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©The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project
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Çildirin Hüyleri |
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Type:
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Mound |
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Altitude:
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830 m |
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Region:
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Eastern Anatolia |
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Province:
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Elazig |
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District:
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Agin |
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Village:
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Yenipayam |
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Investigation Method:
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Excavation |
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Period:
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AP |
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| Location: It is a double mound located in the lowland right above the Arapkir Stream; about 6 km west of the Agin District; northwest of the Elazig Province. Based on the restricted information provided by K. Kökten; it should have been situated west of the Yeniyapanlar Village. |
| Geography and Environment: Below the double mound called Çildirin Hüyleri/Çildirinbasi Hüyleri or Double Hills/Twin Hills; there is a cave called Çildirinini in the Arapkir Stream. K. Kökten reported the presence of a cultural deposit during his 1970 survey. The mound located near the stream and on the edge of the cleft; lying far south was flooded by the Keban Dam. Their location on the edge of a abyss demonstrates that they were easily defended; however the excavation didn't yield any fortification wall supporting this thesis. |
| History: |
| Research and Excavation: Kökten conducted a small scale excavation on mound "1" during his 1971 survey of the region threatened to be flooded by the Keban Dam Lake. Although the site dates to the Early Bronze Age; the artifacts yielded a surprising number of Palaeolithic tools. It is likely that these prehistoric tools were reused as raw materials for an unknown purpose in the Bronze Age and were brought to this site from elsewhere. |
| Stratigraphy: |
| Small Finds: One of the stone tools is a 9.5 cm long biface and another is a borer [Kökten 1974: fig.15/27-28; fig. 17/49-51]. Even though these tools are definitely Palaeolithic in style; the notches on the tools indicate that they were reworked and reused. The excavator does not assign the biface to a period but it can sceptically be placed into the Lower Palaeolithic. The site; however; is not mentioned in Yalçinkaya's publications on the Anatolian Lower Palaeolithic. Assigning these tools to a period is one of the problems in evaluating this site. |
| Remains: |
| Interpretation and Dating: |
