Ancient razorblade found in Domuztepe

KAHRAMANMARAŞ

Archaeological works in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş’s Domuztepe Mound have unearthed an 8,000-year-old tool made of obsidian stone, believed to have been used as a razorblade, along with a spinner. 

Excavations were initiated in the mound in the Kelibişler neighborhood by an English-American project in 1996 and have been carried out by Turkish academics since 2013. 

Head of the excavations, Hacettepe University Archaeology Department academic Halil Çetin said the mound was a settlement that existed in the latest years of the Stone Age. 

Tekin said Domuztepe Mound dated back to 8,000 years ago and that there was a period of 4,000 years between this community and the community that found the first metal, a period of 6,000 years between them and the first state and a period of 7,000 years between them and the first empire (Assyrians). 

He said the time difference between the Romans and this community was 6,000-7,000 years and that they tried to have a permanent settlement in the latest period of the Stone Age. 

”Such tools were most likely used as razorblades. Of course, it is not as comfortable as today’s razorblade but they used similar tools to remove hair. We have the evidence to reveal it,” said Tekin, speaking about the importance of the tool. 

Another discovery was a spinner used by women to spin and those objects, which they call the disc crusher in archaeology, were made of stone, earth or kiln, he said. 

Tekin said they had failed to find a woman’s skull from that period. “If we find one, we can see the erosion in their lower and upper teeth because they used their teeth to make rope,” he said.