Türbe Höyük
Türbe Hoyuk · Birecik Türbe
Halaf-Ubaid → Late Chalcolithic → EBA/Uruk (5900–3100 BCE)·Halaf-Ubaid → Uruk (North Mesopotamian painted then Uruk expansion)·🇹🇷 Şanlıurfa Province, Birecik District, Middle Euphrates, Turkey
About
About Türbe Höyük
Türbe Höyük is a buried Middle Euphrates tell on the Euphrates low terrace — Halaf-Ubaid Neolithic village (5900–4800 BCE) capped by Late Chalcolithic and EBA levels, excavated 1995–1998 ibn Birecik Dam salvage (Jesuit/C. Algaze Chicago, Şanlıurfa Museum). 3 m Neolithic Halaf painted ware houses with tholoi, Ubaid expansion with tripartite houses, then Uruk-period storage pits. Magnetometry shows 4 ha village with extramural Halaf cemetery. Now 30 m from Euphrates reservoir; upper mound eroded but lower buried village intact under alluvium. Key for Halaf eastward spread and Uruk contact before Carchemish.
Why it mattersSaves Halaf on Euphrates E bank and earliest Uruk contact south of Carchemish — stratigraphic bridge between Syrian Halaf core and Anatolian piedmont.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Was Halaf here seasonal vs year-round sedentism?
- 02Uruk pits as trade colony or emulation?
Theories
- 01Akdemir Birecik Halaf island vs Balossi peripheral colonization
- 02Algaze Uruk world system test-case
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.5900 BCE Halaf founding; Ubaid 5500–4800 BCE; Uruk 4000–3100 BCE
- Period
- Halaf-Ubaid → Late Chalcolithic → EBA/Uruk (5900–3100 BCE)
- Culture
- Halaf-Ubaid → Uruk (North Mesopotamian painted then Uruk expansion)
- Builders
- Halaf painted ware communities → Ubaid farmers → Uruk merchants
- Purpose
- River terrace farming village and Euphrates ford storage node
- Abandoned
- c.3100 BCE Uruk retraction; medieval sparse sherds
- Rediscovered
- Salvage 1995–1998 Birecik Dam, Wattenmaker/Birecik Museum
- Excavation
- Excavated
1995
Birecik survey identifies Halaf tholoi on terrace scarp
1998
Uruk pitting and sealing horizon excavated, Halaf-Ubaid transition published
On the ground
Structures & features
37.0432° N · 38.0125° E · 380 m · 3 mapped features
Halaf tholoi zone (lower terrace)
settlementCircular tholoi with painted ware floors
37.0434° N · 38.0127° EUbaid tripartite houses
settlementUpper mound Ubaid rectilinear houses
37.0432° N · 38.0125° EUruk storage pit complex
storage pitLate Chalcolithic pit with bevel-rim bowls and sealings
37.0430° N · 38.0123° E