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©The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project
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Hayaz Höyük |
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For site maps and drawings please click on the picture...  |
For photographs please click on the photo...  |
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Type:
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Mound |
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Altitude:
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380 m |
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Region:
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Southeastern Anatolia |
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Province:
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Adiyaman |
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District:
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Samsat |
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Village:
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Hayaz |
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Investigation Method:
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Excavation |
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Period:
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Aceramic |
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| Location: This site lay south of the city of Adiyaman; 17 km west of the town of Samsat; and beneath the village of Hayaz; which has since been flooded by the Atatürk Dam Lake. It was very difficult to reach this village before it was flooded by the dam lake. The road from Samsat used to end at Kalburcu Stream. |
| Geography and Environment: Before the Atatürk Dam Lake was formed; this mound-site lay at the confluence of the Euphrates and Kalburcu Stream. The mound was on the flanks of a natural hill known as Herik Tepe along the Euphrates. The village of Hayaz was located on the western and southern fringes of the mound. The modern inhabitants of this village resorted to the mound for stone and soil and partially destroyed it. It is 9 m high and has a base diameter of 90 m. Since there are no springs in the nearby vicinity; the inhabitants of this site must have used both Kalburcu Stream and the Euphrates as their water supply. |
| History: |
| Research and Excavation: The site was discovered in 1975 during the Lower Euphrates Survey conducted in the region expected to be flooded by the Karakaya and Atatürk Dams by a team under the direction of Ü. Serdaroglu [Serdaroglu 1977:177; fig.43;47]. M. Özdogan of the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology of the University of Istanbul conducted a survey on the mound in 1977 [Özdogan 1977:144]. Many Neolithic chipped stone tools were found in the sections exposed in the areas damaged by the villagers. Excavations at the mound were conducted under the direction of J. Roodenberg of the Istanbul Dutch Institute of Archaeology; for four seasons between 1979-1983; excluding 1982. Since the village was not easily accessible and there was a modern settlement above the mound; the excavation was continued with difficulty until 1983. The mound is famous for its Aceramic Neolithi Age finds. |
| Stratigraphy: The excavations were conducted on the very top part of the mound; without damaging modern village buildings. The archaeological strata exposed by the excavations were very mixed due to erosion. The thick Early Bronze Age settlement level at the site was followed by a few very fragmentary later habitation levels. Between the Early Bronze Age and the Neolithic levels is a small Chalcolithic layer. The Neolithic appears to be built on a sloping hill; slanted up to the south and facing the Euphrates. This Neolithic layer; which yielded no ceramic fragments; is approximately 40-90 cm thick. The upper of the two occupational phases in this Neolithic Layer have been partially destroyed by Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age settlements. |
| Small Finds: Architecture: The lower phase: Piles of limestone in a line; representing remains of early walls; were found in a 7x12 m area in the middle part of the excavation area. The excavation director believes these are the remains of collapsed walls. The chipped stone tool percentage is higher in this phase than in other occupational phases. This phase also yielded a thick semi-circular wall with a 2 m diameter and some shallow trash pits. The upper phase: Although the 8x15 m area excavated in this layer was rich in chipped stone; no architectural remains were found. The chipped stone finds concentrated especially in the northern part of the trench were overlying the stone wall piles of the earlier phase [Roodenberg 1989b:91]. This area is thought to have been used as a workshop/atelier because the number of tools are low compared to the amount of debitage products. The area also yielded many trash pits. The facts that the blades have a silica sheen; that both faunal and floral remains; some ground stone tools and tools made from antler and bone were found suggests that this area may also have been used as a seasonal habitation area and not just a workshop. It is not certain whether the site continues beneath the modern village. Another possibility is that the architecture at this site was comprised of wooden cabins which did not survive. Chipped Stone: The inhabitants of Hayaz Höyük; who may have used the site as a workshop/atelier or who may have been seasonal settlers; used the local flint as raw material for their chipped stone tools. The closest flint source is 3 km away; from the southern bank of the Kalburcu Stream bed. With the exception of 2.5% of the tools made of obsidian; all the chipped stone tools and debitage products were made with good quality flint. Of the collected and analyzed chipped stone finds; 96% are debitage products. The fact that only 3.7% of the finds are actual tools suggests that the site was a tool production center. The craftsmen must have taken the tools they made with them to their settlements. The chipped stone industry is a blade industry. These blades have been made with hexagonal; conical and crested cores. The most common tool types were blades with trapezodial cross-sections; pointed retouched proximal ends and wide unretouched distal ends. Another type of tool found less frequently than these are retouched blades. "Y" shaped blades (upsilon blades) are thought to serve a special function [Ataman 1988:81-85; 1990:197-207]. Points; which comprise 12% of the total tools; usually have tangs. The tangs; produced by pressure flaking; have been carefully shaped with squamous edge flaking. Foliate points and blades used as sickle blades have also been found. Perforators; scrapers; burins; notched blades are rare. A small quantity of the tools appear to have been made from flakes. Obsidian was preferred in bladelet production where cores with single and opposed striking platforms were used. The chipped stone industry at Hayaz resembles the pre-Pottery Neolithic "B" (PPNB) chipped stone techniques in the Levant. Ground Stone: The ground stone finds include grinding stones; pierced stones and celts. Some roughly shaped rectangular objects were also found. Bone/Antler: The worked antler appears to have been used in chipped stone tool production. The bone tools comprise of objects whose purposes could not be determined and knife-like objects made of pig teeth. A spatula or spoon-like object made from a rib-bone was probably used for stirring [Clason 1985:46]. Pierced needled were probably used in leather working. Fauna: Analysis of faunal remains determined that the species were wild and thus that hunting held an important spot in the settlers' subsistence. Wild cattle; wild sheep; goat; fallow deer; roebuck deer; gazelle and hare were among the hunted animals. |
| Remains: |
| Interpretation and Dating: It has been determined that the site of Hayaz was used as a seasonal habitation area and a workshop. It has further been determined that the seasonal inhabitants of Hayaz in this period collected the raw material for their tools from the Kalburcu Stream Region and produced chipped stone tools here. They threw their debitage products away in trash pits they dug around the site. They subsisted on hunting and gathered plants and berries from the nearby valleys [Boerma 1990:185-196]. Not much information can be provided on the architectural elements of this site because only a very small area was excavated. The stone structures that were found; on the other hand; appear to have been temporary and not to have been built with care. The fact that each trash pit yielded approximately 80;000 chipped stone finds; suggests that the site of Hayaz was used as an area to break the flint and to shape it. |
