Tilbeşar Lower Town
Turbessel Lower City · Tell Bashir Lower Town · Gündoğan Aşağı Şehir
Early Bronze to Crusader (3000 BCE–1300 CE)·Syrian EBA → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Crusader County of Edessa·🇹🇷 Gaziantep Province, Oğuzeli District, Sajur Valley, Turkey
About
About Tilbeşar Lower Town
Tilbeşar Lower Town sprawls below the 15-m fortress mound of Turbessel — Crusader capital of the County of Edessa. Kepinski's lower-town trenches expose EBA–MBA stratified glacis, Hittite Luwian pottery and Iron Age ashlar fortifications sealed beneath Joscelin I's 12th-century citadel rebuild. The 12-ha lower town houses the Syrian–Hittite border market and medieval Frankish courtyard houses — one of few sites where EBA through Crusader stratigraphy is intact in the Gaziantep corridor.
Why it mattersTurbessel Crusader capital — EBA to Frankish stratigraphy intact in lower town
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Crusader citadel foundation — rebuild or new?
- 02EBA–MBA gap beneath Iron Age walls — erosion or abandonment?
Theories
- 01Kepinski Sajur valley gateway vs. Gaziantep hinterland
- 02Crusader urbanism: Frankish import vs. local Islamic continuity
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; Iron Age fortress 900 BCE; Crusader refortification 1097 CE
- Period
- Early Bronze to Crusader (3000 BCE–1300 CE)
- Culture
- Syrian EBA → Hittite → Neo-Assyrian → Crusader County of Edessa
- Builders
- Amorite town founders, Hittite governors, Crusader counts of Edessa (Joscelin)
- Purpose
- Lower town at foot of Tilbeşar fortress mound — 20km NW Gaziantep on Sajur River, key to Amuq–Euphrates trade
- Abandoned
- c.1300 CE Mamluk abandonment
- Rediscovered
- Excavated 1994–present Kepinski & Özyar
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
1994
Kepinski opens lower-town trench, EBA glacis found
2007
Crusader courtyard houses with pointed arches published
2015
Archaeozoology: Tilbeşar faunal economy 3000 BCE–1300 CE
On the ground
Structures & features
36.8789° N · 37.5456° E · 627 m · 3 mapped features
Lower Town North Glacis (EBA–MBA)
fortificationGlacis below fortress with EBA red-black burnished ware
36.8797° N · 37.5462° ECrusader Courtyard House Quarter
settlement12th-c Frankish houses with pointed arches in lower town
36.8782° N · 37.5447° ESajur River Gate and Ashlar Wall
fortificationIron Age ashlar city gate facing Sajur ford
36.8800° N · 37.5463° E