Stone Age · Neolithic, c. 7000 BC · Diyarbakır province, South-eastern Anatolia, Turkey
Neolithic workshop with malachite and copper beads found in Diyarbakır province, Turkey
The roughly 9,000-year-old work area had a stone-paved floor and six postholes, and Turkey's culture minister says local mining continued for about 2,000 years.
Official announcement
Diyarbakır province, Turkey A workshop around 9,000 years old has been found in a Neolithic settlement in Diyarbakır province, south-eastern Turkey. It contained raw and worked malachite, copper beads and other copper objects. Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, announced the find. This account comes from a report by Türkiye Today that was summarised by Archaeology Magazine.
The reports available so far do not name the settlement or the excavation team. They give no further detail on the dating beyond the figure of about 9,000 years.
That age would place the workshop at around 7000 BC, in the Neolithic period. At that time, communities in this part of Anatolia were living in permanent villages and farming.
A stone-paved work area, perhaps under a canopy
According to Ersoy, the workshop has a stone-paved work area. Six postholes were found around its edges. Postholes are the holes dug to hold upright wooden posts.
The position of the postholes suggests that the paved area may have been covered by a canopy. That is an interpretation. The reports do not describe what such a covering might have looked like.
The work area held raw malachite, a green copper mineral, and pieces that had been worked. It also held copper beads and other copper objects.
Raw and worked pieces found together in one place usually point to manufacture on the spot. That fits the minister's description of the space as a workshop.
The discovery shows that the mining tradition here continued for about 2,000 years and that specialized production activities took place in specific work areas.
Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism
The reports do not set out the evidence for the 2,000-year span of mining, such as a sequence of dated layers. So it is not yet possible to judge how firmly that span is established.
Diyarbakır is known for early copper finds
South-eastern Anatolia is one of the regions where some of the earliest copper objects are known. Diyarbakır province is also home to Çayönü. This long-studied Neolithic site is known for early copper and malachite finds.
The reports do not say whether the workshop belongs to Çayönü or to another settlement.
No scientific paper has been cited. The reports also do not say how the copper beads and other objects were made.
Sources
- 9,000-Year-Old Workshop Uncovered in Turkey (Archaeology Magazine)
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