(originally published in: (1995) XVI Kazi Sonuclar Toplantisi. Pp. 121-140. Ankara: Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture, General Directorate of Monuments and Museums.)
EXCAVATIONS AT HACINEBI TEPE, 1993
Gil J. Stein and Adnan MisirINTRODUCTION:
The second field season of the Joint Sanlõurfa Museum-Northwestern University salvage excavations at Hacinebi Tepe, Birecik district, Sanlõurfa province took place from July 6-August 5, 1993, co-directed by Adnan Misir (Sanlõurfa Museum) and Gil Stein (Northwestern University). The excavations were funded with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geographic Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Northwestern University, and the generosity of private donors.
We wish to express our appreciation to Prof. Dr. Engin Özgen, General Director of the Ministry of Culture’s Directorate of Monuments and Museums for permission to conduct this research. We also thank the Kaymakam of Birecik, Mr. Nihat Nalbant, and the Mayor of Birecik Mr. Rifat Ayalp, for their assistance. We wish to express our appreciation to Dr. Ali Sözmen, who graciously permitted us to use the Turkish Agricultural Ministry’s Guest House as the excavation residence and laboratory. Finally, we gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Kemal Isõk, the Mukhtar of Ugurcuk village for his hospitality and assistance in conducting excavations at Hacinebi.
In addition to the two co-directors, Adnan Misir and Dr. Gil Stein, the project staff consisted of: Dr. Reinhard Bernbeck (Free University of Berlin), Cheryl Coursey (State University of New York-Binghamton), Julia Frane (University of North Carolina), Hamza Güllüce („anlõurfa Museum), Kathryn Keith (University of Michigan), Nicola Laneri (University of Rome), Alan Lupton (Cambridge University), Dr. Augusta McMahon (University of Chicago), Dr. Naomi Miller (University of Pennsylvania), Jeffrey Nicola (Northwestern University), Dr. Susan Pollock (State University of New York-Binghamton), Dr. Lewis Somers (GeoScan Research), Margaret Reid (Guilford Technical Community College), Jill Weber (University of Pennsylvania), and Dr. Henry Wright (University of Michigan).
SITE DESCRIPTION AND 1993 PROJECT GOALS
Hacinebi Tepe is a 3.3 ha. low mounded site located on the bluffs overlooking the east bank of the Euphrates river in Sanliurfa province, southeast Turkey (figure 1). The site lies near the head of the main north-south riverine trade route linking Mesopotamia and Anatolia; it also occupies a strategic location on what has historically been the major east-west river crossing point at Birecik. The mound of Hacimebi is situated on an easily defensible east-west oriented spur which drops down steeply to the river river on west, and into deep canyons to north and south.
Hacinebi Tepe has two main occupations. 1-2.5 m. thick Hellenistic deposits (ca. 4th-3rd centuries BC) are present immediately below the plow zone. Beneath the Hellenistic is a Late Chalcolithic occupation up to 5 m. deep, dating approximately 3700-3100 BC. The Late Chalcolithic occupation consists of two phases: an earlier Phase A - ca. 3700-3500 BC which has only Local Anatolian Late Chalcolithic ceramics (the “Pre-Contact” phase), and a later phase B ca, 3500-3100 BC (the “Contact Phase”), which has both Mesopotamian Uruk style ceramics and Local Anatolian Late Chalcolithic ceramics. The Hacinebi excavations investigate the effects of Late Uruk Mesopotamian commercial expansion on local Anatolian cultures in the Late Chalcolithic Contact Phase. The 1993 field season had six main goals:
1) Completion of Site Stratigraphic Sequence and Ceramic Chronology: The 1993 step trench excavations in Operations 1 and 2 were extended down to sterile soil. Analysis of ceramics from these two trenches was conducted in order develop a detailed ceramic typology and chronology for both the Mesopotamian and local Late Chalcolithic ceramics at Hacinebi.
2) Broad horizontal exposures of the Possible Uruk Area in the Contact Phase Occupation: The 1992 excavations in Operation 1 had exposed an area of with large amounts of Uruk Mesopotamian ceramics in the Northeast corner of the site. The 1993 excavations in Operations 4 and 6 were designed to investigate the evidence for Uruk Mesopotamian occupation in this area.
3) Broad horizontal exposures of the Local Anatolian Public Architecture in the Contact Phase: The 1993 excavations in Operation 7 at the southeast corner of the mound were conducted to expand the exposure of a Late Chalcolithic Contact Phase B stone structure which was partially exposed by the 1992 excavations in Operation 2. The 1992 excavations had yielded a Local Anatolian style jar sealing in association with Anatolian and Mesopotamian ceramics.
