©The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project

Gedikli / Karahöyük

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Gedikli / Karahöyük
Type:
 Mound
Altitude:
 540 m
Region:
 Mediterranean
Province:
 Gaziantep
District:
 Nurdagi
Village:
 Gedikli
Investigation Method:
 Excavation
Period:
 EBA I EBA II EBA III

     

Location: It is partly obscured by the village it was named after; 23-24 km northeast of the Islahiye District; northwest of the Gaziantep Province. Although it is locally known as Karahöyük; it is referred to as Gedikli in the archaeological literature to prevent any confusion with the other settlements called Karahöyük.
Geography and Environment: Gedikli Karahöyük is one of the biggest mounds of the plain. It measures 24 m in height and 240x190 m in dimensions. The eastern and western foothills and northern slope have been severely damaged due to removal of soil. The cemetery on the southeastern foothill came out as a result of such damage.
History:
Research and Excavation: Gedikli-Karahöyük was first mentioned in R. Koldewey's map. In 1907; the site was considered among the mounds of Sakçagözü by J. Garstang. Later in 1949; it was metioned in the same way by M.V. Seton-Willams; J. Waechter and J. du Plat Taylor; who were conducting soundings in Coba Höyük. In 1951 S. Gögüs; the director of Gazintep Museum; collected more thin 10 vessels from the eastern section of the mound that was destructed by removing earth. The vessels were taken to the museum and this section was later understood to be a cemetery. The first scientific excavation was carried out in 1958 under U.B. Alkim of University of Istanbul. The researches continued in 1963 and the mound was excavated again in 1964-67. Gedikli excavations are researches conducted to help the evaluation of Tilmen Höyük and the vicinity [Alkim-Alkim 1966:2; Alkim (H.) 1979:135]. It takes place in the registered archaeological sites list prepared by Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Stratigraphy: Gedikli-Karahöyük had been inhabited from the Chalcolithic Age to the Islamic Period. The stratification was almost definitely identified by means of a stepped trench on the eastern slope. Cultural layer I: Iron Age (first millennium BC) Cultural layer II: Middle Bronze Age (beginning of second millennium BC) Cultural layer III: The excavator reports that the building levels IIIa to IIIk are dated to EBA. Starting from IIIk; the Chalcolithic Age commences. The thickness of EBA levels is ca. 18 m. During the 1967 excavation; the virgin soil was reached at 31.8 m depth through stepped trench A. The necropolis/cemetery area uncovered through the trench in the southeastern foothill was not stratified yet (third millennium BC) Cultural layer IV: Chalcolithic Age (end of the fourth millennium BC)
Small Finds: Architecture: The fragments of a wall revealing the presence of big buildings in the building level IIIc [Alkim 1964:8] were destroyed by the upper building level. The building level IIId is also full of fragments of walls; the nature of their construction was not identified as the area investigated by a deep sounding is restricted. The walls are suggested to form four-cornered rooms with a substructure of stone socle and a superstructure of mudbricks. As construction technique; big faced stones were employed for the exterior parts of the walls and smaller stones for the interior. At IIIh; the presence of a broken stone roller gives a clue about the ceiling framework of the buildings; they are flat roofed. The EBA settlements were encircled by a thick fortification wall [Duru 2000e:155]. Under the slope lowland going down to the plain level on the south where the chamber graves were located; a 7 m long tunnel was uncovered; side walls built by big stones and capped by lid stones [Alkim 1974:fig.104]. This tunnel so called building M 14 ends up in a room of 1.5x3 m. where no finds were recovered. It is suggested that this building with dromos carrying megalithic features was built at the end of EBA and it can be a sacred pathway reaching out to the subterranean waters [Duru 2000e:155]. Pottery: The pottery finds of Gedikli were presented by H. Alkim in detail [Alkim (H) 1979:138-141]. The analysis on pastes was carried out by F. Baykal. All EBA ware is locally produced. Throughout all the architectural phases of the mound mentioned hereinabove; the wheel-made and reddish orange ware is dominant. This type of pottery appears at the end of the Late Chalcolithic Age and continues until the transition from EBA to the Colonial Period [Alkim (H) 1984:231]. It has specific forms of pithoi; jars; bowls; plates with ring pedestals; jugs; bottles and cups. They are