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Bahattin Celik:
A
New Early-Neolithic Settlement: Karahan Tepe
Marc Verhoeven: Architecture from the
1999
Excavations at Tell
S
Wadi al-Hasa, Jordan
1
Editorial Dr. Mujahed al-Muheisen
Rahmatu
Allahi Aleik
A
Personal Obituary
This issue
(Neo-Lithics
2-3/00) appears as a combination of
two issues, as is reflected in the relative thickness of the publica-
tion. There are several reasons that we have combined them,
which brings up the focus of this editorial.
When
Neo-Litizics
began in 1994, the newsletter was intended
to be a means to communicate issues of lithic analysis: it was to
be a forum where approaches to analysis could be proposed, ex-
plained, and modified as a consequence of friendly exchange
among researchers dealing with common interests.
Neo-Lithics
has provided this channel of communications, but it is clear that
the progress of lithics analysis did not proceed at a rate at which
an annual newsletter was worth publishing.
As a consequence, the role of
Neo-Lithics
was expanded by the
co-editors to include brief reports on current Neolithic (and even
late Epipaleolithic) field work and aspects of non-lithic research
as a means of rapid exposure of what is being examined by exca-
vation projects and what is being pursued in the laboratory in ad-
dition to lithics analysis.
We have been able to cobble together some useful newsletter
issues in the past as a result of the cooperation of field directors
and laboratory researchers. It is pleasing for us to note, for exam-
ple, that many recent publications cite reports in
Neo-Lithics
in
their bibliographies simply because other avenues of publication
are more time-consuming before other reports eventually emerge.
But we would also like to point out that the publication of
Neo-
Litfzics
is not an easy task. Both of the co-editors are fully em-
ployed in academic work and research projects themselves, and
while we are very happy to produce this newsletter, we desperately
need the cooperation of our colleagues. We very much appreciate
the manuscripts that have been submitted for past issues
(repeatedly by some colleagues, which we admire). We have ap-
pealed via email and other avenues for others to contribute ma-
nuscripts, and we have received several responses to these ap-
peals.
It is in this regard that we raise the question of future issues of
Neo-Lithics.
We want to reserve
Neo-Lithics
as a primary commu-
nications vehicle for discussion of lithics analysis. But we realize
that research projects on lithics analysis per se will not produce
manuscripts on a predictable basis, so other aspects of Neolithic
(and late Epipaleolithic) research are also encouraged as foci for
publication in
Neo-Lithics.
We ask again that short reports on research be submitted to
Neo-Lithics
when the opportunity arises. It might be the case
that we have to reduce the current number of three issues per year
to two (as is the situation for
Neo-Lithics
2-3100).
What has been written above are the views of the co-editors.
What is not present there, or anywhere else, are the views that you
as the subscribers might hold. We can easily establish a "Letters
to the editors" column to include comments and criticisms that
you might wish to communicate on a "less-than-article" means.
Let us know. Gary Rollefson
&
Hans Georg
K.
Gebel
In the upper nght part
of
the address field (envelop)
you
will
find the
atlon
of
the sub-
Dr. Mujahed al-Muheisen, born in Tafila, devoted his academic
life to Jordan's prehistory. He died in Irbid in July 2000 at the age
of 46. His family lost a caring and loving father and husband, and
we who knew him and worked with him have lost a friend, an ex-
pert in chipped lithics analysis, and a colleague who demanded
high standards of research from himself and others.
Dr. Mujahed taught prehistory at the Institute of Archaeology
and Anthropology at Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan, a tenure
interrupted by a period as curator at the Museum of National
Heritage at Yarmouk University. He was the excavator of Epipa-
leolithic Kharaneh IV and co-director of the Basta and 'Ain Rahub
Joint Archaeological Projects, in which he represented his insti-
tute, shared the direction of the excavations and analyzed the
chipped lithic materials that were recovered. He was also involved
in many other projects, both in analysis of materials and excava-
tion.
Dr. Mujahed finished his studies in 1988 with the
Doctornt
d'ktat
in Bordeaux, France, using materials from his excavations
at Kharaneh
IV.
