Hirbemerdon Tepe

Hirbemerdon Tepe is an archaeological site in Turkey located in the east of Diyarbakir Province, on the western bank of the Tigris River, 40 km (25 mi) east of Bismil, Turkey. The settlement began in the fourth millennium BCE during the Chalcolithic era, and continued to the time of the Ottoman Empire. The earliest pottery at the site is similar to the chaff-faced ware of Uruk period.

Hirbemerdon Tepe is considered to be an important archaeological site due to its strategic location near agricultural terraces by the Tigris River and local uplands. As a result, archaeologists consider it to provide valuable information on the transformation of the relationship between agricultural communities and nomadic pastoralist societies in northern Mesopotamia.

Archaeology

The site was excavated from 2003 to 2011, with the majority of archaeological work occurring in 2008. The excavation occurred under the patronage of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and in collaboration with the Archaeological Museum of Diyarbakir as well as the Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente.

Geography and geology

Northern side of Hirbemerdon Tepe is bordered by both a type of dry riverbed known as a wadi, as well as a steep slope that also borders the western side of the site. This slope extends in the direction of both the Tigris River and the Batman River. Hirbemerdon Tepe was built on a continental clastic rock structure dating back to the Pliocene era. This rock structure mostly consists of whitish, light grey, or beige limestone.

The site is broken up into three sections, a high mound, an outer town, and a lower town. These areas are 4 hectares large, 3.5 hectares large, and 3 hectares large respectively. The northern section of the high mound has a karstic basin which was formed when groundwater eroded the underlying limestone foundation, which caused the upper sedimentary formation to collapse. This formed a natural basin made of rocky terrain with a large slope. To accommodate this slope, numerous artificial terraces were constructed. They were created either by cutting into the bedrock or filling the natural gaps in the terrain.

The local river terraces near the site facilitated agricultural activity, with the upland areas used for hunting and pastures.

Pottery

Large quantities of pottery and vessels were found at Hirbemerdon Tepe. Slipped or painted ware was the most common type, consisting of 72% of all examples of ware found at the area. There are two varieties of slipped/painted ware, these are known as Red Brown Wash Ware (RBWW) and Band Painted Ware (BPW). RBWW was highly burnished, with a monochrome or bichrome style, and a red or dark red color. RBWW often is made of a globular bowl with a club-shaped rim and a groove below the rim. This style of pottery was most frequently used in the site from the late 3rd millennium BCE to the 2nd millennium BCE, during the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the Iron Age. 70% of all examples of RBWW found at the site date back to the Iron Age.

Common ware and Fine ware were two other types of pottery found at Hirbemerdon Tepe. Common ware was characterized by jars with flaring rims with a flat plate, traces of burning on top, hemispherical bowls, and either ringed or flat bases. Fine ware vessels usually consist of cups and bowls with hues ranging from pale yellow to pale brown. They can have either a simple base or a ring-shaped base, some heave beaded rings and rounded bodies. Other examples of fine ware have two or three parallel and incised grooves along the mid-section of the body.

Another form of pottery commonly found at Hirbemerdon Tepe is known as Pseudo-Khabur Ware. This is due to its similarities to Khabur Ware, a type of ancient pottery found near the Khabur River. This type of ware consists of jars with a wide belly, a flanged rim, flat bases, and a restricted neck. They also have painted and decorated patterns. Some of the jars found at the site have cylinder seal impressions found on them. These seals could indicate some sort of organization system and a possible central administration managing the production and distribution of these materials. However, very few of these sealed inscriptions have been found. Band Painted Ware, which was another type of pottery found at the site, was a painted variant of RBWW. BPW is known for its distinctive band painted horizontally around the vessel.

Hirbemerdon Tepe began to be inhabited during the fourth millennium BCE in the Chalcolithic period. The material culture that was primarily associated with this period was a type of ware called chaff-faced ware. Chaff-faced ware is characterized by greyish-brown fabric which is often blackened due to incomplete oxidation. The most common example of chaff-faced ware is a type of bowl known as Hammerhead bowls. This type of ware consists of oblique-rimmed bowls with thickening on either the inside or both the inside and the outside. Two types of Hammerhead bowls have been identified. One is an earlier form made of a simple rim which is more rounded and less defined when compared to the later variant. The other, later, variant presents a rim with a marked thickening on both the inside and the outside.

Uruk grey ware was a common type of chaff-faced ware. Uruk grey ware is often coarse, primarily vegetal tempered, with a grey and slightly burnished surface. Dark-rimmed orange bowls are a type of ware that characterizes the Early Bronze Age. Most examples of dark-rimmed orange bowls are hemispherical in shape. They can have varying types of rims. Some examples have a slightly everted rim, others have an inverted rim. Examples of dark-rimmed orange bowls often have a reddish yellow body and a dark band with colors ranging from dark reddish gray to brown. One example of a dark-rimmed orange bowl has a series of ridges outlining the rim.