Başur Höyük
Başur Höyük · Basur Hoyuk
Late Chalcolithic (LC4-5) pre-Uruk to Jemdet Nasr·Upper Tigris LC culture (Uruk-extended / local transcaucasian)·🇹🇷 Siirt Province, Siirt District, Başur River valley, Upper Tigris, Turkey
About
About Başur Höyük
Late Chalcolithic ‘royal’ cemetery-tell (c.3500–3000 BCE) on Başur River at edge of Mesopotamian world — excavated 2007–2019 by Haluk Sağlamtimur (Ege Univ.) before Ilısu road development. Finds: shaft-grave cemetery with sacrificed teenagers (retainers), mass copper spearheads, lapis/turquoise, linen textiles and gaming pieces, indicating early inequality and long-distance Uruk–Transcaucasia exchange. Settlement mound 120×90 m with tripartite houses and kilns beside cemetery. Demonstrates 4th-millennium elite emergence before Uruk cities.
Why it mattersEarliest Mesopotamian ‘royal’ retainer-sacrifice before Uruk cities — inequality and gaming/linen as status at highland fringe.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Were sacrificed youths retainers or war captives — DNA kinship test pending?
- 02Gaming pieces as chance vs divination — early board game origin?
Theories
- 01Sağlamtimur emergent stratification at periphery vs Algaze Uruk core monopoly
- 02Retainer sacrifice as steppe-Caucasus influence vs indigenous LC inequality
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.3500 BCE cemetery foundation; settlement 3700–3000 BCE; LBA reuse sparse
- Period
- Late Chalcolithic (LC4-5) pre-Uruk to Jemdet Nasr
- Culture
- Upper Tigris LC culture (Uruk-extended / local transcaucasian)
- Builders
- Transcaucasian-influenced local elite with Uruk contacts
- Purpose
- Riverside cemetery-town controlling Başur tributary bottleneck
- Abandoned
- c.3000 BCE abrupt abandonment (climate or conflict?)
- Rediscovered
- Discovered 2007; excavated 2007–2019 Sağlamtimur, Siirt Museum
- Excavation
- Excavated
2007
Salvage exposes mass cemetery with copper and lapis
2014
Young retainer sacrifices and linen textiles dated 3100 BCE
On the ground
Structures & features
37.8160° N · 41.7790° E · 540 m · 3 mapped features
Retainer cemetery (Trench B)
necropolisShaft-graves with youth sacrifices and copper
37.8162° N · 41.7792° ESettlement quarter (A)
settlementTripartite mudbrick houses and kilns
37.8160° N · 41.7790° EGaming floor
feature49 gaming pieces in situ with textiles
37.8159° N · 41.7789° E