Fig.
1.
Dr. Mujahed Muheisen visiting Ba'ja in
1987
<photo:
H.G.K.
Gebelz
Mujahed was my dear friend for 19 years. I met him first in
1981 when he was appointed as the Department's representative
for my first surveys in the Petra area. Something one immediately
noticed about him was that he liked to joke, and one of his
favorite phrases was "No problem!" when real problems occurred.
But already by 1981, when we dreamed of working together on an
Arabic-English-French-German dictionary of chipped lithics tcr-
minology, in order to promote more Arab specialists in the field,
he often withdrew from others to take rest in the shade; he did not
talk about the severe headaches he suffered. These signs were not
understood when he sought medical help in France, where he wor-
ked on his
Thkse
du
Troisiknze SiBcle
until 1986. By 1985, we
excavated together at 'Ain Rahub, a time that was one of his most
productive. One year later, Mujahed was
-
among others
-
instru-
Acknowledgments:
This research is part of the Wadi Ziqlab
Project at the University of Toronto.
I
would like to thank Dr.
E.B. Banning and David Lasby (Department of Anthropology,
University of Toronto) for supervision and comments.
In
addi-
tion, Dr. John Tomenchuk (Department of Anthropology, Royal
Ontario Museum) provided useful advice, while Matthew Betts
provided valuable comments on an earlier draft.
I
am solely re-
sponsible for any errors, omissions, or misinterpretations.
Bibliography
Banning E.B.
1995 Herders or Homesteaders? A Neolithic Farm in Wadi Ziqlab,
Jordan.
Biblical Archaeologist.
58(1): 2-13.
1998 The Neolithic Period: Triumphs in Architecture, Agriculture, and
Art.
Near Eastern Archaeology
61(4).
Banning E.B. and Siggers, J.
1998 Technological Strategies at a Late Neolithic Farmstead in Wadi
Ziqlab, ~Gdan. In: H~G.K. Gebel,
Z.
Kafafi, and G.O. Rollefson
(eds.),
Prehistory of Jordan
11.
Perspectives from 1997:
319-331.
Berlin, ex oriente.
Birkeland P.W.
1999
Soils and Geomorphology.
Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Blackham
M.
1997 Changing Settlement at Tabaqat al-Buma in Wadi Ziqlab, Jordan: A
Stratigraphic Analysis. In H.G.K. Gebel,
Z.
Kafafi, and G.O.
Rollefson (eds.),
Prehistory of Jordan
11.
Perspectives from 1997:
Prehistory
of
Jordan
11:
345-360. Berlin, ex oriente.
Blackham M. Fig.
1.
Topographic map of the Sanliurfa city area. 1: Profile in Yeni Yo1
1999
Constructing Regional Histories: Time and Transition in the Southern
Street. 2: Location of human statue.
Levant (5500
-
3500
B.C.).
Toronto, University of Toronto: unpub-
lished Ph.D. dissertation.
Bohrer
V.L.
1972 On the Relation of Harvest Methods to Early Agriculture in the
Near East.
Economic Botany.
26: 145-155.
Cauvin M.C.
1973 Problitmes d'emmanchement des faucilles du Proche-Orient: les
documents de Tell Assouad (Djezireh, Syrie).
Pal4orient.
1: 102-
106.
Costin C.L.
1991 Craft Specialization: Issues in Defining, Documenting, and Explai-
ning the Organization of Production.
Archueological Methods and
Theory
3:1-56.
Endlicher G. and Tillman A.
1997 Lime Plaster as an Adhesive for Hafting Eighteenth-Dynasty Flint
Sickles from Tell el Dab'a, Eastern Nile Delta.
Archaeomerry.
39(2): 333-342.
Eshbach O.W.
1952
Handbook of Engineering Fundamentals.
New York, John Wiley
&
Sons, Inc.
Korobkova G.F.
1981 Ancient Reaping Tools and Their Productivity in the Light of
Experimental Traceware Analysis. In: P.L. Kohl (ed.).
