Mesopotamia Reaches into Turkey

The Kurkh Monoliths are two Assyrian stelae of c. 852 BC and 879 BC that contain a description of the reigns of Ashurnasirpal II and his son Shalmaneser III. The Monoliths were discovered in 1861 by a British archaeologist John George Taylor*, who was the British Consul-General stationed in the Ottoman Eyalet of Kurdistan, at a site called Kurkh, which is now known as Üçtepe Höyük, in the district of Bismil, in the province of Diyarbakir of Turkey. Both stelae were donated by Taylor to the British Museum in 1863.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurkh_Monoliths

So, Assyria was in Turkey. Not all of Assyria, but certainly some of Assyria. How far back in the Üçtepe Höyük region?

Üçtepe Höyük is an ancient Near East archaeological site in Diyarbakır Province, Turkey about 40 kilometers southeast of the modern city of Diyarbakır and about 10 kilometers southwest of modern Bismil. The village of Üçtepe is nearby. It was occupied from the Late Early Bronze Age until the Roman period and is notable as the discovery location of the Kurkh Monoliths. The ancient site of Ziyaret Tepe lies 22 kilometers to the west.[1] Other archaeological sites in the area include Pir Hüseyin, Kenan Tepe, Hirbemerdon Tepe, Salat Tepe, Giricano, and Sahin Tepe (Müslüman Tepe).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Üçtepe_Höyük

What do we know from Ziyaret Tepe and Kenan Tepe?

Tushhan (alternatively spelled as Tushan or Tušḫan) was a Neo-Assyrian provincial capital in the upper Tigris region. It was rebuilt by the ruler Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) and survived until the end of the Neo-Assyrian period around 611 BC.

It is generally thought to be located at the site of the archaeological site Ziyaret Tepe (Kurdish: Tepa Barava), Diyarbakır Province, Turkey though Üçtepe Höyük has also been proposed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tushhan

Kenan Tepe is an ancient Near East archaeological site located within the Diyarbakır Province in the Ilisu dam upper Tigris River region in the southeast of modern Turkey near the borders of modern Syria and Iraq, about 12 kilometers east of the modern town of Bismil and on the north bank of the Tigris river. ...

Kenan Tepe was occupied in five periods:

• Late Ubaid period - AMS radiocarbon dated to c. 4650 BC - eastern and southern slopes of main mound primarily in trenches D5 and A9
• Late Chalcolithic - LC 4 (AMS radiocarbon dated to c. 3600-3500 BC) and LC 5 (AMS radiocarbon dated to c 3100 BC) - eastern lower town and near the main mound
• Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze transition - AMS [16]radiocarbon dated to c. 3000 BC - fortifications and retaining walls on high mound with occupation continuing through the first half of the 3rd millennium BC
• Middle Bronze Age - AMS radiocarbon dated to c. 1800 BC - eastern, western, and northern slopes of main mound including a well-built stone structure
• Early Iron Age - dated by pottery to c. 1050-900 BC - small settlement with fire-related metal workings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenan_Tepe

How did I come across this? Well:

A Stone From 853 BC Just EXPOSED What Skeptics Denied for Years!
Artefactum | 27 Nov. 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl5The5CrJs

Ahab the Israelite is mentioned.

Here is another site which also is called Mesopotamia:

Körtik Tepe may have been a predecessor of the PPN artistic and material culture in Upper Mesopotamia, including Göbekli Tepe and the other Taş Tepeler sites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Körtik_Tepe

No, I don't mean Körtik, which is East of Tigris, so technically outside Mesopotamia. I mean Göbekli Tepe. I've mentioned it passim. I would say, the site of Körtik was started while Noah was still alive, unlike Babel.

Here are the dates, same article:

Körtiktepe or Körtik Tepe is the oldest known Neolithic archaeological site in Turkey, occupied from 10,700 BCE (C14 cal. 10,687 BCE ± 78 years) at the end of the Epipaleolithic, throughout much of the Younger Dryas, and during the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, for a period of more than a millennium until circa 9,250 BCE, when it was abandoned.[4][2]**

2634 BC

37.009 pmC, dated as 10,851 BC

2621 BC

40.229 pmC, dated as 10,148 BC

2608 BC

43.443 pmC, 9500 BC

2591 BC

46.223 pmC, dated as 8970 BC

So, they arrived there between 2634 and 2621, and finally left between 2608 (beginning of Babel=Göbekli Tepe) and 2591, all of these dates BC.*** Can we narrow it down?

2631 BC

37.814 pmC, so dated 10,670 BC

2600 BC

44.833 pmC, so dated 9231 BC

Tent-like sedentary Neolithic dwelling in hard material, Körtik Tepe, 10,400-9250 BCE, Diyarbakır Archaeology Museum.[11]°

So, at a first look, this looks like a tipi. But with wicker and a covering of chalk, it turns into something else. I think these are prototypes of what is described in Genesis 11:3, but where the terms later came to be reused for other materials. Those given in the translations.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Sosthenes
28.XI.2025

Apud Corinthum natalis sancti Sosthenis, ex beati Pauli Apostoli discipulis; cujus mentionem facit idem Apostolus Corinthiis scribens. Ipse autem Sosthenes, ex principe Synagogae conversus ad Christum, fidei suae primordia, ante Gallionem Proconsulem acriter verberatus, praeclaro initio consecravit.

Notes:

* This story isn't at all marred to me by the fact that one translation of John George into German or Swedish would be Hans Georg. Here is an article about Mr. Taylor: John George Taylor
** Footnotes 2, 3 and 4 read: 2) pp. 138ff. Özkaya, Vecihi; Siddiq, Abu B. (25 October 2023). "Körtiktepe in the Origin and Development of the Neolithic in Upper Mesopotamia". The Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic in the Eastern Fertile Crescent. Routledge. pp. 138–168. doi:10.4324/9781003335504-11. 3) Siddiq, Abu B.; Şahin, Feridun S.; Özkaya, Vecihi (1 June 2021). "Local trend of symbolism at the dawn of the Neolithic: The painted bone plaquettes from PPNA Körtiktepe, Southeast Turkey". Archaeological Research in Asia. 26: 3, Table 1. doi:10.1016/j.ara.2021.100280. ISSN 2352-2267. 4) Özkaya, Vecihi; Coşkun, Aytaç (2010). "Körtik Tepe, a new Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site in south-eastern Anatolia" (PDF). Antiquity. 83 (320).
*** See my table on part two that's quoted and see part one "preliminaries" for how I narrowed it down: Newer Tables: Preliminaries · Flood to Joseph in Egypt · Joseph in Egypt to Fall of Troy.

°Attribution and licence information:

- Ozymandias - - This image has been extracted from another file
Neolithic dwelling, Körtik Tepe, 10,400-9250 BCE, Diyarbakır Archaeology Museum

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File:Neolithic dwelling, Körtik Tepe, 10,400-9250 BCE, Diyarbakır Archaeology Museum.jpg
Created: 2022
Uploaded: 20 August 2025