Gerçin Höyük. Formation and Development of an Aramaean State Sanctuary

Gercin Höyük是土耳其东南部卡拉苏山谷中一个非常明显的地标，距离著名的Zincirli遗址不远。在1890年对该遗址进行勘探期间，德国的Zincirli挖掘者发现了一座巨大的天气之神雕像的遗骸，上面有阿拉姆语的铭文以及其他雕像碎片。这一发现为人们认识到萨马尔的阿拉姆-铁器时代皇家的主要圣所和皇家墓地就在那里铺平了道路。尽管Gercin Höyük的神圣意义明显突出，但直到今天还没有进行进一步的考古探索。只有在芝加哥东方研究所在Zincirli进行的新挖掘的背景下，在此过程中，在Gercin Höyük进行的大规模和持续的非法挖掘被记录在案，考古学的兴趣再次被引向该遗址。正在Gercin Höyük启动一个系统探索的跨学科项目。该项目的主要重点是这个特殊地方的宗教用途和象征意义。它们与考古学证据齐头并进，证明了一个国家庇护所及其可能的前铁器时代传统、皇家坟墓和其他物质形式的王朝祖先崇拜，以及一个一般定居点的连续性或不连续性，这是一个重要的区域历史参考，可以追溯到阿拉曼萨马尔国的起源和发展。该项目结合了考古定居点研究和建筑历史与宗教历史，社会空间和体质人类学研究的元素。

Gercin Höyük stands as a widely visible landmark in the valley of the Karasu in southeastern Turkey, not far from the famous ruins of Zincirli. During their exploration of the site in 1890, the German excavators of Zincirli encountered the remains of a colossal statue of the weather god bearing an Aramaic inscription as well as other statue fragments. This discovery paved the way for the recognition that the main sanctuary as well as the royal necropolis of the Aramaic-Iron Age royal house of Samal was to be found there. Despite the clearly outstanding sacral significance of Gercin Höyük, no further archaeological exploration has been conducted up to the present day. Only in the context of new excavations conducted by the Oriental Institute of Chicago at Zincirli, in the course of which massive and continuing illicit excavations at Gercin Höyük have been documented, has archaeological interest once again been directed toward the site.For this reason the Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology at the Free University of Berlin, supported by the Oriental Institute, is initiating an interdisciplinary project of systematic exploration at Gercin Höyük. The primary focus of the project is on the religious use and symbolic significance of this special place. They go hand-in-hand with archaeological evidence for a state sanctuary and its possible pre-Iron Age tradition, royal graves and other material forms of dynastic ancestor worship as well as a general settlement continuity or perhaps discontinuity that stands as an important regional historical reference to the origin and development of the Aramaen state of Samal. The project combines aspects of archaeological settlement research and building history with elements of the history of religion, the research on social space and physical anthropology.