Early Bronze Age I-III shrines and burial rites at Tilbes Höyük, Southeastern Turkey
Parole chiave:
Northern Mesopotamia, Southeastern Turkey, Early Bronze Age, Tilbes Hoyuk, shrines, infant burialsAbstract
In the late 1990s when salvage Archaeological Excavations took place in the Birecik Dam Area (Birecik, Urfa, South Eastern Turkey), huge deposits of the whole Early Bronze Age phases (I-IV) were discovered at Tilbes Höyük, a settlement of3 haon the left bank of the Euphrates river. The site yielded during the years 1998-99 remains of a religious Early Bronze Age III burnt building and other shrines dated in previous phases (EB I and II).
The earliest shrine, from the Early Bronze Age I, located in the center of the tell, was on a mudbrick platform and presents a possible access from the East, the sunrise. The building had stone walls and a clay horn altar during the Early Bronze Age I, 3025 (2900) -2875 BC. Another shrine above the same spot was also documented, worse preserved, during the Early Bronze Age II. This religious space suffered a fire at the end of the later shrine, dated on Early Bronze Age III, 2675 (2550-2500) 2450 BC, and the building is better preserved. It has a narrow entrance from the West, the sunset, to a small room with stone pavement that gives access to the main room. It is a mudbrick pillar, a rectangular hearth and two small clay-horned structures, one of them near the pillar. In the phase of the Early Bronze Age II, two stone cists with infant burials appear in the interior of the Tilbes Höyük sanctuary. But later on the former shrines area of Tilbes Höyük, although no longer built, in the Early Bronze Age IV are mainly composed of newborns, between 7 and 9 months, deposited in pits outside the building, perhaps linked to a cult of rebirth and fertility. These discoveries of the Third millennium do not appear to be restricted to a local phenomenon of the time in southeastern Turkey, but are present in other regions with a similar date. The best parallels are the Temple B of Arslantepe VIB, Early Bronze Age I, 3000-2800 BC, with two mudbrick pillars and a rectangular home, and the shrine of Level XIV of Beycesultan, West Anatolian Early Bronze Age II, 2500-2400 BC, with two other mudbrick pillars and a large structure of horns.
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