Giricano Tepe (Gırcano)
Giricano · Giricano Tepe · Gırcano Tepe · Gricano
Early Bronze Age through Iron Age II; MBA Khabur ware, Neo-Assyrian 11th–7th c. BCE·MBA Khabur ware → Middle Assyrian frontier → Neo-Assyrian provincial (Dunnu)·🇹🇷 Diyarbakır Province, Bismil/Batman basin, Upper Tigris, Turkey
About
About Giricano Tepe (Gırcano)
Upper Tigris small tell (c.1 ha) that yielded Neo-Assyrian provincial archive at Dunnu-ša-Uzibi (c.1070–600 BCE): 7-building Assyrian village farmstead with cuneiform deeds, cylinder seals and eponym lists excavated 2000–03 by Andreas Schachner (Munich) under Ilısu salvage. MBA Old Babylonian level and EBA 3rd-mill. settlement with Khabur ware. Assyrian farmstead shows colonist management of Tigris dry-farming frontier with irrigation canals and tenant contracts — rare textual tell for Assyrian land tenure. Seasonal exposure above Batman reservoir.
Why it mattersOnly Upper Tigris Neo-Assyrian Dunnu with complete land-tenure archive; anchors Assyrian colonisation of Tigris frontier.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Did Assyrian Dunnu reuse MBA houses or rebuild — continuity?
- 02Where is associated irrigation canal headgate — magnetometry hint?
Theories
- 01Schachner Assyrian frontier colonisation vs indigenous Subarian model
- 02Radner eponym dating synchronisation debate
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.3000 BCE EBA base; MBA village 1800 BCE; Assyrian Dunnu farmstead 1070 BCE
- Period
- Early Bronze Age through Iron Age II; MBA Khabur ware, Neo-Assyrian 11th–7th c. BCE
- Culture
- MBA Khabur ware → Middle Assyrian frontier → Neo-Assyrian provincial (Dunnu)
- Builders
- MBA Khabur ware → Middle Assyrian frontier → Neo-Assyrian provincial (Dunnu) builders
- Purpose
- Assyrian colonist Dunnu (fortified farmstead) managing Tigris dry-farming and tenant land
- Abandoned
- c.600 BCE post-Assyrian collapse; Iron Age burial reuse
- Rediscovered
- Salvage 2000–03 Andreas Schachner (LMU Munich) & Diyarbakır Museum Ilısu Dam
- Excavation
- Excavated
2000
Initial work at Giricano Tepe (Gırcano)
2015
Stratigraphy and geophysics synthesis for Giricano Tepe (Gırcano)
On the ground
Structures & features
37.9250° N · 41.0250° E · 650 m · 3 mapped features
Dunnu farmstead compound
farmsteadAssyrian fortified farmstead with archive
37.9252° N · 41.0252° EMBA Khabur level
settlementMiddle Bronze Khabur ware houses
37.9248° N · 41.0248° ECanals anomaly
hydraulicUn_excavated Assyrian canal headgate
37.9255° N · 41.0258° E