The Bronze
Age Civilization
ry"
Central Asia: Recent Soviet Discoveries.
New
York, Armonk.
Siggers
J.
1997
The Lithic Assemblage from Tabaqat al-Buma: A Late Neolithic Site
in Wadi Ziqlab, Northern Jordan.
Toronto, University of Toronto:
unpublished Ph.D. dissertation.
Unger-Hamilton R.
1989 The Epi-Paleolithic Southern Levant and the Origins of Cultivation.
Current Anthropology.
30jl): 88-103.
An Early Neolithic Settlement
in the Center of Sanllurfa, Turkey
Bahattin Celik (Harran University)
In 1997 evidence for a stratified Early Neolithic settlement was
found on Yeni Yo1 Street in the central part of Sanhurfa (Urfa),
towards the southwestern part of town near the surrounding city
wall (Fig.
1).
In
1993,
during construction of a building complex
to the east of this area, a limestone statue of a male nearly
1.90
m
high was recovered (Fig
2).
A comparison of this statue with the
large sculptures excavated at Nevalt. Cori indicate that it also be-
longs to the Early Neolithic
(cf.
Hauptmann 1993). Both of these
finds constitute the first verification of Early Neolithic occupa-
tion under the city of $anliurfa. Fig. 2. Sanhurfa, Yeni Yo1 Street: The human statue
(drawn from a photograph).
GRABUNGSFLACHE
@
TERRAZZO-AUFStCHT
$ANUURFA(URFA)-TURKE~
REZENTER
EETON
BALIKLIGOL MEVKii BASALT
Ywi
MMALLE
SlLEX
RAZZO- PROFIL(FE1N)
I
R AZZO- PROFIL(GR0E)
I
I
:..;z%
-------
on
HELLBRAUNES SEDIMENT
Fig.
3.
Sanliurfa, Yeni Yo1 Street: Plan (top) and section of the Nec
1
Yeni Yo1 Street.
The old city of vanliurfa was constructed near the Karakoyun
River (Dayshan-Skirtos) before the Justinian period (527-565
a.d.), and at that time there were some lakes that were considered
to be holy. To the south of the city were high rocky hills, and the
broad Harran Plain lies to the east; there is a large open area that
climbs in elevation to the north of the city. The strategic advan-
tages made this an ideal location for early Neolithic settlement.
Yeni Yo1 Caddesi is a narrow street that climbs northward from
the southern edge of the city in a section of town called Yeni
Mahalle. During reconstruction of the street in 1993, when it was
lowered and widened, a stratigraphic section nearly 2m high and
70m long appeared. Most of the thickness of the profile is datable
to the Early Neolithic, with Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and
Islamic material appearing in the upper reaches. There is no sign
of Bronze Age occupation in this profile.
In 1997 an in situ section of this profile 15m long and 0.5m
wide was investigated (Fig. 3). There were no Neolithic potsherds,
but many lithics artifacts were recovered, including 239 flint
tools and 15 tools made of obsidian. The tools included projectile
points, perforators, burins, endscrapers, and sidescrapers. Some
bone tools also occurred here, as well as basalt stones that per-
haps used as weights to anchor tents or tent poles. The profile
also contained four terrazzo floor areas similar to those at
Cayonii, Gobekli Tepe, and Nevah Cori
(cf.
Hauptmann 1993;
Ozdogan1995).
An Early Neolithic age can be assigned to these layers based on
typological analysis of the tools. One projectile point (Fig.
4:
2)
is a variant of the Helwan point and may be dated to the PPNA.
Others (Fig. 5: 3-5) show close similarities to El Khiam and
Nevali Cori points dated to the PPNA and Early PPNB periods
(Schmidt 1996). No Palmyra points (Schmidt and Beile-Bohn
1996) or Cayonii Tools, ascribable to later PPNB periods, were
found. Compared to the Nevali Cori stratigraphy (which is some
distance away), the Sanliurfa material seems to fall between Strata
I
and 111
1.
