The Early Bronze Age I (EB-I) occupation of Hacinebi overlies an erosion deposit that seals off the earlier Late Chalcolithic phase B2 strata. The mound was used mainly as a cemetery area, with only slight evidence for residential occupation at the southern edge of the mound. We believe that in this period, the main occupation of the site shifted to the area beneath the modern village of Ugurcuk (Hacinebi), on the flats immediately to the east of the mound.
Ceramics are typical EB-I forms, well known from other sites in the area such as Carchemish, Kurban Huyuk, Yarim Huyuk, Tilbes, and the Birecik Dam cemetery.
Burials were found in Area A at the north end of the mound, and in area B, on the south slope. Although both cemeteries seem to have been in use at the same time, there are differences in burial practices between the two.
The burials in area A Op. 18 are all stone lined cist tombs, covered by limestone slabs. Of the three cists excavated, two had been looted. Only Op. 18 burial 5 remained intact. It contained an adult burial with a rich array of grave goods.
Area B- Op. 12 simple pit inhumation burial 128. Area B: Op. 12 stone cist burial 140. The cist contained an infant jar burial. Area B: Op. 12 burial 201: Adult jar burial in unlined pit.
The burials in Area B are much more varied in burial practices and in the ages of the deceased. The burials include infants buried in small jars, adults buried in large storage jars, simple pit inhumations, regular cist burials, and cists containing infant jar burials. The poor state of skeletal preservation did not permit us to determine whether both males and females were present.
The meaning of the difference between the two cemetery areas in ops. 18 and 12 remains unclear. However it may reflect distinctions within the community in social identity (e.g. age, gender, and/or socio-economic status).
A series of thin stone walls and post-hole alignments overlie many of the burials in Area B and show some limited residential use of the site in the later part of the EB-I.
After the EB-I phase, the mound lay abandoned for over two thousand years, until its re-occupation in the Achaemenid/Hellenistic period.
