Materials unearthed at Sefertepe as part of the ongoing Taş Tepeler (Stone Hills) Project in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa are shedding light on the remarkable craftsmanship of communities who lived some 10,500 years ago, particularly in the making of decorative objects.
Associate Professor Emre Güldoğan, excavation director and a member of Istanbul University’s Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, told state-run Anadolu Agency that this year’s phase of the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s “Şanlıurfa Neolithic Age Research — Stone Hills Project” has been completed.
Güldoğan said excavations this season gave an exceptionally rich collection of ornamental and jewelry items, dated to roughly 10,500 years ago, including lots of beads and human-depicting idols.
Among the beads uncovered at Sefertepe was a small version of the double-faced human figurines previously identified at Karahantepe and Sayburç, which Güldoğan described as evidence of a shared cultural tradition across the Stone Hills region. He added that bead types known from the Tigris Basin, particularly inlay styles, were also found this year at Sefertepe.
Excavators also identified an engraved depiction of a piglet on a stone, which Güldoğan said reflects the community’s interaction with the natural world.
Güldoğan noted that limestone, used in many of the objects, becomes easier to carve after its outer surface is broken. But beads made from exotic stones such as jade and labradorite required far greater skill.
The techniques used to produce the beads and figurines offer insights into the craftsmanship of the period, he said.
“Limestone is tough on the outside but fairly workable once the outer crust is removed,” he said. “But when it comes to other materials, we are talking about substances that today would require very fine tools and metal instruments, which did not exist at the time. We can say with certainty that sand and water were used for drilling and impressions suggest that a harder stone was employed for shaping. Evidence from similar excavations also shows the likely use of simple mechanisms similar to a bow drill to create perforations.”
The newly revealed finds, he added, enrich the understanding of symbolic traditions and technical expertise shared across the Stone Hills sites in the early Neolithic period.
