Boncuklu Höyük

Boncuklu Höyük
Name	Boncuklu Höyük
Map type	Turkey
Region	Southeastern Anatolia
Built	Neolithic
Epochs	Pre-Pottery Neolithic, Pottery Neolithic
Cultures	Pre-Pottery Neolithic, Neolithic Anatolia
Excavations	2000s–2010s

Boncuklu Höyük is a Neolithic settlement mound in southeastern Anatolia that has yielded early evidence for sedentism, architecture, and symbolic practices in the Fertile Crescent. Located near contemporary urban centers and river systems, it provides data relevant to debates about the origins of farming, household organization, and ritual in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. Excavations and analyses situate the site within broader networks of Early Holocene communities in Southwest Asia.

Location and Excavation History

Boncuklu Höyük lies in proximity to the Tigris River basin and the modern city of Mardin Province in southeastern Turkey. Archaeological work at the site has been conducted by teams associated with institutions such as the University of Chicago, the British Institute at Ankara, and regional Turkish universities during field seasons in the early twenty-first century. Excavation strategies adopted stratigraphic methods developed from the legacy of researchers like Mortimer Wheeler and influenced by survey projects in the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. The site's fieldwork has involved specialists in lithics, paleobotany, zooarchaeology, and geoarchaeology, connecting to comparative programs at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the University of Cambridge, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Chronology and Cultural Context

Radiocarbon dating places occupation phases of the site within the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B sequences broadly contemporary with sites such as Çatalhöyük, Göbekli Tepe, Jericho, Aşıklı Höyük, and Tell Halula. Ceramic developments align the later phases with Pottery Neolithic trajectories visible at Hacılar and Körtik Tepe. Stratigraphic correlations engage frameworks proposed by scholars associated with the British School at Rome and chronologies refined by laboratories like the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit and the Max Planck Radiocarbon Laboratory.

Archaeological Features and Architecture

Excavations revealed compact domestic architecture characterized by small, rectilinear structures with plastered floors and post-supported roofs, echoing building patterns recorded at Çayönü and Aşıklı Höyük. Features include hearths, storage pits, and plastered installations comparable to those at Jerf el-Ahmar and Tell es-Sultan. Mortuary practice evidence—such as intra-house burials—connects to traditions documented at Ain Ghazal and Nabta Playa, while public or communal spaces provoke comparisons with monumental enclosures at Göbekli Tepe and communal centers in the Levantine corridor.

Material Culture and Artefacts

The assemblage comprises chipped stone tools including bladelets, sickle elements, and projectile points related typologically to industries from Aşıklı and Körtik Tepe, alongside ground stone implements reminiscent of finds at Çatalhöyük. Ceramic fragments in later layers show affinities with pottery from Hacılar and Körtik Tepe. Personal ornaments such as beads and pendants invoke parallels with burials at Ain Ghazal and the bead sequences from Nevalı Çori. Botanical impressions and pigment residues invite comparison to pigment use at Çatalhöyük and symbolic objects from Göbekli Tepe.

Subsistence and Economy

Zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses indicate a mixed subsistence strategy featuring cultivation of cereals and pulses and management of caprines and other ungulates, placing the site within the broader transition documented at sites like Abu Hureyra and Tell Qaramel. Evidence for harvested wild plants, hunted gazelle, and early herd management aligns with models advanced by researchers at the Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen and field studies across Upper Mesopotamia. Storage features and grinding stones imply domestic food processing strategies comparable to those reconstructed at Çatalhöyük and Aşıklı Höyük.

Ritual and Symbolic Practices

Symbolic artifacts and architectural arrangements suggest ritual behaviors resonant with practices at Göbekli Tepe, Ain Ghazal, and Jericho. Figurines, anthropomorphic representations, and curated skulls have been argued to reflect ancestor veneration and communal identity phenomena explored in ethnographic analogies by scholars connected to the University College London and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Spatial distribution of symbolic items and crafted pigments parallels mortuary and cultic patterns at Tell es-Sultan and Jerf el-Ahmar.

Significance and Interpretations

Boncuklu Höyük contributes to discussions about the emergence of sedentism, household-led social organization, and the interplay of ritual and economy during the Early Holocene, complementing data from comparative sites such as Çatalhöyük, Göbekli Tepe, Aşıklı Höyük, Jericho, and Ain Ghazal. Its multidisciplinary record informs theoretical debates associated with researchers at the British Museum, the Louvre Museum comparative departments, and university research groups in Ankara University and Bilkent University. Ongoing analyses in lithic technology, paleobotany, and biomolecular studies continue to refine models developed at laboratories like the Natural History Museum, London and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, situating the site within the larger narrative of Neolithic transformations in Southwest Asia.

Category:Archaeological sites in Turkey Category:Neolithic sites in Anatolia