Gre Virike South — Euphrates Terrace
Gre Virike · Gre Virike Höyük · Kara Höyük (Suruç)
Halaf to EBA III (5600–2000 BCE; main 3100–2000 BCE)·Halaf → Uruk interaction → EBA Karababa and Transcaucasian·🇹🇷 Şanlıurfa Province, Suruç Plain, Euphrates left bank, Turkey
About
About Gre Virike South — Euphrates Terrace
Gre Virike South is a 2.2 ha Early Bronze Age tell on the Suruç-Euphrates terrace excavated by Istanbul University's Suruç rescue project before the Birecik Dam (1990–93). Occupation EBA I–III (3100–2000 BCE) with extra-mural cemeteries revealing jar burials, cist graves and early Transcaucasian-related Dark Rimmed Orange Bowls. Deep Halaf-period village underlies the EBA mound.
Why it mattersImportant Soruc-Euphrates sequence linking Uruk collapse to EBA Karababa Painted Ware and Transcaucasian expansion.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Relation of DROB ware to south Caucasian migration?
Theories
- 01Ökse: indigenous EBA continuity with Transcaucasian ceramic influence
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.5600 BCE (Halaf)
- Period
- Halaf to EBA III (5600–2000 BCE; main 3100–2000 BCE)
- Culture
- Halaf → Uruk interaction → EBA Karababa and Transcaucasian
- Builders
- Halaf and EBA communities
- Purpose
- Euphrates ford farming village and crossing cemetery
- Abandoned
- c.2000 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 1989 Istanbul University survey; 1990–93 rescue
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.5600 BCE
Halaf village founded
c.2800 BCE
EBA jar-burial extramural cemetery
1990
Ökse rescue excavation
On the ground
Structures & features
36.8530° N · 38.1450° E · 398 m · 3 mapped features
Gre Virike EBA Jar-Burial Cemetery
cemeteryExtramural pithos and cist cemetery (120+ burials)
36.8539° N · 38.1439° EGre Virike Halaf Deep Trench
trenchHalaf painted fine ware houses beneath EBA
36.8523° N · 38.1458° EGre Virike DROB Workshop
workshopDark Rimmed Orange Bowl production pits
36.8541° N · 38.1460° E