4) Magnetometer and Resistivity Survey: A pilot program of magnetometer and resistivity surveys was conducted to determine whether subsurface architecture and other cultural features can be effectively identified in the Hacinebi soil environment. Test excavations in Operations 8 and 9 were conducted to test the accuracy of these remote sensing techniques.
5) Sampling for Settlement size and Intra-Site Variability: Operation 5 was excavated on the west slope of the mound in order to investigate the extent and nature of the Contact Phase Occupation in this area. In particular, the Operation 5 excavations were designed to locate residential/domestic areas.
6) Recovery of Economic Data: Archaeobotanical samples were processed in order to document the degree of productive specialization and the organization of agriculture in the Contact Phase economy.
Excavations were conducted from July 6 to August 26, with a crew of 22 workmen from the village of UGurcuk (Hacinebi). The main research activities were the geophysical prospection, the excavation of eight areas (Operations 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9), the ceramic analysis, the examination of chipped stone artifacts, and the processing, of archaeobotanical samples.
GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTION:
A three week test program of geophysical prospection was conducted by Dr. Lewis Somers of GeoScan Research USA. Two techniques were used in an attempt to detect and map architecture and other man-made features beneath the surface of the mound: a) Magnetometry and b) Soil Resistivity mapping.Magnetic and resistivity measurements were made in twenty six 20 x 20 m.2 units or a total area of 10,400 m.2 in the central portions of the site. This comprises a 31 % sample of the total surface area of Hacinebi. Separate maps were made for resistivity data at depths of 1 meter and 2 meters below modern ground surface of the site (figure 2). In many cases, buried stone walls can be detected by their high resistivity levels; the dark portions of these maps indicate areas of high resistivity. These dark areas form several large, roughly rectangular areas with linear alignments oriented Northeast-Southwest. These alignements seem to match the orientation of the large scale massive Hellenistic walls in Operations 4 and 7 (see below). Two long narrow trenches - Operations 8 and 9 were excavated in areas where the resistivity and magnetometry data suggested that large stone walls or kilns might be present (see below). The initial results of the magnetometry and resistivity surveys at both Hacinebi and Titri· Höyük suggest that magnetometry and resistivity mapping can be extremely useful techniques for locating buried architecture when the area being surveyed has relatively simple stratigraphy, involving only one major occupation level. In addition, resistivity survey can be quite effective in detecting stone architecture, but appears to be much less effective in locating mud brick walls (since there is virtually no resistivity differential between mud-bricks and the surrounding soil. Much of the architecture at Hacinebi is mud brick; for this reason, resistivity survey was only partially successful in locating underground features.
EXCAVATION AREAS:
Eight trenches were excavated in the 1993 season - exposing an area of approximately 450 m2. These units were intended to remove the overlying Hellenistic deposits and to excavate the Late Chacolithic phase B (“Contact Phase”) occupation at Hacinebi.
URUK PERIOD BULLA AND TOKENS:
In preliminary cleaning of the area around Operation 1, excavators recovered an Uruk period bulla filled with tokens and covered with the impressions of two Late Uruk style cylinder seals. (see levha 1, figure 3). Bullae are common at major Uruk sites such as Warka in southern Mesopotamia during the late fourth millennium BC, but the Hacinebi bulla is the first and only Uruk bulla to be found in Turkey. The occurrence of a bulla at Hacinebi is highly significant because it provides strong evidence for direct contact between Mesopotamians and Anatolians at the site.
Bullae are a form of recording system which is thought to be the immediate ancestor of the world’s earliest writing, which developed in souhern Mesopotamia ca. 3200 BC. Bullae were used to authorize and verify the shipment of goods from one location to another during the Late Uruk period in Mesopotamia. They are hollow clay spheres filled with tokens of different shapes and sizes; each type of token represented a different commodity such as sheep, grain, goats, etc. The bullae were sealed by rolling a cylinder seal over the outside. The seal impression functioned as the signature of the person who authorized the shipment of the goods.
The Hacinebi bulla (inventory # HN1100) is 7.6 cm in diameter and contains 12 unbaked clay tokens. Four different shapes of token are represented - 6 small spheres, 4 large spheres, 1 “pill-shaped” token, and one lenticular shape. The outside of the bulla bears multiple impressions of two Uruk style cylinder seals. The first seal shows two animals - a bull and possibly a large deer. The second seal consists of two parts: a) a procession scene of two men holding bows and arrows, led by a man carrying a staff or spear; and b) a scene showing two seated women facing what appear to be “Inanna symbols” (see drawing). The bulla has been examined, cleaned, and conserved by Ms Catherine Untch of the Titris Höyük excavation team.