decorated with excised geometrical patterns from IIIe. Also found are horizontally corrugated cups in beige; samples of the gray; black and red coarse ware. The kitchen vessels are observed to be produced more elaborately [Alkim (H) 1979:140]. Imported ware like Syrian-type bottles; depas and tankards; pilgrim-flasks and mugs were found in cremation graves [Alkim (H) 1984:232-233]. The Syrian bottles have gray colored paste. H. Alkim reports that for pottery production; the clay strata available 2 km southwest of Zincirli Village were used. Clay: The terra cotta seals contributed particularly to the dating of the building levels. Ground Stone: Flat axes; millstones and hammer stones were recovered. The small finds of EBA were not published in detail. Metal: Both copper and bronze finds were discovered at almost all EBA levels. Human Remains: Intramural Cemetery: 20 simple pit burials and 7 pithos graves were found buried under the floors in several building levels of cultural layer III. Extramural Cemetery: On the southeastern foothill of the mound; simple pit burials dating from the second millennium BC; creamation graves largely dating from the end of the third millennium BC and partly from the beginning of the second millennium BC and stone chamber graves belonging to EBA II and I (?) were uncovered [Duru 2000e:fig.2]. It is certain that this is the cemetery of the third and second millennia BC settlements. The earliest graves of all are three chamber graves in stone [Duru 2000e:155]. They are four-cornered; 60-140 cm in depth and ca. 1.2-1.7x3.6-3.9 in dimensions. The side walls were erected by quarry stones attached with loam mortar. They were capped by big-sized stone lids. The entrance is from the east. On the earth floor lies the skeleton. They house more than one burial. Plenty of vessels were found as grave goods; mostly in red orange ware. Number of the metallic ware is poor. The samples include vessels like pots with ring-pedestal; squat fruit stands with ring-pedestals; cups and trefoil jugs. One of those chamber rooms was disturbed by the treasure hunters. The excavation was started at Karahöyük following that the finds recovered during this plundering were brought to the Museum of Gaziantep. Next to these graves; there stand two cist graves claimed to be built in later periods. The cremation area covering a land of 335 squaremeters; immediate north of the chamber graves leaning on the southeastern foothill has been terraced by neatly built terrace walls. The sites for cremation ceremony and votive pits were found here. R. Duru identifies those pits as "religious ceremony pits" and describes those ceremonies in detail [Duru 1986:169-176]. The cremation graves introduced from the end of EBA III consist of the cremated remains of the dead placed in various sizes of pottery urns and buried into these graves. The corpses were cremated in specific places; ashes and the partly cremated bones of the dead were placed into the bottom of the urns. The pins recovered on the burnt bones prove that they were bagged and tied with a pin. Some of the urns house a cup in beige paste or depas left as grave goods; and covered with charcoal. It is reported that 270 of those cremation vessels/grave jars/urns were intact while 200 pieces were broken. It was not clearly identified which one is from EBA or MBA.
Remains:
Interpretation and Dating: Gedikli Karahöyük yielded a rich culture. The pottery of this era is of the orange reddish pasted ware. During the survey conducted in the plains of Islahiye; Altintop and Sakçagözü; sherds of this ware were collected from several mounds. Presence of the same ware at levels V and VI of Coba Höyük; levels III c-III k of Tilmen Höyük; Amuq Plain phases G; H; I and rarely J; Zincirli and Gözlükule EBA I and II indicated the extent this ware is spread around. The orange colored ware starts at EBA II of Gözlükule and continues at EBA III [Mellink 1992:215]. Exposure of the beige pasted; wheel-made cups of phases I and J of the Amuq Plain plays an important role in the dating. A strong relationship was identified between Tarsus Gözlükule EBA II and Gedikli. Likewise; finding Western Anatolian depas in the cremation graves of Gedikli is amazing [Alkim 1968:pl.40]. Gedikli Karahöyük is the oldest site housing cremation graves of the Anatolian burial traditions. It is an astonishing cemetery dating from the 22nd-21st centuries BC. The chamber graves are proposed to date from the 21st-20th centuries BC. The settlement was in relation with Northern Syria and Mesopotamia throughout the all building levels; and with Çukurova and Western Anatolia during the last phase of EBA.


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