Editing Urfa (section)

===Prehistory===
[[File:Urfa_Adamı_(2).jpg|thumb|[[Urfa Man]], [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic]], {{c.|9000 BC}}. [[Şanlıurfa Museum]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Renfrew |first1=Colin |last2=Boyd |first2=Michael J. |last3=Morley |first3=Iain |title=Death Rituals and Social Order in the Ancient World: Death Shall Have No Dominion |year=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107082731 |pages=74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CdnECgAAQBAJ&pg=PA73 }}</ref>]]
Urfa shares the [[Balikh River]] Valley region with two other significant [[Neolithic]] sites at [[Nevalı Çori]] and [[Göbekli Tepe]]. Settlements in the area originated around 9000 BC as a [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A|PPNA]] Neolithic sites located near Abraham's Pool (Site Name: [[Balıklıgöl]]).

There is no written evidence for earlier settlement at the site, but Urfa's favorable commercial and geographical placement suggests that there was a smaller settlement present prior to 303 BC.<ref name=":0" /> Perhaps Orhai's absence from earlier written sources is due to the settlement having been small and unfortified prior to the Seleucid period.<ref>{{cite book |last=Segal |first=J. B. |title=Edessa:'The Blessed City' |publisher=Gorgias Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-9713097-1-X |edition=2 |location=Piscataway, New Jersey, United States |pages=5 |chapter=I. The Beginnings |quote=It is certainly surprising that no obvious reference to Orhay has been found so far in the early historical texts dealing with the region, and that, unlike Harran, its name does not occur in cuneiform itineraries. This may be accidental, or Orhay may be alluded to under a different name which has not been identified. Perhaps it was not fortified, and therefore at this time a place of no great military significance. With the Seleucid period, however, we are on firm historical ground. Seleucus I founded—or rather re-founded—a number of cities in the region. Among them, probably in 303 or 302 BC, was Orhay. |author-link=Judah Segal |orig-year=1970}}</ref>

In prehistoric times, the Urfa Region was attractive for human habitation because of its dense grazing areas and the presence of wild animals on migration routes. As a result, the area became densely populated, particularly in the Neolithic period.<ref name="Çelik 2008">{{cite book |last1=Çelik |first1=Bahattin |title=Arkeoloji'de Urfa |date=2008 |publisher=Fsf Printing House |location=Istanbul |isbn=978-975-585-992-7 |url=https://www.sanliurfa.bel.tr/files/1/bsb_sonra/il_kultur_mudurlugu/1_arkeolojide_urfa.pdf |access-date=8 November 2022}}</ref>{{rp|XXIII}}

In Urfa itself, there was a prehistoric settlement at Yeni Mahalle Höyüğü (aka Balıklıgöl Höyüğü), located immediately north of Balıklıgöl in the heart of the old town.<ref name="Çelik 2014">{{cite book |last1=Çelik |first1=Bahattin |editor1-last=Engin |editor1-first=Atilla |editor2-last=Helwing |editor2-first=Barbara |editor3-last=Uysal |editor3-first=Bora |title=Armizzi: Engin Özgen Armağan |date=2014 |publisher=Asitan Kitap |pages=101–7 |url=https://www.academia.edu/20828712 |access-date=7 November 2022 |chapter=Şanlıurfa – Yeni Mahalle Höyüğü in the Light of Novel C14 Analysis}}</ref><ref name="Çelik 2008"/>{{rp|15}} Now buried under single-story houses, the site was accidentally discovered during road construction in the 1990s and then excavated in 1997 by the Şanlıurfa Museum Directorate. The findings included [[flint]] tools, arrowheads dated to the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B phase, and two round buildings with [[terrazzo]] floors.<ref name="Çelik 2014"/> Animal bones found at the site indicate hunting activity, and charred seed samples indicate that the villagers cultivated wheat and barley. The village at Yeni Mahalle is radiocarbon dated to roughly 9400–8600 BCE.<ref name="Çelik 2008"/>{{rp|15}}

====Bronze Age====
During the Uruk period expansion about 3200 BC. The villages Urfa and Harran began to transform into cities. By the Early Bronze Age (2900-2600 BCE) Urfa had grown into a walled city of 200ha. This city is located at the archeological site Kazane Tepe adjacent to modern Urfa.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Creekmore |first1=Andrew |title=Landscape and Settlement in the Harran Plain |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |date=2018 |volume=122 |issue=2 |doi=10.3764/aja.122.2.0177 |jstor=10.3764/aja.122.2.0177 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3764/aja.122.2.0177 |access-date=1 July 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

A much later artifact is a black stone pedestal with a double bull relief, found at a hill called Külaflı Tepe in the former village of Cavşak in the 1950s when the village was being evacuated to build a base for the Urfa Brigade. The pedestal contains an inscription with an invocation to the god [[Tarhunza]] and mentions a city whose name is only partly visible, but which Bahattin Çelik restores as "Umalia", in the country of [[Bit Adini]].<ref name="Çelik 2008"/>{{rp|16–7}}