About 15 kilometers north-east of the Turkish city of Şanliurfa lies the mound of Göbekli Tepe with its Stone Age Sanctuaries. Its enormous deposit layers, up to 15 meters high, have accumulated over several millennia on an area of about 9 hectares. Excavations done by the German Archaeological Institute with the Archaeological Museum of Şanliurfa, which have been carried out since 1995, found a very important site, which contributes to a completely new understanding of the process of sedentism and the beginning of agriculture. Amazingly, no residential buildings have been discovered up to now. However, at least two phases of monumental religious architecture have been uncovered. Of these, the oldest layer, with its richly adorned monolithic T-shaped pillars, is the most impressive. The buildings on this layer are circular, with a diameter of over 20 meters, and constructed from quarry stone. There are the enclosures A-D on the southern slope and enclosure E at the western plateau. Their age is impressive, having been dated to the 10th millennium BC, a time when men still lived as hunter-gatherers. This opened up a layer of the Stone Age, in which the so-called Neolithic Revolution took place. Overlying layer III is layer II, which has been dated to the 9th millennium BC. During this latter period there is a certain reduction both in the size of the structures and in the numbers of pillars. The uppermost layer I is represented by the surface debris including enormous deposits of Hangfußsedimente, accumulations of eroded sediments from layers II and III. There is no occupation from periods younger than the Pre-Pottery Neolithic at the site. The sanctuaries of Göbekli Tepe were completely filled in during the Stone Age. The old surfaces that can be observed in the excavations and the processes that occurred in the sediment have been subjected to pedological analyses and allow the act of filling to be dated into the late 9th millennium BC. / El montículo de Göbekli Tepe, con sus santuarios de la Edad de Piedra, se ubica a unos 15 kilómetros al noreste de la ciudad de Şanliurfa, en Turquía. Sus enormes capas de sedimentos, que alcanzan más de 15 metros de espesor, se acumularon en una superficie de alrededor de 9 hectáreas durante varios milenios. En las excavaciones realizadas desde 1995 por el Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI), en cooperación con el Archaeological Museum of Şanliurfa, se descubrió un sitio muy importante que ofrece una comprensión totalmente nueva del proceso de la sedentarización y del inicio de la agricultura. Resulta sorprendente que no se hayan descubierto construcciones residenciales hasta el momento. En vez de ello, se han ubicado, al menos, dos fases de arquitectura monumental, de las que la más temprana es la más espectacular por sus grandes pilares ricamente adornados. Las construcciones de este nivel, hechas de piedras canteadas, son de planta circular y tienen un diámetro de más de 20 metros. Los denominados recintos A a D se encuentran en la pendiente sur, mientras que el Recinto E se ubica en la meseta occidental. Su edad es impresionante, ya que data del décimo milenio a.C., en una época en que el hombre aún vivía de la caza y la recolección; es, por lo tanto, un grado de la Edad de Piedra en el que ocurrió la Revolución Neolítica. La capa II cubre la III y fue fechada en el noveno milenio a.C. En este tiempo se advierte una cierta reducción en el tamaño de las estructuras y en la cantidad de los pilares. La capa I es superficial, con derrumbes e importantes depósitos de sedimentos de piedemonte, como acumulaciones de sedimentos erosionados procedentes de las capas II y III. No existen vestigios más recientes que el PPN (Pre-Pottery Neolithic o Neolítico Precerámico) en el sitio: los santuarios de Göbekli Tepe fueron rellenados completamente durante la Edad de Piedra. Las superficies antiguas se observan en la excavación y los procesos que ocurrieron en el sedimento fueron sometidos a análisis pedológicos que permitieron determinar la edad del relleno en la parte tardía del noveno milenio a.C.

En quelques décennies, entre le XXIe et le XIXe siècle, le visage de la Mésopotamie fut profondément bouleversé par l'immigration massive de populations amorrites qui se sédentarisèrent et investirent les centres urbains laissés vacants au tournant du millénaire précédent. Le phénomène toucha particulièrement la Haute‑Mésopotamie dans laquelle s'insère un petit ensemble rendu singulier par sa topographie : le sud du Djebel Sindjar.Si cette région n'a encore livré que peu de vestiges archéologiques, la documentation écrite exhumée sur plusieurs sites dans ou à l'extérieur du Sud-Sindjar (Tell Hariri, Tell Leilan et Tell al‑Rimah principalement), apporte de nombreuses informations sur sa géographie, sur ses habitants et leur mode de vie mais également et surtout sur les événements politiques qui la touchèrent entre le XIXe et le XVIIe siècle avant notre ère. C'est l'enjeu de cette thèse que de dater, d'ordonner et d'analyser ces informations dans une optique qui se veut double. Dans un premier temps, il s'agit de reconstituer le paléo-environnement et la géographie historique de cette région, avec comme l'un des principaux points de mire la localisation des villes évoquées dans ces textes. L'autre approche tient à la découverte de son histoire politique en premier lieu par la description des ensembles politiques et humains qui s'y constituèrent, royaumes et groupes tribaux, mais également par l'analyse des rapports que ces entités entretinrent entre elles. Enfin, il s'agit de considérer les enjeux que la région revêt et qui expliquent autant les choix politiques de ces royaumes que les interventions étrangères dans la région. / In a few decades, between the XXIst and the XIXth century, the appearance of Mesopotamia deeply changed because of the immigration on a massive scale of amorite populations which settled down and flooded upon the cities left unoccupied at the end of the previous century. The phenomenon particularly struck the Upper Mesopotamia in which there is a small area made singular owing to its topography : the plains south of the Jebel-Sinjar. This area has revealed only a few archaeological vestiges but the written documentation which was found in several sites inside or outside South-Sinjar (especially in Tell Hariri, Tell Leilan and Tell al-Rimah) brought many pieces of information about its geography, its inhabitants and their way of life, but also, and most importantly, about the political events which occurred there between the XIXth and the XVIIth century before our era. The issue of this thesis is to date, to order and to analyze these pieces of information in a double perspective. On one hand, it is about rebuilding the old environment and the historical geography of this area, aiming especially the location of the cities mentioned in these texts. Secondly, its political history will be studied, first of all throughout the description of the political and human groups which appeared there, kingdoms and tribal groups, and secondly through the analysis of the relationships between these entities. Finally, we will consider the issues represented in the area which explain the political decisions made by those kingdoms as well as the foreign interventions in the region.