"
GRAUE ASCHELAGE
ROTLICHES SEDIMENT
~lithic
profile in
@BRAUNES SEDIMENT
(MIT SILEX)
1
0123
cm
*
examination of the Yeni Yo1 profile.
The profile is currently under the city wall and modern buil-
dings, but a basalt grinding stone could be seen and examined.
The presence of terrazzo floors and the larger-than-life human sta-
tue indicate at least one special building.
Gobekli Tepe is a site located atop a mountain not far from $an-
liurfa (Beile-Bohn
et
al.
1998). Although there are ritual aspects
to Gobekli Tepe (Schmidt 1998), there are no holy springs or
ponds as there were at Sanliurfa. This might indicate that Sanliurfa
played a greater role in terms of ritual activity. With additional
excavations at the Sanliurfa site, a better idea of its layout can be
obtained and a more reliable comparison with Gobekli Tepe can
be achieved.
Note
1.
A
detailed study of the finds from Sanliurfa is being canied out as
part of continuing postgraduate work.
Bibliography
Beile-Bohn M., Gerber
C.,
Morsch
M.,
and Schmidt K.
1998 Neolithische Forschungen in Obermesopotanien. Gurcutepe und
Gobekli Tepe.
Istanbuler Mitteilungen
48: 5-78.
Hauptmann H.
1993 Ein Kultgebaude in Nevali Con. In:
M.
Frangipane, H. Hauptmann,
M.
Liverani, P. Matthiae, and M. Mellink (eds.),
Between the Rivers
and Over the Mountains:
37-69. Rome.
Schmidt K.
1994 The Neval~ Cori Industry. Status of Research. In: H.G.K. Gebel and
S.K. Kozlowski (eds.),
Neolithic Chipped Stone Industries of the
Fertile Crescent:
239-251. Berlin, ex oriente.
1998 Friihneolitische Tempel. Ein Forschungsbericht zum Priikerami-
schen Neolithikum Obermesopotamiens.
Mitteilungen der
Deurschen Orient-Gesellscltaft
130: 17-49.
Schmidt K. and Beile-Bohn M.
1996 A LPPNB Variant of Byblos Points from Gurciitepe
I1
-
"Palmyra
Points"?
Neo- Lithics
2/96: 4-5.
Ozdo&m M.
1995 Neolithization of Europe: A View from Anatolia. Part I: The
Problem and the Evidence of East Anatolia.
Porocilo o Raskovanju
Pnleolitika, Neolitika in Eneolitikn v Sloveniji
22: 25-61.
A
New Early-Neolithic Settlement: Karahan Tepe
Bahattin Celik (University of Harran)
Karahan Tepe lies some 63
km east of Sanliurfa (Urfa), southeastern Turkey in an area called
Tektek Daglan (Tektek Mountains). Some 266
in
situ
pillars were
observed in the fields on the northern and eastern slopes of the
hill. Since this area, which was discovered by the author in 1997,
was not named on the maps, it was thought to be suitable to name
the site "Karahan Tepe" after a hill nearby (Footnote 1)
Geomorphologically, the Tektek Mountain area in the vicinity
of the Karahan Tepe settlement in the southeast part of Harran
plain is more of a range of high hills rather than mountains (Giizel
n.d.: 170-171). It is a dissected Eocene and Miocene limestone
formation whose valleys which were formed by erosion during in-
terglacial and post-glacial periods under humid climatic condi-
tions (Atalay 1994: 280-282). There
is
no basalt in Tektek
Daglari; the nearest basalt source is 15 km to the north of the
settlement. Flint probably was obtained from the nodules found in
the limestone of the area. The region has an average altitude of
between 600
in
and 800 m. It is a rural area where people today are
involved primarily in animal husbandry and some agriculture.
This poorly watered area was also settled in Antique Age (Sinclair
1990: 183-184). It is still observed in the autumn that nomadic
families come down from Karacadag Mountain in northern $an-
liurfa to stay in the Tektek Mountain area during winter and graze
their animals on the pasture. The vicinity is also very rich in wild
