11 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

A 7,500-year-old settlement has been discovered in Turkey’s Domuztepe Mound

During the most recent excavations at Domuztepe Mound in the Türkoğlu district of southern Turkey’s Kahramanmaraş province, a settlement and silo presumed to date back 7,500 years were discovered.

Under the direction of associate professor Halil Tekin of Hacettepe University’s Faculty of Letters and Archaeology Department, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, excavations at the site have been ongoing.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Tekin said that during this year’s excavations they came across important structures belonging to the pre-Sumerians, the pioneer group of the ancient Mesopotamian Sumer civilization.

Noting that the team has asserted the pre-Sumerians lived in Anatolia since the day they started the excavations, Tekin said that the objects recently unearthed in the mound support their thesis.

The team uncovered 20 square meters (215 square feet) of the village settlement in the excavation area during their work, Takin said, adding that they then discovered the silo, which has a diameter of 3 meters (nearly 10 feet).

A close-up of an archaeologist's hand in Domuztepe Mound, Kahramanmaraş, southern Turkey. (AA Photo)
A close-up of an archaeologist’s hand in Domuztepe Mound, Kahramanmaraş, southern Turkey. (AA Photo)

More details about the settlement will be revealed in the ongoing excavations, Tekin assured. “This is a concrete settlement dating back 7,500 years, which we define as the pre-Sumerian period. We have proven that a tribe of the pre-Sumerians may have lived here and led a settled life,” he added.

Domuztepe Mound

The settlement, defined as Domuztepe by the local people due to a large number of wild boar nests on it, was discovered in 1994 by an American team during the survey carried out in the region; team leader Prof. Dr. It has been excavated since 1995 by a joint American-British delegation under the chairmanship of Elizabeth Carter.

After his retirement in 2008, Professor Stuart Campbell from the University of Manchester, who has also been on the excavation team since the beginning, took over the excavation directorate and continued this duty until 2012.

Excavations have been continuing since 2013 under the direction of Associate Professor Halil Tekin from Hacettepe University.

It is believed that Domuztepe Mound was first settled around 7,000 BC and abandoned around 5200 BC. The excavation finds of Domuztepe, a mound settlement that has been inhabited uninterruptedly for about 2000 years, revealed that the settlement was closely related to Mesopotamia on the one hand, and was in contact with its contemporary settlements in Çukurova and Northern Syria, on the other.

Related Articles

New Archaeological Discoveries may Confirm What is Written in the Bible

22 March 2021

22 March 2021

The importance of what is written in the scriptures in the development of archeology is really great. It is possible...

Bone workshop and oil lamp shop unearthed in Aizanoi ancient city in western Turkey

13 November 2021

13 November 2021

Archaeologists have unearthed a bone workshop and an oil lamp shop in an Aizanoi ancient city in the Çavdarhisar district...

Smoke archeology finds evidence Humans visited Nerja Cave for 40,000 Years

26 April 2023

26 April 2023

A new study by a team from the University of Córdoba reveals that Nerja is the European cave with the...

Xujiayao hominid’s brain in China had the biggest known brain of the time

17 January 2022

17 January 2022

A study showed that the ancient relatives of modern humans in northern China may have had an “Einstein’s brain” at...

Two Deep Ritual Wells Sealed with 3100-year-old Calcium Carbonate Discovered on Greek Island

6 August 2024

6 August 2024

Aerial photographs of the “Kotroni” Lakithra region, strategically located on the island of Cephalonia, west of the Greek mainland, revealed...

Two Infant burials found under prehistoric “Dragon Stone” in Armenia

4 June 2024

4 June 2024

An international team of researchers has unearthed the remains of an adult woman and two infants buried under a basalt...

A marble slab with an inscription from the 2nd century was discovered during excavations in Bulgaria

18 October 2023

18 October 2023 3

Archaeologists discovered a 1,900-year-old marble slab bearing an ancient Greek inscription in the Roman Baths of Hisarya, a small resort...

13,000-year-old Clovis campsite discovered in Michigan

10 September 2021

10 September 2021

In St. Joseph County, independent researcher Thomas Talbot and University of Michigan scholars uncovered a 13,000-year-old Clovis campsite, which is...

The world’s largest Byzantine winepresses have been discovered in Israel

11 October 2021

11 October 2021

Archaeologists say they’ve discovered the world’s largest known Byzantine-era winery in the city of Yavne, south of Tel Aviv. The...

Traces of 9300-year-old settlement unearthed near Volcanic Cappadocia in central Turkey

28 August 2022

28 August 2022

During the most recent excavations at Sırçalıtepe Mound (Sırçalıtepe Höyük) in Türkiye’s central Niğde province, archaeologists discovered traces of a...

2,000-Year-Old Unique Composite Fish Scaled Armor Found in Ancient Tomb

20 December 2024

20 December 2024

Chinese researchers have recently found fish-scaled armor in the tomb of Liu He, Marquis of Haihun from the Western Han...

Archaeologists find 4,000-year-old Sanctuary in Netherlands

22 June 2023

22 June 2023

Archaeologists discovered a 4,000-year-old sanctuary during excavations of the model industrial estate in the town of Tiel, located 72 kilometers...

Ancient stone grenades discovered at Badaling Great Wall in Beijing

16 October 2023

16 October 2023

Chinese archaeologists have unearthed 59 ancient stone grenades from the ruins of a building in the western section of the...

Mass graves of Crusaders killed in the 13th century have been discovered in Lebanon

17 September 2021

17 September 2021

From 1096 to 1291, waves of Europeans took up arms and marched into the Middle East. They hope to “take...

Stonehenge’s Altar Stone May Be From Scotland, Over 700 Kilometers Away

14 August 2024

14 August 2024

Recent research led by Curtin University suggests that the Altar Stone at Stonehenge may have originated in northeast Scotland, at...