Boncuklu Tarla, which means "beaded field" in Turkish, is an archaeological site located in Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the remains of an ancient settlement that was occupied from the Late Epipalaeolithic period to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period, beginning more than 12,000 years ago. The site was discovered in 2008 during an archaeological survey conducted before the construction of the Ilısu Dam. Since 2012, a team from Mardin Museum has been excavating the site.

In 2019, archaeologists reported finding a large communal building with stone pillars at Boncuklu Tarla. This discovery led to comparisons with the Taş Tepeler culture site of Göbekli Tepe. The building is an early example of rectangular-shaped architecture. The excavators also claimed to have found a sewer system. If confirmed, this would be the oldest known sewer system in the world.

Discovery

Boncuklu Tarla was discovered in the Dargeçit district of Mardin Province in 2008. The site was found during a dig near the Ilisu dam. The first excavation at Boncuklu Tarla took place in 2012 with the help of the Mardin Museum. A second excavation was conducted in 2017 by Dr. Ergül Kodaş of the University of Mardin Artuklu. The temple at Boncuklu Tarla dates to the same time period as Göbekli Tepe. Ibrahim Ozcosar, a Turkish university rector, has stated that Boncuklu Tarla may be older than Göbekli Tepe.

Excavation

The 2012 excavation of Boncuklu Tarla was part of a project called “studies for the Documentation and Rescue of Cultural Assets Remaining in the Interaction Area of the Ilısu Dam and HES Project” near the village of Ilisu. More than 15 archaeologists and restorers, along with 50 workers, helped dig at the site. The excavation continued into 2017 when workers started exploring the eastern part of Boncuklu Tarla. In 2019, researchers found that this area was used in three different time periods during the 10th millennium BC. The dig uncovered four types of buildings, a sewage system, and more than 20 artifacts. Artifacts included thousands of beads for jewelry, tools made of obsidian or flint, and stone-cutting tools. Other tools found were blades, gimlets, arrowheads, and microliths.

Geography and Environment

Boncuklu Tarla is located in Mardin Province in Eastern Turkey. The site is about 125 km east of the city of Mardin in the district of Dargecit. Boncuklu Tarla is at 37.529444°N 41.832361°E and is within 1.5 km of the Tigris River. Because the site is close to the river, it probably experienced many flooding events, like other communities near rivers. This suggests that the site went through different stages of construction, as discovered by archaeologists. Some parts of Boncuklu Tarla were built directly on the natural rock beneath the soil.

Chronology

This area is known to have been home to many ancient civilizations, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Hittites, Urartians, Armenians, Kurds, Romans, Abbasids, Seljuks, and Ottomans. Scientists studied the site directly and used carbon dating and lab tests to find that at least six layers of human activity existed at Boncuklu Tarla. These six layers, from most recent to oldest, include the Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, Old Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, the change from Pre-Pottery Neolithic B to Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, and the later Epipaleolithic.

Architecture

Boncuklu Tarla shows four different ways people used shared spaces in the village. These include buildings for community use, homes for families, storage areas, and open spaces without structures. The main community building, sometimes called a temple, is located in the center among homes of different shapes and sizes. These homes are either round or partly rectangular, while the community building is the only one that is rectangular. This type of building began around the 10th millennium BC, when rectangular shapes first appeared. At that time, rectangular buildings were not used widely. The community building at Boncuklu Tarla may have been the first to use this design, possibly leading to the construction of taller buildings later. The leader of the excavation team believes that buildings as tall as eight stories and up to seven meters high could have been built.

The community building has five small supporting structures called buttresses on its eastern and western walls. The eastern wall has two well-preserved buttresses, while the western wall has three that are damaged. These buttresses are not perfectly aligned with the four central pillars inside the building. Similar buttresses have been found at other sites like Çayönü, Göbekli Tepe, and Karahan Tepe, but those at Boncuklu Tarla differ because they are not lined up with the building’s symmetrical pillars. At Boncuklu Tarla, the buttresses were not used for support but to divide the interior space. Each buttress is about 50 cm long and 30 cm deep. A small niche, 40 cm by 40 cm, is also found in the north wall near the northeast corner.

Three other sub-rectangular buildings were found around the community building. These are called Strata II, III, and VII. Each is between 8–10 meters long and 4–5 meters wide. Stratum III has walls that are completely separate, while Strata II and VII share walls with the community building on the west and east sides, respectively. The buildings also have buttresses near their entrances, close to the corners of their walls. The floors of these three buildings are made of compacted and smoothed earth.

Two round buildings were also discovered at Boncuklu Tarla. Like the sub-rectangular buildings, they have compacted floors and buttresses near their entrances. Some parts of these round buildings have floors covered with small stones. Both buildings have extensions near their entrances: one is rectangular, and the other is round. The northern building is called Stratum IV, and the western one is called Stratum VI.

Genetics

Human samples from Boncuklu Tarla, dating to about 9000–8500 BCE, were part of a recent genetic study. These samples were grouped with others from Çayönü and Nemrik 9 as members of a Mesopotamia_Neolithic cluster. In this study, the Mesopotamia_Neolithic cluster was identified as a major source of ancestry for several Levantine and Egyptian Bronze Age individuals, including those from Ebla, Ashkalon, Baq'ah, and Nuwayrat.

The Nuwayrat individual, an adult male from Egypt’s Old Kingdom (2855–2570 BCE), was found to have genetic ancestry linked to North Africa. About 24% of his genetic makeup was traced to the eastern Fertile Crescent, including Mesopotamia, which is represented by the Mesopotamia_Neolithic cluster. His genetic profile matched a two-source model: 77.6% ± 3.8% of his ancestry came from the Middle Neolithic Moroccan site of Skhirat-Rouazi (4780–4230 BCE), which itself had 76.4% ± 4.0% Levant Neolithic ancestry and 23.6% ± 4.0% Iberomaurusian ancestry. The remaining 22.4% ± 3.8% of his ancestry was most similar to Neolithic Mesopotamia samples (9000–8000 BCE). No other two-source model met the required statistical significance (P>0.05). Two three-source models were also identified, but they included a smaller third component from the Neolithic/Chalcolithic Levant.

According to Lazardis, the sample shows that people in Egypt at this early time were mostly related to North Africa but had some Mesopotamian ancestry. Girdland-Flink noted that 20% of the man’s ancestry matched older Mesopotamian genomes, suggesting that Mesopotamian people may have moved into Egypt in significant numbers at some point.

The exact timing of the genetic mixing event could not be determined from the 2025 study. However, the study found that the Nuwayrat sample had the strongest genetic connection to Neolithic Mesopotamia (9000–8000 BCE). Other research has shown that during the Neolithic period (10,000–5,000 BCE), populations from Mesopotamia and the Zagros region expanded into the Near East, spreading technological innovations like domesticated plants, pottery, and settled lifestyles. These movements may have also influenced Egypt. Changes in tooth measurements and dental tissues in the Nile Valley were observed around 6000 BCE. Later, cultural influences from Mesopotamia, such as Late Uruk features, appeared in Egypt during the Late Pre-dynastic period (3999–3000 BCE).