Titris Hoyuk is the archaeological ruins of an Early Bronze Age site, the capital of a northern Mesopotamian (Akkad) city state for much of the 3rd millennium BC. Located not from the Euphrates River in Turkey and 45 kilometers north of Urfa, Titris Höyük covered an area of ~43 hectares.
Titris Hoyuk was first occupied between ca. 3000-2600 BC, evidence of which exists near the center of the Lower Town by three cist graves, part of what had been a larger cemetery. Titris Hoyuk expanded during the Early Bronze Age, reaching its height between about 2600-2200 BC.
Phases at Titris Hoyuk
- 3000-2600 BC Early Early Bronze Age
- 2600-2500 BC Mid Early Bronze Age
- 2500-2200 BC Late Early Bronze Age (heyday)
- 2200-1800 BC Late Early/Middle Bronze Age (collapse ca. 2200 BC)
Important features outside of the main site of Titris Höyük include a flint workshop where mass production of Canaanean blades were produced and at least two cemeteries. The town itself includes a mud-brick fortification wall over a stone foundation and a moat system, built during the Late Early Bronze Age, 2400-2100 BC. The foundation was built to stave off both foreign enemies and flooding from Tavuk Çay, then part of the Euphrates river system.
Living at Titris Hoyuk
Houses in Titris Hoyuk are similar to those of other Mesopotamian houses such as Khafajah, Tell Asmar and Abu Salabikh, with residential rooms surrounding a central courtyard where cooking, storage and work areas took place.
The Outer Town area, occupied in the late EBA and investigated in the late 1990s, included well-planned blocks of multi-roomed houses, foundation walls, sherd and pebble streets, and an open plaza between the houses. The houses were built upon a series of platforms, and built of stone wall footings with mudbrick upper walls and earth or plaster floors. Each house included hearths, ovens, pits, grinding stones and a range of pottery styles. Rooms built extending out of the foundation wall were similar in size and domestic features to rooms within the houses.
Foodstuff in evidence within the Outer Town area include domestic barley, wheat, lentils, grape seeds, olives, figs, and nuts. Sheep and goats are also in evidence.
Early burials were placed in external cist tombs, with typical ceramic vessels, bronze pins and bracelets, semiprecious stone beads, bone rings and earrings, and violin-shaped stone figurines. Later burials were placed within a funeral chamber that was part of residences. These burials were used repeatedly, storing several individuals, with the last individual in an articulated and flexed position; the earlier burials were disturbed and scattered.
Archaeology at Titris Hoyuk
The Titris Hoyuk Archaeology Project began in the early 1990s by the University of California at San Diego and was joined by the University of Akron in 1994. Archaeologists associated with the excavations include Guillermo Algaze and Timothy Matney.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to Mesopotamia, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
See the Titris Hoyuk Archaeology Project home page for further information.
Hald M. 2010. Distribution of crops at late Early Bronze Age Titris Höyük, southeast Anatolia: towards a model for the identification of consumers of centrally organised food distribution. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 19(1):69-77.
Laneri, Nicola 2007 Burial Practices At Titris Höyük, Turkey: An Interpretation. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 66(4):241-266.