OPERATION 1:
Operation 1 is a 4 x 10.5 m trench in the northeast corner of the site. This trench was first excavated in 1992 but did not reach sterile soil. The 1993 fieldwork completed the excavation of Late Chalcolithic Phase A (the “Pre-Contact” phase) deposits in the east end of the trench down to sterile soil (figure 4).
The most important result of the 1993 Op. 1 excavations was the discovery of a massive stone wall foundation (wall 92) - 1.5 meters wide and 1.2 meters high (figure 5). The wall is oriented Northwest-Southeast, running along the east edge of the mound and is set into a deliberately laid bed of compact silts as a levelling foundation. The top of wall 92 is flat and probably served as the footing for a thick mud brick wall which is no longer preserved. The function of this massive public architecture is uncertain, but its size and location at the east edge of the mound suggest that it may have served as a fortification on the side of the mound which was most vulnerable to attack. All ceramics and other cultural materials associated with this wall can be securely dated on stratigraphic and typological grounds to Late Chalcolithic Phase A, the Pre-Contact Phase. Several deposits of compact silts with little cultural material underlay wall 92. Sterile deposits were reached at an elevation of 91.31 meters, indicating that the cultural deposits at Hacinebi are more than 8.5 m. deep in the northeast corner of the site.
OPERATION 2:
Operation 2 is a 5 x 15 m. trench first excavated in 1992 on the southeast slope of the site. The 1992 excavations exposed a monumental mud brick building dating to Pre-Contact phase A, but did not reach sterile soil. The 1993 excavations continued and extended excavations in the south portion of the trench down to sterile gravels (Figure 6). It is now possible to subdivide the Pre-Contact phase into two building levels: A1 and A2. The earlier Late Chalcolithic building level A1 underlies the monumental mud brick building (level A2) which had first been exposed in 1992.
Building level A1 (plan 7) is founded on sterile gravels at the base of the mound. A one course high terrace enclosure wall was constructed from large limestone rocks, and was filled in with gravel to make a stable platform for the level A1 buildings. Traces of three separate structures were recovered. The best preserved building consists of two rooms linked by a doorway. The building is well constructed of mud-brick, with outer walls more than 1 meter thick built on stone footings. The inner walls of both rooms were plastered. The rooms were clean, containing almost no artifacts. The walls in building level A1 are preserved up to a height of 1 m., at which point they are truncated by the construction of the much larger level A2 mudbrick building.. It is possible that the level A1 buildingwas deliberately filled in to form a footing for the massive level A2 structure.
OPERATION 4:
Operation 4 is an 8.5 x 10 m. trench immediately to the west of Operation 1 in the northeast corner of the mound. Excavations recovered a massive Hellenistic building (plan 8) which was constructed by cutting foundation trench 31 deep into the underlying Late Chalcolithic deposits. The Hellenistic walls, which range from 1.6 to 2.3 m. wide, are constructed of square or rectangular mud bricks and are preserved to a height of 1.3 m. The walls enclose a large room measuring at least 6.5 x 3 m. The room has a large doorway, opening to the west. The floors of the room and the deposits above them contained almost no artifacts, suggesting that the room might have been deliberately filled.
The Hellenistic architecture cuts into a series of three well preserved Late Chalcolithic building levels dating to the middle and end of the Contact phase B. The best preserved of these building levels forms a series of 4 rooms oriented around a courtyard (levha 2). To the east of these rooms is a pebble paved alleyway running northwest-southeast. The rooms are constructed of 50-60 cm wide mud brick walls on stone footings. Generally, the inner surface of the walls were plastered with mud or lime, while the outer surfaces were faced with stones to protect them from water damage. Each room appears to have been constructed independently, so that the building level does not represent a single planned complex or public building. Instead, the combination of small rooms, relatively narrow walls, the presence of hearts and pits all suggest that this was a residential area. The rooms in this area went through several phases of use and rebuilding. The ceramics from these buildings consist mainly of Local Anatolian Late Chalcolithic types, although Uruk Mesopotamian style Beveled Rim Bowls are also present. The residential building levels of Operation 4 can be stratigraphically linked to both Operations 1 and 6, allowing us to reconstruct the architecture of the Contact phase B over a broad area in the northeast part of Hacinebi.
OPERATION 5:
Operation 5 is a 5 x 5 meter trench which was opened in order to investigate the extent of Late Chalcolithic occupation on the west slope of the site. In contrast with the other trenches at Hacinebi, Operation 5 had only limited amounts of later material overlying the Late Chalcolithic. Except for one early Roman period pit, Late Chalcolithic deposits were present almost immediately beneath the plow zone.
