A few kilometers southeast of the city of Mardin is Deyrul Zafaran Monastery, the first incarnation of which was built on the mountain slope about 1,600 years ago. Deyr means monastery and zafaran means saffron in Arabic, so yes its name is technically the Saffron Monastery Monastery, and it was built smack on top of a temple to Shams, Shamash, Shamsum or call him what you will: the sun god.The article mentions the recently discovered Neo-Assyrian panel that depicts Aramean gods, also in southeastern Turkey. Shamash is one of those gods.
PaleoJudaica has not had occasion to mention the remarkable twelve-thousand-year-old ruins discovered at Göbekli Tepe, in that same region. But if you are interested, Ms. Schuster recently published a long article on that site: Visiting Göbekli Tepe: The World’s ‘Earliest Temple,’ Built in a Paradise That Is No More. Around 12,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers made a vast social leap and built monumental public sites. What was different in prehistoric southeast Turkey? And what did they actually create? Reducing these stone circles to ‘temples’ is to underrate them, says head archaeologist Necmi Karul (Haaretz).
Some Syriac mosaics were also recently found in Mardin province. And the Syriac Mor Gabriel Monastery is in Mardin.
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