and swamps near the Bogazcay, open wood, patches ofsteppe and almond-pistachio forest-steppe to the south.Farming - Cultivation of Cereals
According to "Der Spiegel" [ [http://www.spiegel.de/ Der Spiegel] ] of either
6 March or3 June 2006 , theMax Planck Institute for Breeding Research inCologne [ [http://www.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/ Max Planck Institute for Breeding Research] ] has discovered that the genetically common ancestor of 68 contemporary types of cereal still grows as a wild plant on the slopes of Mount Karaca (Karacadag ), which is located in close vicinity to Çayönü. (Compare to information on cereal use inPPNA ).References
External links
* [http://archaeology.about.com/od/cterms/g/cayonu.htm Çayönü] from About.com
* [http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Cayonu_Tepesi.html Çayönü] from Ancient Near East
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.