ARSLANTEPE-MALATYA, Eastern Turkey, is a 30 m. high mound with a long sequence of levels from the 6th mill. BC to the Byzantine period. The many years of estensive and stratigraphic excavation have brought to light the history of the site and the whole SE Anatolian region at the border of the Mesopotamian world. The researches at the site have allowed to better understand the origin of crucial phenomena such as the rise of the State and hierarchical societies.
The discovery of the first example of a palatial complex from 3300 BC with a great deal of in situ materials, among which thousands of seal impressions, has allowed us to reconstruct the birth of bureaucracy and centralized economy. The recent discovery of a tripartite temple and a unique open area for ritual activities and burials, confirm the importance of the site in the phases of development of social complexity and an earlier monumental mudbrick building might have been used by the earliest elites of Arslantepe.
In the NE part of the site, a long and interesting sequence of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC shows that Arslantepe underwent crucial changes in the periods of formation, expansion and collapse of the Hittite Empire in Central Anatolia and became a capital of its region, strategic border between the main Near Eastern civilizations.
In 2013, Arslantepe has been included by the Turkish authorities in the provisional list of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage and an international work group to which belong members of the present project is involved in the preparation of all requirements (site management plan, conservation etc).
In recognition of the important results obtained, the director has been elected Foreign Member of the NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, as member of the Italian ACCADEMIA DEI LINCEI (2018), has obtained the DE SICA PRIZE FOR SCIENCE (2015) and ROTONDI PRIZE (2017). A DISCOVERY AWARD has been granted to the project by the Shanghai Archaeology Forum in 2016.
In recent years the researches at Arslantepe have applied several innovative methodologies in various scientific fields, also obtaining, in a close interdisciplinary relationship, innovative historical and anthropological results on the rise and development of one of the earliest examples of Early State system in the 4th mill. BC, and its development up to the formation of an independent local kingdom at the beginnig of the 1st mill BC .
- SYSTEMATIC METHODOLOGIES OF COMBINED STRATIGRAPHIC AND EXTENSIVE EXCAVATION have allowed to bring to light and thoroughly investigate large settlement areas with large amount of in situ materials, and reconstruct, with meticulous recovering procedures, the function of rooms and buildings, identifying public and domestic spaces and their specific function. This methodology has allowed to reconstruct the organization of different societies in the course of millennia. The application of rigorous excavation strategies and methodologies have made Arslantepe a reference site for the chronology and cultural history of Anatolia, and beyond (Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia, 2011; 2016).
- SAMPLING AND STUDY OF MICRO-REMAINS AND MICRO-MORPHOLOGY OF INDIVIDUAL ROOM FLOORS started in 2013 and is greatly contributing to the reconstruction of activity areas and the organization of daily life in the successive settlements.
- RECONSTRUCTION OF ACTIVITIES AND FOOD PRACTICES through an INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH and investigation of IN SITU material culture, developed thanks to an ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT Fellowship awarded to Francesca Balossi Restelli. This study is currently greatly contributing to the international debate on the dynamics of Food as an instrument of power and inequality, and has been at the centre of an international workshop held at the Freie Universität of Berlin in 2017.
- ARCHAEOBOTANICAL STUDIES (Dip. di Biologia Ambientale, Sapienza University of Rome) carried out on woods, seeds andpollens are greatly contributing to the reconstruction of agricultural practices and palaeo-environment in the different periodsconcerned.
- ARCHAEOZOOLOGICAL RESEARCHES analyse animal breeding patterns in various periods and contribute to the study of ancient pastoralism.
- STABLE ISOTOPE STUDIES CARRIED OUT ON VEGETAL REMAINS from different periods have allowed to reconstruct important aspects of the climatic changes from 4th to 2nd millennium BCE, enlightening in particular the unstable conditions in the transition from 4th to 3rd millennium, the period of the substantial socio-political change manifested by the collapse of the Palace system and the establishment of a new course in the history of Arslantepe, made of social and political instability and conflicts between different socio-economic, cultural, and perhaps ethnic components in the region.
These studies have also contributed to the understanding of agricultural practices and the possible intervention of irrigation in various periods and socio-economic contexts.
- STABLE ISOTOPE STUDIES CARRIED OUT ON ANIMAL AND HUMAN BONES in cooperation with the University of Parma is giving crucial information on: a) the original environment and provenience of human and animal populations, consequently suggesting possible migration phenomena, as well as animal breeding practices such as transhumance or nomadic pastoralism; b) diets and eating habits. The results fundamentally support the interpretation of cultural changes and events documented by the analysis of settlements and archaeological data.
- DNA ANALYSES ON ANIMAL and HUMAN BONES are giving results on animal population movements and genetics. These are carried out with Hacettepe University of Ankara, the University of Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute, Germany. The study of the Arslantepe population genetics in the framework of wider studies on European-Mediterranean and Western Asian contexts has been the subject of an international workshop held in April 2018 at the ICAANE Conference in Münich.
- AMS C14 DATING in collaboration with the University of Naples II (Prof. F. Marzaioli) provides a solid basis for re-constructing the chronology of Arslantepe and the whole region.
- ANALYSES BY SEM, XRD ED AFM ON CLAY-SEALING SAMPLES, PLASTER and POTTERY started in 2017 by the CNISNANOLAB of SAPIENZA University and by the AUSTRIAN ACCADEMY of SCIENCES, in order to characterize the provenance and variability of the clay sources and manufacturing techniques. These are useful in understanding cultural relations and networks, craftsmanship and the type of sealing practices: local/non local, redistributin/trade, intensity of operations.
- MODELING of BRONZE AGE occupation and LAND USE in the Malatya Plain (with Technical University of Istanbul, B. Arikan) through a new computer simulation model is allowing to test the effects of human agency on the ancient landscape.