Levzin Höyük is a low mound in the Çakırhöyük (Keysun) plain, about 25 km south of Besni and 1.4 km south of the village of Yoldüzü, standing some 5 to 6 metres high and covering about 15 dönüm. When it was noticed in 1991-92 that soil was being dug from the mound for the surrounding fields, the Adıyaman museum carried out rescue excavations under E. Yener.
Those excavations were aimed mainly at the Roman remains, and the neolithic levels received less attention. The trenches went 4 metres down without reaching virgin soil. The sequence recorded runs from medieval and Late Roman levels down to a pre-pottery neolithic layer (9500-8800 BC), with a hearth and heaps of stone that may be wall foundations, and a pottery neolithic layer (7000-6900 BC) whose buildings were destroyed by the Roman settlement above.
The neolithic pottery is dark grey, tempered with straw, sand and mica, with black and reddish-brown surfaces; among the shapes are double-handled jars and bowls. There are also fragments of clay figurines showing people and animals. Most tools were made mostly of flint, with some obsidian: borers, scrapers, notched and sickle blades, arrowheads and knives, comparable with finds from Hayaz Höyük. There are also many small flat axes, grinding stones, mortars and pestles, and a few bone awls, beads, spatulas and an antler sickle. The arrowheads and the quantity of animal bone suggest that hunting still mattered, while the sickle blades and grinding stones are read as a sign that farming was probably practised too.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Adıyaman as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 4.7 °C in January to 31.1 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May and October; rainfall is heaviest in January (137 mm) and lightest in July (2 mm). Long-term means for 1963-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
