Salat Tepe (Salat Cami Yanı)
Salat Tepe · Salat Camii Yanı
Late Neolithic to Neo-Assyrian (Ubaid → Assyrian)·Halaf-Ubaid → Uruk → Karaz → Hurrian-Mitanni → Assyrian·🇹🇷 Diyarbakır Province, Bismil, Upper Tigris Ilısu zone, Turkey
About
About Salat Tepe (Salat Cami Yanı)
Small but long-lived Upper Tigris tell (c.5500 BCE Late Neolithic through Iron/Bronze, attested to Ottoman) — Rescue-excavated 2000–2012 by Tuba Ökse (Kocaeli Univ.) under Ilısu Dam: Ubaid, Late Chalcolithic, EBA Karaz, Mittani-MBA and Neo-Assyrian levels with 4 m graded stratigraphy, mudbrick houses, and EBA cist tomb field. Key for Tigris valley agricultural (emmer/einkorn) continuity through 5.2kya and 4.2kya arid events. Mound 90 m diam, 22 m high.
Why it mattersOnly Ilısu-zone fully graded Ubaid→Assyrian tell documenting 5k yr continuous farming resilience through arid events in Upper Tigris.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01How Salat maintained cultivation through 4.2kya collapse that felled northern Jazira?
- 02Ubaid vs Halaf ceramic mix — migration or exchange?
Theories
- 01Ökse agrarian resilience model vs Wilkinson climate collapse for 4.2k event
- 02Salat ford-control vs purely agricultural origin
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.5500 BCE Ubaid basal Halaf-Ubaid; Chalcolithic 4500 BCE; EBA 3000 BCE Karaz; Assyrian 900 BCE
- Period
- Late Neolithic to Neo-Assyrian (Ubaid → Assyrian)
- Culture
- Halaf-Ubaid → Uruk → Karaz → Hurrian-Mitanni → Assyrian
- Builders
- Tigris agricultural villagers then Hurrian/Assyrian garrisons
- Purpose
- Upper Tigris agrarian tell controlling river ford
- Abandoned
- c.600 BCE Assyrian phase abandonment, reoccupied Ottoman village
- Rediscovered
- Rescue 2000–2012 Ökse, Ilısu project, Diyarbakır Museum
- Excavation
- Excavated
2000
Ökse opens Ubaid levels on south scarp before reservoir zone
2011
Neo-Assyrian administration tablets and storage jars in Level 2
On the ground
Structures & features
37.8910° N · 40.7450° E · 620 m · 3 mapped features
Ubaid-Chalcolithic levels
settlementGraded 4 m Ubaid-Karaz house sequence
37.8912° N · 40.7452° ENeo-Assyrian storage block
warehouseAssyrian pithos storerooms with tablets
37.8910° N · 40.7450° EEBA cist field
necropolisKaraz-phase cist graves south flank
37.8908° N · 40.7449° E