SEFERTEPE

Sefer Tepe is a small, broad and shallow mound located c. 72km east of Sanlıurfa, within the modern province borders of Viransehir. The mound is located at 600m altitude above sea level and covers a surface area of c. 7000m2. A country house is located in the south-eastern corner of the site. The closest water source is Yukarı Cırcıp creek, 1.5km to the east. The geological foundation is of calcareous rock and the closest basalt source is located 1km to the east. The most intriguing aspect of the Sefer Tepe site are the 16 in-situ T-shaped pillars. Most of the pillars were buried and placed side-by-side in a conjugate formation at c. 1.5 up to 2m intervals. The upper sections above the surface are c. 50cm long and 20cm wide. The positioning of the pillars is very similar to the architecture at Göbekli Tepe Level II and the monolithic in-situ pillars on the surface at Karahan Tepe. Moreover, another pillar was revealed during the construction of the country house in the south-eastern corner of the site. This pillar was found intact; its length is 198cm and the width of the head section is 72cm, the width of the body section 54cm and the thickness 25cm. The head section of this undecorated stele is extremely flattened; it has features identical with the pillars discovered at Nevali Çori, Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Hamzan Tepe and Taşlı Tepe.

Author/Source: Bahattin Çelik