 The site of Çayönü, in southeasternTurkey | |
  Çayönü Shown within Near East Show map of Near East Çayönü Çayönü (Turkey) Show map of Turkey | |
| Location | Diyarbakır Province,Turkey |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°12′59″N39°43′35″E / 38.21639°N 39.72639°E /38.21639; 39.72639 |
| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Founded | 8,630 BC[1] |
| Abandoned | 6,800 BC[1] |
| Periods | Neolithic |
Çayönü Tepesi is aPre-Pottery Neolithic B settlement in southeasternTurkey which prospered from circa 8,630 to 6,800 BC.[1] It is located inDiyarbakır Province forty kilometres north-west ofDiyarbakır, one hundred and forty kilometres north-east ofŞanlıurfa, at the foot of theTaurus mountains. It lies near the Boğazçay, a tributary of the upperTigris River and the Bestakot, an intermittent stream. It is an early example ofagriculture.
Çayönü Tepesi belongs to the "Taş Tepeler" monumental tradition ofGöbekli Tepe, a style found in all thePre-Pottery Neolithic sites of theUrfa region.[2][3] There are some variations though, such as using decoratedstelae, but without the characteristic T-shape of Göbekli Tepe.[3]
At first, Cayonu represented single room structures that were round or had rounded corners. On top were built wattle and daub constructions. The next phase consisted of grill-plan buildings. This refers to a type of the building foundation.
The site was excavated for 16 seasons between 1964 and 1991, initially byRobert John Braidwood andHalet Çambel and later by Mehmet Özdoğan and Aslı Erim Özdoğan.[5][6] The settlement covers the periods of thePre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), thePre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), and thePottery Neolithic (PN).
The stratigraphy is divided into the following subphases according to the dominant architecture:[7]
An analysis of blood found at the site suggested thathuman sacrifice occurred there.[8]
Two stelae similar to the T-shapes stelae ofGobekli Tepe andKarahan Tepe were discovered in the "terrazzo floor" (layer II) at Çayönü Tepe. They are thought to have been symbolic images of men of gods. One of the two stelae had a human face in flat relief carved on it.[9][10] These findings suggest stela worship, a form of cult which was prevalent in thePre-Pottery Neolithic B period, and remained widespread in the Near-East until the 1st millennium BC.[9]
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Çayönü Tepe developed from the cultural tradition ofGobekli Tepe, and started to implement agriculture from the 9th millennium BCE, as other sites such asNeva Çori orCafer Höyük.[14]
The settlement attests to the period of transition from hunting and gathering to plant and animal domestication. Domestic animals appear in the final aspects of Phase I (preceramic); prior to that, the bones of wild game are relatively abundant. Mainly sheep was domesticated at first.[15]
In regard to cattle domestication, recently (2021) scholars make a distinction between "cattle management" and "domestic cattle". Çayönü Tepesi provides a time sequence clarifying changes in the human management of Bos populations from the earliest times.[16]
Arbuckle and Kassebaum outline several stages of cattle management at Cayonu, and they present a rather complicated picture. Bos remains are abundant already in the earliest levels representing c. 20% of the mammalian remains. Much later, around 7500 BC, cattle reach their maximum abundance at the site, but they are still phenotypically unchanged. Decrease in cattle size is evident only around 7000 BC, and continues thereafter at this and related sites in the area.[16]
Çayönü is possibly the place where thepig (Sus scrofa) was first domesticated.[17]
Genetic studies ofemmer wheat, the precursor of most current wheat species, show that the slopes of Mount Karaca (Karaca Dağ), which is located in close vicinity to Çayönü, was the location of first domestication. A different DNA approach pointed to Kartal Daği.[18]
Robert Braidwood wrote that "insofar as unit HA can be considered as representing all of the major pre-historic occupation at Cayonu, cultivated emmer along with cultivated einkorn was present from the earliest sub-phase."[19]
In a 2022 genetic study, the population of Çayönü (8300-7500 BCE) was analyzed as a representative of the earliest known hunter-gatherer sedentary populations who built the monumental structure ofGobekli Tepe and domesticated various plants and animals, such as theeinkorn,emmer, sheep, goats, pigs and cattles in Upper Mesopotamian.[20] The Çayönü population was shown to be genetically diverse, carrying both western and eastern Fertile Crescent ancestry, and best modelled by an ancestry combining about 48% Anatolian Epipaleolithic, 33% CentralZagros Neolithic and 19% South Levant Neolithic components.[21]
Human samples from Çayönü dated to circa 8300-7500 BC were also part of a recent 2025 genetic study, as members of a Mesopotamia_Neolithic cluster (together withBoncuklu Tarla andNemrik 9 samples).[22] In this study, the Mesopotamia Neolithic cluster appeared as a major ancestry of several Levantine and EgyptianBronze Age individuals, particularly fromEbla,Ashkalon,Baq'ah andNuwayrat.[22]
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The Nuwayrat individual in particular, anOld Kingdom adult male Egyptian of relatively high-status radiocarbon-dated to 2855–2570 BCE and dubbed "Old Kingdom individual (NUE001)", was found to be associated with North African Neolithic ancestry, but about 24% of his genetic ancestry could be sourced to the easternFertile Crescent, includingMesopotamia, corresponding to the Mesopotamia_Neolithic cluster.[24] The genetic profile was most closely represented by a two-source model, in which 77.6% ± 3.8% of the ancestry corresponded to genomes from the Middle Neolithic Moroccan site of Skhirat-Rouazi (dated to 4780–4230 BCE), which itself consists of predominantly (76.4 ± 4.0%) Levant Neolithic ancestry and (23.6 ± 4.0%) minorIberomaurusian ancestry, while the remainder (22.4% ± 3.8%) was most closely related to known genomes from NeolithicMesopotamia (dated to 9000-8000 BCE).[24][25] No other two-source model met the significance criteria (P>0.05). A total of two Three-source models also emerged, but had similar ancestry proportions, with the addition of a much smaller third-place component from the Neolithic/Chalcolithic Levant.[24] According to Lazardis, "What this sample does tell us is that at such an early date there were people in Egypt that were mostly North African in ancestry, but with some contribution of ancestry from Mesopotamia". According to Girdland-Flink, the fact that 20% of the man's ancestry best matches older genomes from Mesopotamia, suggests that the movement of Mesopotamian people into Egypt may have been fairly substantial at some point.[26]
The timing of the admixture event cannot be calculated directly from the 2025 genetic study.[27] The 2025 study showed that the Nuwayrat sample had the greatest affinity with samples from Neolithic Mesopotamia dating to 9000-8000 BCE.[22][27] Concurrently, other studies have shown that during theNeolithic, in the 10,000-5,000 BCE period, populations from Mesopotamia and the Zagros expanded into the Near-East, particularly Anatolia, bringing with them theNeolithic package of technological innovation (domesticated plants, pottery, greater sedentism). Egypt may also have been affected by such migratory movements.[27][28] Further changes in odontometrics and dental tissues have been observed in the Nile Valley around 6000 BCE.[27] Subsequent cultural influxes from Mesopotamia are documented into the 4th millennium (3999-3000 BCE) with the appearance ofLate Uruk features during theLate Pre-dynastic period of Egypt.[27]
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