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©The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project
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Boztepe |
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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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m |
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Region:
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Southeastern Anatolia |
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Province:
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Diyarbakir |
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District:
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Bismil |
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Village:
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Merkez |
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Investigation Method:
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Excavation |
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Period:
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New Assyrian Empire Period |
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| Location: The site of Boztepe is located 8 km east of the town of Bismil in Diyarbakir Province and just to the south of Bismil-Batman highway. |
| Geography and Environment: Boztepe is a small and low mound. In spite of the fact that in some areas cultural debris measures more than 4 m in depth; its facade against the rolling terrain and neighboring hills makes it almost indistinguishable from the surrounding landscape. Many parts of Boztepe are covered by the remains of a modern village and there is a road on the southeast side of the mound. |
| History: |
| Research and Excavation: The excavations at Boztepe were initiated with four trenches of 5x5 m in two separate sections of the mound in 1999 under the direction of B. Parker. Through the end of the campaign, the number of trenches was increased to 11 with two soundings [Parker 2001b:565]. Only one excavation campaign was conducted at Boztepe. |
| Stratigraphy: The exacations in 1999 revealed that the Hellenistic settlement at Boztepe was probably destructed by the modern structuring on the mound and cultivation activities. As a result, only small-size structures of the Hellenistic Period were exposed. As observed by the residential architecture and activity areas in the second trench of the Field A, the structures of the Iron Age were better preserved. However, the Ancient Period pits and present removal of the soil also resulted in heavy destruction in the Iron Age settlement. It is mostly proved by many pits from trench two to seven in the Field A and absence of Iron Age material in the first trench, which was complete. However, the most well preserved and archaeologically significant layers are from the Halaf Period [Parker 2001:571]. |
| Small Finds: Architectural Remains: The trenches were concentrated in two separate areas as the Boztepe mound has been already obscured by the remains of a contemporary village. The trenches of Area A are in the middle of the mound in the courtyard of two deserted houses; and the trenches of Area B are around a road on the southeastern section of the mound, which is believed to have remained intact. A lof of pits were found interiorly plastered under the ground level and immediately underlying some of the modern remains in the trench A2, transecting the Iron Age compounds. Thus, five new trenches were opened adjacent to the trench A2, which yielded an Iron Age house with a mud-wall, and related floors, storage pits and a lot of furnaces. Stone was used neither in foundations nor in superstructure of the walls. The house has two building phases. Between these two phases, direction of the main walls was slightly modified, and with additions of party walls and floors, it resulted in several intermediate phases. Spindle whorls, loomweights and many mortars uncovered from these layers indicate that these rooms were used for small productions, domestic activities, and grain production. The subsequent larger Iron Age house was demolished as a result of a heavy fire, crashing down onto the ground floors (at A2) and kitchen (at A3). The excavations at Boztepe partly yielded a domestic building certainly dating to the Assyrian Imperial Period by means of sherds and four radiocarbon dates. Withouth stone foundations, this mudbrick house consisted of several rooms, probably arranged around a central courtyard. The structure had been destroyed in a catastrophic fire that brought debris probably from a second story, crashing down onto the ground floor. One room contained an oven and numerous domestic artifacts including several mortars, one pestle and several smashed cooking pots. And, the adjacent room included two pedestalled vessels that may be paralled by a small fragment of a similar vessel from Ziyaret Tepe. Pottery: The activities at trench A2 in 1999 yielded bowls with inverted grooved rims, hammerhead bowls and S-profile bowls in a structure dating to the Neo-Assyrian Period. The mudbrick house consisted of storage pits, and many furnaces. The available Iron Age houses had been demolished due to a fire. Plenty of extraordinary vessels were found as buried into a deposit of ashes and debris on the southwestern corner of A2. Among them, the sherds are of handmade coarse ware with burnished surfaces. This group included pedestals, vessels and clay sticks. It appears that the pedestals were connected with two rows of clay sticks, supporting a series of vessels. Tombs: A child grave was found at A4, which lies immediate west of A2, and probably remaining immediately out of the Iron Age house. Child was buried lying, and his/her head on the south facing east, together with a seashell necklace, two bronze bracelets and an iron dagger [Parker 2004:568]. Faunal Remains: Faunal remains at the settlement allow some assessment of the lifestyle of the inhabitants. Although the sample is admittedly small, there is a clear predominance of domesticated pig in the layers of the Assyrian Imperial Period, where 52% of the identifiable remains account for pigs. The second most animals are cattle (22%), followed by sheeps accounting only 19% of the samples. |
| Remains: |
| Interpretation and Dating: The chronology of the Iron Age settlement at Boztepe supports the hypothesis that the Assyrians established this site as part of an effort to colonize the valley after its integration into the Assyrian provincial system. No Early Iron Age ceramic was found at Boztepe. However, the assemblage consisted of Neo-Assyrian Imperial Period and standard Iron Age ceramics. This assemblage, combined with four radiocarbon dates, confirms that Boztepe was established sometime after Assyrian annexation of the valley and the construction of the provincial capital at Tushhan. |
