Arslantepe Mound
Malitiya / Melid
Türkiye · Malatya
In brief
The mound on the Malatya Plain is an important center for research into early administration and state formation. The architecture of its Late Chalcolithic palace and finds preserved in place document elite life and administrative organization.
What was found?
- 1Late Chalcolithic palace complex
This is a large group of buildings with preserved mudbrick walls, plaster and interior arrangements. It allows us to examine the activities of early ruling groups and the centralized organization of the economy.
- 2Early metal swords
These weapons are identified in UNESCO's assessment as being among the earliest swords known anywhere in the world to date. According to researchers, they indicate a relationship between the political power of elites and organized conflict.
- 3Clay seal impressions
The impressions found in the palace complex were used to secure goods and retained for accounting purposes. They are tangible evidence of administrative control conducted without writing.
- 4Wall paintings
Paintings are preserved in situ on the palace's plastered walls. Together with the architecture, they document the visual expressions of early ruling circles.
- 5Early Bronze Age royal tomb
The tomb complex identified as a royal tomb is among the important finds from the period following the palace phase. It provides evidence for examining elite burial practices at the settlement.
What does it point to?
The palace and seal impressions indicate a centralized administrative system in which goods were controlled and transactions recorded. According to researchers, weapons and elite buildings reveal the process by which political power became concentrated in particular groups.
What did it teach us?
- Showed that a sophisticated accounting and control system could be established without the use of writing.
- Documented the relationship between economic control and political authority during early state formation.
- Added important evidence to the history of metal weapon technology through the early swords.
Images
Record
- Culture
- Eastern Anatolian Chalcolithic communities, Hittite and Neo-Hittite
- First modern dig
- 1932
- Team / historical
- Francesca Balossi Restelli / Sapienza University of Rome
- Coordinates
- 38.3822°, 38.3611°
Sources
- whc.unesco.org
- dipantichita.web.uniroma1.it
- arslantepe.it
- Sapienza Roma Üniversitesi — IRIS Araştırma Arşivi
Nearby excavations
- Nemrut Dağ 56 km
- Çayönü 120 km
- Göbekli Tepe 138 km
- Sayburç 143 km
- Zeugma 154 km
- Karahantepe 166 km
- —
- —
- 12.000
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All excavation sites (395)
Türkiye
- Acemhöyük
- Aizanoi
- Alabanda
- Alacahöyük
- Amos
- Ani
- Aphrodisias
- Arslantepe Mound
- Aspendos
- Assos
- Ayanis Fortress
- Aşıklı Höyük
- Barcın Höyük
- Blaundus
- Boncuklu Höyük
- Can Hasan I
- Carchemish
- Claros Sanctuary
- Clazomenae
- Domuztepe
- Ephesus
- Euromus
- Gordion
- Göbekli Tepe
- Hadrianopolis in Paphlagonia
- Hattusha
- Hierapolis
- Iasos
- Kaman-Kalehöyük
- Karahantepe
- Karatepe-Aslantaş
- Kaunos
- Kibyra
- Knidos
- Kültepe-Kanesh
- Laodicea on the Lycus
- Letoon Sanctuary
- Limyra
- Magnesia on the Maeander
- Medieval City of Beçin
- Metropolis in Ionia
- Miletus
- Myra
- Nemrut Dağ
- Nysa on the Maeander
- Olympus in Lycia
- Oymaağaç Höyük — Nerik
- Patara
- Pergamon
- Perge
- Phaselis
- Priene
- Sagalassos
- Sanctuary of Apollo at Didyma
- Sanctuary of Labraunda
- Sapinuwa
- Sardis
- Sayburç
- Side
- Stratonikeia
- Tell Atchana – Alalakh
- Teos
- Tripolis on the Meander
- Troy
- Uluburun Shipwreck
- Xanthos
- Yenikapı – Theodosian Harbour Excavations
- Yeşilova Höyük
- Yumuktepe
- Zerzevan Castle
- Zeugma
- Zincirli Höyük — Sam'al
- Çatalhöyük
- Çavuştepe Fortress
- Çayönü
- Çukuriçi Höyük

