Köşk Höyük
Köşk Höyük · Kosk Hoyuk · Köşk Tepe
Neolithic–Late Chalcolithic (6000–3200 BCE)·Central Anatolian (Cappadocian) Neolithic–Chalcolithic·🇹🇷 Niğde Province, Bor District, Bahçeli village, Turkey
About
About Köşk Höyük
Later Neolithic–Chalcolithic village (c.6000–3200 BCE) on a spring-fed Bor Plateau mound, 3 ha, 6 m stratified deposit south of Hasan Dağı. Excavated by Öztan (Ankara), it shows white-plastered houses with painted red geometric floors, obsidian industry from Göllü Dağ, early copper slag (among earliest Anatolian metallurgy), and Neolithic plastered human skulls and relief figurines; sacred-room Building 1 with bull bucrania parallels Çatalhöyük but with local Bor Plain painted ware. Key for Central Anatolian Neolithic–Chalcolithic continuity.
Why it mattersEarliest copper in Central Anatolia and Bor Plain–Çatalhöyük cultural bridge; skull cult links to Near Eastern Neolithic koine.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Local invention of copper smelting or diffusion from east?
Theories
- 01Spring-shrine village ancestral to Tyana cult waters
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. 6000 BCE (Early Chalcolithic / late Pottery Neolithic)
- Period
- Neolithic–Late Chalcolithic (6000–3200 BCE)
- Culture
- Central Anatolian (Cappadocian) Neolithic–Chalcolithic
- Builders
- Cappadocian early farming communities
- Purpose
- Agricultural hamlet with ritual building and early metallurgical workshop
- Abandoned
- c. 3200 BCE (EB I hiatus)
- Rediscovered
- 1960s Bahçeli spring survey; excavated 1981– U. Silistreli, A. Öztan
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
c.5500 BCE
Plastered-floor houses and skull plastering phase
c.4500 BCE
Chalcolithic copper-working horizon
1981
First trench opens Building 1
On the ground
Structures & features
37.8478° N · 34.6119° E · 1085 m · 2 mapped features
Building 1 cult room
cult roomRoom with bull bucranium and plastered bench
37.8480° N · 34.6121° ECopper workshop area
workshopChalcolithic slag and crucible concentration
37.8476° N · 34.6117° E
Gallery