Taş Tepeler Site Profile
Çakmaktepe
Çakmaktepe is an early Taş Tepeler site known for planned settlement evidence, mortars, special buildings, and reported animal-head deposits.
Orientation image for this site profile.
Overview
- Period
- Early Taş Tepeler horizon
- Location
- Şanlıurfa region
- Main Evidence
- Special Building 15, Burnt gazelle skulls, Planned domestic settlement
Timeline
- Early Taş Tepeler horizon
- Çakmaktepe matters because it is an early-horizon site where planned domestic settlement, mortars, special buildings, and burnt animal-head deposits meet. It should be read first as its own place, then compared outward to the wider Taş Tepeler horizon.
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Çakmaktepe matters because it is an early-horizon site where planned domestic settlement, mortars, special buildings, and burnt animal-head deposits meet. It should be read first as its own place, then compared outward to the wider Taş Tepeler horizon.
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Discoveries
- Special Building 15, linked in 2025 reporting with an exterior deposit of more than 30 burnt gazelle skulls and five wild sheep heads.
- A large circular special or communal building, roughly 16 m in diameter, with a bedrock-cut floor and controlled filling.
- Southern Excavation Area domestic structures in H11, H10, G10, and G11, important for planned settlement and daily life.
- Bedrock conical pits interpreted as mortars, making food work central to the site.
- An earlier reported interior animal-head context with cattle, sheep, and equid heads that should stay separate from the Special Building 15 deposit.
Structures
- Çakmaktepe should be read as an early settlement with both domestic and public/special buildings.
- The Southern Excavation Area gives the site its planned-settlement backbone: houses, floors, renovation, and work areas.
- Special Building 15 gives the site its strongest public animal-deposit anchor.
- The circular special/communal building shows large public architecture before later monumental forms dominate the story.
- Mortars and bedrock food-work installations keep daily activity visible beside special building evidence.
Structure pages
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