Nevali Çori North Bank — Cult Building Ridge
Nevalı Çori · Nevalı Çori North Terrace · Newala Çorî North
PPNA to early PPNB (8600–7900 BCE)·PPNB Nemrik-Pre-Pottery Euphrates·🇹🇷 Adıyaman Province, Samsat District, Kantara branch of Euphrates, Turkey
About
About Nevali Çori North Bank — Cult Building Ridge
Nevali Çori North Bank is the 0.8 ha northern ridge of the famous 1.4 ha Pre-Pottery Neolithic cult site excavated by Harald Hauptmann (1983–91) before Atatürk flooding, now under Lake Atatürk. PPNA (8400 BCE) to PPNB early village with T-shaped pillars cult building II, anthropomorphic limestone sculptures, terrazzo floors and the earliest monumental terrazzo temple preceding Göbekli phases. Houses are rectangular pisé with plastered floors and intramural burials.
Why it mattersAlongside Göbekli and Karahan, earliest monumental architecture proving hunter-gatherer monumentality precedes farming villages.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why sculptures buried deliberately after use?
Theories
- 01Hauptmann/Schmidt: cult building as prototype for Göbekli enclosures
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.8400 BCE (PPNA/PPNB)
- Period
- PPNA to early PPNB (8600–7900 BCE)
- Culture
- PPNB Nemrik-Pre-Pottery Euphrates
- Builders
- PPNB hunter-cultivators
- Purpose
- Cult center with T-pillar buildings and subsequent domestic village
- Abandoned
- c.7900 BCE (early PPNB late)
- Rediscovered
- 1983 Hauptmann rescue before Atatürk Dam
- Excavation
- Excavated
1983–1991
Heidelberg-DM rescue before flooding
c.8300 BCE
Cult building II with 3 T-pillars and sculpture offering pit
On the ground
Structures & features
37.5251° N · 38.5833° E · 590 m · 3 mapped features
Nevali Çori Cult Building II
templeSquare T-pillar temple with 3 central pillars and hybrid human-animal statues
37.5257° N · 38.5838° ENevali Çori Terrazzo Pit Cache
shrineTerrazzo-floored offering pit with bird-human sculpture
37.5246° N · 38.5841° ENevali Çori PPNB Domestic Row
habitationPisé rectangular houses with plaster and skull burial floors
37.5261° N · 38.5827° E