Excavation recovered a well stratified sequence of building levels. All appear to be small house rooms and associated outdoor areas or courtyards. The rooms are constructed of small, 60 cm wide walls made of irregularly shaped mud bricks (figure 9). The courtyards are paved with gravel and contain hearths or small pits.
The ceramics from the upper building levels of Operation 5 are almost entirely Local Late Chalcolithic chaff tempered wares, with only occasional Uruk types such as Beveled Rim Bowls present. In the lower building levels, Uruk ceramics are completely absent. This evidence suggests that Operation 5 provides a continuous sequence of household architecture dating to both phases A and B. Even during the later phase B, both the ceramics and the chipped stone tools show significant differences between Operation 5 in the western part of the site, and Operations 1/4/6 in the northeast part of Hacinebi. Sterile gravels in Operation 5 were reached at a depth of only 1.6 meters beneath modern ground surface, indicating that cultural deposits are much shallower on the west slope of the mound.
OPERATION 6:
Operation 6 is an 8 x 10.5 m. trench in the northeast part of the site, immediately to the south of Operation 1. This trench was opened in order to further investigate the 1992 season’s exposure in Operation 1 of a massive stone terrace platform and its associated Uruk Mesopotamian ceramics (levha 3). The consruction of this 2.8 m. high terrace platform in Operations 1 and 6 marks the beginning of the Contact phase B at Hacinebi.
Excavations recovered the foundations for very large scale Hellenistic walls at the east end of Operation 6. Although mostly eroded away, these appear to be the remains of the Hellenistic fortification wall and its associated buildings. The Hellenistic foundations cut deeply into the underlying Late Chalcolithic deposits, badly damaging the uppermost Contact phase B building levels.
Beneath the Hellenistic, excavations defined 9 distinct Contact Phase b building levels on top of the terrace platform. In all cases, these buildings are oriented Northwest-southeast, parallel to the line of the terrace wall face. The latest preserved building levels are mostly mud brick. The earlier building levels, are well planned, large scale stone structures (figure 10). Building level 7 seals off two plastered pits 76 and 84, which were cut down into the surface of the platform terrace. Inside pit 84, over 60 local style stamp seal impressions were recovered, along with numerous pieces of shaped, unbaked clay bearing the impressions of wood, string, rope, leather, reeds, and basketry. Examination of the seal impressions showed that only a small number of stamp seals were used. the five most frequently occurring seal impressions account for 40 of the 60 of the specimens recovered from pit 84 (figure 11). The style and use of the sealings on doors, sacks, and jars closely match sealing styles and practices at Local Late Chalcolithic sites such as Arslantepe. It is highly significant that both local Anatolian stamp seals and Uruk Mesopotamian cylinder seals were used in the northeast part of Hacinebi during the Contact phase B.
The earliest preserved building on top of the platform is wall 71, which lies mostly inside the west profile. It is a well built large stone wall with a rounded buttress in its southeast corner and apparently is part of a major public building. The earliest trash deposits lying directly on the surface of the terrace platform contain large amounts of Uruk pottery, an Uruk clay wall cone, and a carved limestone “eye idol” similar to those found at Tell Brak.
OPERATION 7:
Operation 7 is a 10 x 10 m. trench on the south slope of the mound, immediately to the west of Operation 2. Operation 7 was excavated in order to expand the exposures of Contact phase B materials in a part of the site which contained almost entirely Local Late Chalcolithic ceramics, in contrast with the large amounts of Uruk Mesopotamian material in Operations 1 and 6.
Beneath the plow zone, excavation revealed a 1.2 m. deep Hellenistic occupation layer, consisting mainly of a massive planned architectural complex which is aalmost certainly a public building (figure 12). The rubble core masonry walls are 1.7 m. wide and are preserved up to a height of 50 cm. The deposits inside the building complex contained very few artifacts, suggesting that the building was cleaned out and abandoned.
The building complex overlies and seals off burial 28, an elaborate Hellenistic mud brick and stone lined tomb. Inside the tomb was a single adult burial in an extended position, lying on its right side. the body was oriented northeast-southwest, with the head to the northeast. The burial contained a wide variety of elaborate grave goods (levha 4) including silver, gold, bronze, and carnelian jewelry, a bronze mirror, two large ceramic vessels, a bronze plate, arrowheads, and Egyptian artifacts such as a faience scrab and an alabastron vessel.
