Kuşsaray Mound
Kuşsaray Mound lies about 15 kilometres northeast of central Çorum, in the Düvenci Plain, 400 metres west of the village of Kuşsaray. A 150-by-100-metre section of the mound appears to have been enclosed by a wall; the mound itself stands 20–25 metres high.
Excavation History
Following a report to the Ministry of National Education that a few tablets had been found at the site, an excavation was carried out in 1966 under Prof. Dr. Halit Zübeyir Koşay. No tablets, the object of the search within the Hittite layers, were found. Because the mound was privately owned and could not be expropriated, the work was limited to a one-week sounding.
Layers and Finds
This brief excavation, which never reached virgin soil, identified three layers: a Hittite-period layer at the top, an Early Bronze Age layer in the middle — with three building phases, the middle one destroyed by a major fire — and a Late Chalcolithic layer at the base. The Hittite layer yielded only pottery fragments and no architectural remains. The Early Bronze Age structures had walls of mudbrick on a single course of stone foundations; finds included terracotta loom weights and spindle whorls, flint blade knives, and small cup-type vessels resembling those from Ahlatlıbel and Alacahöyük. The same layer produced simple earthen graves with bodies in a hocker (foetal) position, and jar burials at the mound’s western foot; this phase of settlement dates to roughly the second half of the third millennium BC.
A Brief but Valuable Excavation
Although the dig at Kuşsaray lasted only a week and could not be extended because of the mound’s private ownership, it remains valuable for showing that the Çorum plain has an unbroken settlement history running from the Late Chalcolithic to the Hittite period. The mound’s proximity to the provincial centre can be read as further evidence of the density of mounds around it and of the region’s millennia-long continuity of habitation.
Place in Çorum’s Museum History
Chalcolithic-period finds from the site are displayed today at the Çorum Museum. Together with Alacahöyük, Hattusa and Pazarlı Mound, Kuşsaray was one of the four principal excavation sites featured in the Çorum Museum’s inaugural exhibition in 1968, giving it a place in the museum’s founding story.