Traces of life from 5 thousand years ago found in Van
In the excavations initiated with the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in İremir Mound in Otbiçer District, new information that will shed light on the history of the city was obtained.
Under the presidency of Van Museum Director Erol Uslu, Faculty Member Assoc. Dr. Under the consultancy of Hanifi Biber, a team of 15 people consisting of anthropologists, archaeologists and art historians unearthed the Early Bronze Age habitat during excavations initiated on the mound, which was discovered during surveys.
The traces of life from the Early Bronze and Iron Ages excavated by the pottery, pottery and ceramics excavated from the area, which is estimated to be used as a storage section of a residence, excited the archaeologists.
“We reached our goal in a short time”
The head of the excavation, Uslu, said that they started an archaeological salvage excavation this year in the mound, which is located in a first degree site.
Stating that it is possible to see the traces of the civilizations living in the region on the mound, Uslu said:
“Excavations have been carried out in 28 different points so far in Van. Among these excavations, there are only 3 mound areas (Dikkaya, Tilkitepe and Karagündüz). Mound excavations are very important for reaching the pre-Urartian historical remains. Finds from İremir Mound, This shows that there was a pre-Urartu life here. We attach great importance to İremir Höyük because we can see the traces of civilizations that have lived throughout history here as a whole. We reached our goal in a short time.
“It documents the Early Bronze Age”
Assoc. Dr. Hanifi Biber stated that they aimed both to save the mound and to shed light on the history of Van’s bottom with scientific excavations.
Emphasizing that they have great scientific expectations from the mound, which consists of two parts, Biber stated that many excavations have been carried out in Van so far, but these are not sufficient to understand the real history and chronology of the city.
Underlining that İremir Höyük is very important in this sense, Biber said:
“During the excavations, we saw that many different layers were on top of each other. We encountered very promising findings from the first moment during the cleaning and plan square works. We found a wall structure very close to the surface. On the lower side is the EBA layer, which is about three meters high. It is a very high layer. This shows us that there is a very long life here. ”
Explaining that they encountered a place about one meter below the surface as the chance of the first year in their studies, Biber gave the following information:
“This place probably forms the edge of the residential area. Both the architectural form and the findings inside of this place definitely document that it belongs to the Early Bronze Age. In other words, it belongs to the present day, about 5 thousand years ago. There is a storage container inside. This is a home for us. Ceramic pieces belonging to the Early Bronze Age were found in the space. Obviously, we were both surprised and happy that we encountered such a place at such high levels.
We expect that we will encounter much larger residences in the cone of the mound in the upcoming excavations. We hope to go down to the Chalcolithic and Neolithic ages in the lower levels of the mound. ”
