Grike Havuz
Grike Havuz · Gre Havuz · Grike Havuz Sanliurfa · Birecik Early village
PPNA–PPNB through Halaf (c.9500–7500 BCE; Halaf 6000–5500 BCE)·Taş Tepeler PPN (PPNA–PPNB forager-cultivators) and Halaf village·🇹🇷 Şanlıurfa Province, Bozova–Siverek foothills, Turkey
About
About Grike Havuz
Taş Tepeler PPN hillside site (c.9500–7500 BCE) with buried round–oval PPN villages and later Halaf levels on Taurus piedmont: rescue survey by Şanlıurfa Museum with DAI (Schmidt early, later Jochen Kinzer) reveals PPNA–PPNB domestic houses with lime floors, communal building with limestone pillar fragment (T-type precursor), and early domestic goat figures. Small tell (0.6 ha) but extends 2 ha downslope with geophysical anomalies. Parallels Sefer Tepe and Çakmak Tepe but domestic rather than hill-sanctuary. Domestication evidence for barley and goat transitional foragers.
Why it mattersOnly Taş Tepeler domestic village with both PPNA round houses and proto-T-pillar — bridges Göbekli ritual to village Neolithic.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why single proto-pillar vs Göbekli 20+ — failed imitation or domestic shrine?
- 02Goat bones domestic or wild — Nad Sant időszak?
Theories
- 01Schmidt hill-sanctuary to village continuum vs domestic-origin model
- 02Peters goat domestication from eastern Taurus debate
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.9500 BCE PPNA round houses; PPNB oval houses 8500 BCE; Halaf village 6000 BCE
- Period
- PPNA–PPNB through Halaf (c.9500–7500 BCE; Halaf 6000–5500 BCE)
- Culture
- Taş Tepeler PPN (PPNA–PPNB forager-cultivators) and Halaf village
- Builders
- Taş Tepeler PPN (PPNA–PPNB forager-cultivators) and Halaf village builders
- Purpose
- Foothill PPN–Halaf village linking Upper Euphrates sedentism to Taurus ritual hills
- Abandoned
- c.7500 BCE PPNB village contraction; Halaf village abandoned 5500 BCE
- Rediscovered
- Surveyed 1998–present Şanlıurfa Museum & DAI Taş Tepeler Project (Schmidt/Kinzer)
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
2000
Initial work at Grike Havuz
2015
Stratigraphy and geophysics synthesis for Grike Havuz
On the ground
Structures & features
37.6810° N · 38.9210° E · 610 m · 3 mapped features
PPNA round houses
settlementPPNA pisé-stone houses Level III
37.6812° N · 38.9212° EProto-pillar communal area
communal structureCommunal oval building with pillar cupule
37.6809° N · 38.9209° EHalaf houses
settlementHalaf painted ware domestic quarter
37.6808° N · 38.9211° E