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©The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project
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Aliçeyrek Mezarligi |
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Type:
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Cemetery |
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Altitude:
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m |
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Region:
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Eastern Anatolia |
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Province:
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Erzurum |
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District:
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Horasan |
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Village:
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Aliçeyrek |
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Investigation Method:
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Survey |
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Period:
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Middle Iron Age |
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| This site resides in 1 km South of Aliçeyrek Village of Horasan County of Erzurum City. Rock graves and monumental rock niches are observed on the area called Darbogaz to the south of the village. Among them the most magnificent one is a rock chamber which was later on converted into a church. The altitude of Rock Tombs is 1602 m. It is accessible through a flight of two steps which were cut into the bedrock with an entrance of two fasciae in almost rectangular plan to the west. Some architectural pavements of the chamber indicate that it is likely to be grave. It is comparable with the Urartian rock grave in Dedeli in the Patnos region with its benchs along the long walls and pseudo arches rising above them. One of the artificial rock structures in various forms on the western façade is a boat-shaped child grave with two fasciae and a deep and oval niche atop. Around the upper edge of the grave there are some coves which were used to hold a flat mass as a lid. The inelaborate masonry of the artificial oval cove (niche?) on the right side indicates that it was a later addition. Among the artificial structures to the left of the grave is a rock chamber with a niche-like cove atop, being filled with sand up to the ceiling as well as an almost rounded rock grave with an entrance getting narrower and more rounded as it gets upwards. It was discovered by V. Özkaya during the Erzurum-Horasan-Aliçeyrek Village Survey conducted in 1994. The graves in this area are reported to represent cultural characteristics of the Early Iron Age. Özkaya states that these tombs are later turned into churches. However Çevik who have later studied these buildings stated that these are churches that belong to Byzantium period [Topaloğlu et al. 2011:2]. |
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