The Late Chalcolithic deposits underlying the Hellenistic indicate show several distinct building levels during the Contact phase B. The uppermost level consists of a large stone structure 26 (levha 5) which may have been the footing for a tower or other type of fortification. The area immediately to the south of this stone feature was open and sloped down toward the south edge of the site. To the south of structure 26, excavations recovered an earlier building level in Contact phase B. This consists of a partially preserved mud brick structure oriented northwest-southeast (levha 6). The walls of this building are 1.4 m. thick and have stone facing on the eastern (outside) face. Wall 48 was constructed with several small niches. The size of the wall and the presence of niches suggest that this might have been a public building. In a deposit inside the southeast room of this structure, a carved limestone “hut symbol” was found. These objects are common in late Chacolithic sitessuch aas Hassek Höyük. This structure is built on top of the eroded massive mud brick walls of Pre-Contact phase A2.
OPERATIONS 8 AND 9:
Operations 8 and 9 are two test trenches designed to test the results of the resistivity and magnetometry surveys. These surveys had shown the locations of possible large walls oriented northeast-southwest, 1-2 meters beneath the ground surface. Operations 8 and 9 were placed in locations in the northeast part of Hacinebi where the resistivity and magnetometry data suggested that large walls would be present.
Operation 8 is a 2 x 10 m. trench oriented east-west (figure 13). Excavations found a complex of 3 overlapping bread ovens (tandirs) in the location where a large round magnetic anomoly suggested that a large stone feature or kiln might be present. The resistivity surveys suggested that a large Northeast-southwest wall would be present in the western portion of the trench. However, excavations did not find any reliable traces of large stone or mud brick walls anywhere in the trench. Instead, Operation 8 was mostly filled with large Hellenistic pits. Overall, Hellenistic deposits in Operation 8 extended to a depth of more than 2.5 m.
Operation 9 is a 2 x 8 m. trench oriented north-south (figure 14). Here too, no traces were found of the large walls which the resistivity survey had suggested would be present. Operation 9 also showed signs of a deep Hellenistic occupaion with numerous pits cut into the underlying Late Chalcolithic layers. The uppermost well preserved Late Chalcolithic deposits were found at approximately 1.5 m below present day ground surface.
LABORATORY ANALYSES
In addition to the field excavations, several important artifact studies were also conduced in the 1993 field season. Dr. Susan Pollock and Cheryl Coursey examined the ceramics from Operations 1,2, 4, and 6 in order to develop a typology and chronology of Local Late Chalcolithic ceramics at hacinebi and at other contemporaneous sites in the Euphrates river valley. Dr. Henry Wright and Dr. Reinhard Bernbeck studied the chipped stone artifacts from Operations 1, 2, 5, and 6, in order to determine whether different types of economic activities took place in the northeast, south, and west areas of the site. Dr. Naomi Miller processed 52 soil samples to remove carbonized plant and wood remains as part of her study of prehistoric agriculural systems and land-use patterns at Hacinebi.
CONCLUSIONS:
The 1993 field season at Hacinebi exposed large portions of the Contact phase B Late Chalcolithic settlement dating ca. 3500-3100 BC. At the same time excavations revealed for the first time the extent and depth of the overlying Hellenistic deposits. It is hoped that further excavations in 1994 will be able to clarify the nature and extent of the Pre-Contact Late Chalcolihic phase A at Hacinebi.
fig. 1 - site map showing excavation areas
fig. 2 - resistivity map
fig. 3 - drawing of bulla
fig. 4 - Op. 1 south section
fig. 5 - Op. 1 -phase A wall 92
fig. 6 - Op. 2 west section
fig. 7 - Op. 2 building level A1
fig. 8 - Op. 4 - Hellenistic building
fig. 9 - Op. 5 - Late Chalcolithic domestic architecture
fig. 10 - Op. 6 Late Chalcolithic phase B stone architecture on top of the terrace platform
fig. 11 - Op. 6 Local Late Chalcolithic phase B stamp seal impression motifs from pit 84
fig. 12 - Op. 7 Hellenistic building phase
fig. 13 - Op. 8 - north section
fig. 14 - Op. 9 - west section
plate/levha 1 - Op. 1 - Late Uruk bulla
levha 2 - Op. 4 - Late Chalcolithic phase B structures
levha 3 - Op. 6 Late Chalcolithic phase B terrace platform
levha 4 - Op. 7 - Hellenistic tomb - grave goods
levha 5 - Op. 7 - Late Chalcolithic phase B stone feature 26
levha 6 - Op. 7 - Late Chalcolithic phase B mud brick building
Gil J. Stein
g-stein@northwestern.edu
Anthropology Department, Northwestern University
Last modified - July 20, 2001