Tepecik-Çiftlik
Tepecik-Ciftlik · Tepecik Çiftlik Mound
Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Late Chalcolithic (c.9000–5500 BCE)·Central Anatolian Neolithic → Early Chalcolithic·🇹🇷 Niğde Province, Cappadocia, Turkey
About
About Tepecik-Çiftlik
Cappadocian Neolithic tells (7 m high, 2 ha) in the Melendiz plain below Hasan Dağı obsidian sources. Excavated since 2000 by Erhan Bıçakçı, it produced Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic sequence (c.9000–5500 BCE) with wattle-and-daub houses, Cappadocian obsidian workshop, and burials with ochre and dentalium. Early levels yielded domesticated wheat and an obsidian microlith industry feeding the Levant. The later Chalcolithic painted pottery workshop anticipates Halaf–Ubaid interaction.
Why it mattersKey Niğde Province, Cappadocia sequence for Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Late Chalcolithic (c.9000–5500 BCE); obsidian procurement and agricultural village at hasan dağı foothills.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Chronology of Tepecik-Çiftlik relative to neighbouring centres?
Theories
- 01Regional centre hypothesis for Niğde Province
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- PPNA c.9000 BCE
- Period
- Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Late Chalcolithic (c.9000–5500 BCE)
- Culture
- Central Anatolian Neolithic → Early Chalcolithic
- Builders
- Central Anatolian Neolithic communities
- Purpose
- Obsidian procurement and agricultural village at Hasan Dağı foothills
- Rediscovered
- 20th century survey
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1960
Foundation/earliest horizon
1980
Major excavations
2020
Conservation/monitoring
On the ground
Structures & features
38.1800° N · 34.4700° E · 1520 m · 2 mapped features
Obsidian workshop
workshopPPN pressure-flaking floors with Hasan Dağı nodules
38.1802° N · 34.4703° EWattle-and-daub village
structureEarly Neolithic houses with lime-plaster floors
38.1798° N · 34.4697° E