Kurban Höyük Dam Salvage Zone
Kurban Salvage · Kurban Höyük Lower Terrace
Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze (3800–2300 BCE)·Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Ninevite V → Early Dynastic·🇹🇷 Şanlıurfa Province, Bozova District, Lower Euphrates Terrace, Turkey
About
About Kurban Höyük Dam Salvage Zone
Kurban Höyük Dam Salvage Zone is the 6-ha lower terrace on the Euphrates left bank, salvaged before Atatürk Dam raised the lake 15 m over the valley. Algaze's horizontal exposure (3800–2300 BCE) revealed a Late Uruk administrative building with bevelled-rim bowls, Ninevite V painted houses and an Early Dynastic fortified town — documenting Uruk colonialism, Ninevite V retreat and ED re-urbanisation in a single stratigraphic stack. The salvage zone is now partly inundated east of Titriš 11.5 km NW.
Why it mattersAtatürk dam salvage type-sequence — Uruk to ED colonial retreat documented before inundation
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Uruk colony vs. indigenous adoption — bevelled bowls prove presence?
- 02Ninevite V painted ware — local or Jezirah import?
Theories
- 01Algaze Uruk expansion model tested at Kurban
- 02Wilkinson terrace demography — Euphrates floodplain diachrony
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.3800 BCE Late Chalcolithic Uruk; EB town 3100 BCE
- Period
- Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze (3800–2300 BCE)
- Culture
- Uruk → Jemdet Nasr → Ninevite V → Early Dynastic
- Builders
- Late Uruk colonists, Ninevite V communities, ED elite
- Purpose
- Dam-salvage lower terrace of Kurban Höyük — Uruk expansion settlement on left-bank Euphrates, 6 ha at Atatürk reservoir edge
- Abandoned
- c.2300 BCE EB III abandonment
- Rediscovered
- Salvage excavated 1980–84 Algaze & Wilkinson (Chicago Euphrates project)
- Excavation
- Buried
1980
Algaze opens Kurban salvage, Late Uruk bevelled bowls found
1983
Ninevite V painted quarter above Uruk published
1992
Atatürk reservoir lateral advance partly submerges lower terrace
On the ground
Structures & features
37.4500° N · 38.2200° E · 520 m · 3 mapped features
Uruk Administrative Building (Bevelled Bowls)
administrativeLate Uruk hall with 120 bevelled-rim bowls, 3800–3400 BCE
37.4508° N · 38.2206° ENinevite V Painted Quarter
settlementNinevite V incised-painted houses over Uruk levels
37.4493° N · 38.2191° EED Fortified Town Wall
fortificationEarly Dynastic mudbrick enceinte 2700–2300 BCE on lower terrace
37.4511° N · 38.2207° E