Arslantepe, also known as Melid, was an ancient city on the Tohma River, a tributary of the upper Euphrates rising in the Taurus Mountains. It has been identified with the modern archaeological site of Arslantepe near Malatya, Türkiye.
It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name Arslantepe Mound in 2021. As of 2025 it is closed for maintenance.
Değirmentepe, a site located 24 km northeast of Melid, is notable as the location of the earliest secure evidence of copper smelting. The site was built on a small natural outcrop in the flood plain about 40m from the Euphrates River.
History
Late Chalcolithic The earliest habitation at the site dates back to the Chalcolithic period.Frangipane Marcella, "The Late Chalcolithic IEB I sequence at Arslantepe. Chronological and cultural remarks from a frontier site", in Chronologies des pays du Caucase et de l'Euphrate aux IVe-IIIe millénaires. From the Euphrates to the Caucasus: Chronologies for the 4th-3rd millennium B.C. Vom Euphrat in den Kaukasus: Vergleichende Chronologie des 4. und 3. Jahrtausends v. Chr. Actes du Colloque d'Istanbul, 16-19 décembre 1998. Istanbul : Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes-Georges Dumézil, pp. 439-471, 2000
Arslantepe (VII; LC 3-4): It became important in this region in the Late Chalcolithic. A monumental area with a huge mudbrick building stood on top of a mound. This large building had wall decorations; its function is uncertain.
Arslantepe (VIA; LC 5): By the late Uruk period development had grown to include a large temple/palace complex.Frangipane Marcella, "A 4th-millennium temple/palace complex at Arslantepe-Malatya. North-South relations and the formation of early state societies in the Northern regions of Greater Mesopotamia", in Paléorient, vol. 23, no. 1. pp. 45-73, 1997 By the end of the period it was destroyed.Fragnoli, Pamela & Frangipane 2022
Early Bronze Numerous similarities have been found between these early layers at Arslantepe, and the somewhat later site of Birecik (Birecik Dam Cemetery), also in Türkiye, to the southwest of Melid.Frangipane, Marcella, et al., "New Symbols of a New Power in A" Royal" Tomb from 3 000 BC Arslantepe, Malatya (Türkiye)", Paléorient, 105-139, 2001
Around 3000 BC, the transitional EBI-EBII, there was widespread burning and destruction of the previous significant Uruk-oriented settlement. After this Kura–Araxes pottery appeared in the area. This was a mainly pastoralist culture connected with the Caucasus mountains. Settlement in this period appears to have been local in nature but influenced by Kura–Araxes culture.
On the other hand, according to Martina Massimino (2023), the connections of this tomb with the Maikop-Novosvobodnaya kurgans are quite clear based on architecture and the metalwork. The exact chronology and sequence of these events still remain to be clarified.Martina Massimino, "Graves of power. Circulation of elite strategies between Caucasus and south-eastern Anatolia in the dawn of the Bronze Age", in Toby Wilkinson, Susan Sherratt (eds) 2023, Circuits of Metal Value. Changing Roles of Metals in the Early Aegean and Nearby Lands, Oxbow Books, pp.193-195, 2023
Middle Bronze Age Melid is notably absent from the list of major Assyrian administrative hubs (Assyrian Trade Network). The primary Assyrian routes typically crossed the Euphrates further south.
Late Bronze Age In the Late Bronze Age, the site became an administrative center of a larger region in the kingdom of Isuwa. The city was heavily fortified, probably due to the Hittite threat from the west. It was culturally influenced by the Hurrians, Mitanni and the Hittites.
Around 1350 BC, Šuppiluliuma I of the Hittites conquered Melid in his war against Tushratta of Mitanni. At the time Melid was a regional capital of Isuwa at the frontier between the Hittites and the Mitanni; it was loyal to Tushratta. Suppiluliuma I used Melid as a base for his military campaign to sack the Mitanni capital Washukanni.
Iron Age After the end of the Hittite empire, from the 12th to 7th century BC, the city became the center of an independent Luwian Neo-Hittite state of Kammanu, also known as 'Malizi'. A palace was built and monumental stone sculptures of lions and the ruler erected.
In the 12th century, Melid was probably dependent on Karkemiš, where king Kuzi-Tešub ruled. His two grandsons, Runtyas (Runtiya) and Arnuwantis, were at first appointed as "Country Lords" of Melid, but later they also became kings of Melid.Federico Manuelli (2019), Carving the memory, altering the past. PUGNUS-mili and the earlier Iron Age rulers at Arslantepe/Malizi (South-Eastern Turkey). In book: Lafer R., Dolenz H., Luik M. (eds.), Antiquitates variae. Festschrift für Karl Strobel zum 65. Geburtstag (pp.227-241) Publisher: VML Verlag
The encounter with the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1077 BC) resulted in the kingdom of Melid being forced to pay tribute to Assyria. Melid remained able to prosper until the Assyrian king Sargon II (722–705 BC) sacked the city in 712 BC.J. D. Hawkins, Assyrians and Hittites, Iraq, vol. 36, no. 1/2, pp. 67-83, 1974Frame, Grant, "Melid (Arslantepe)", The Royal Inscriptions of Sargon II, King of Assyria (721–705 BC), University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 426-437, 2021 At the same time, the Cimmerians and Scythians invaded Anatolia and the city declined.
Archaeology
Arslantepe covers an area of about 4 hectares and rises to about 30 meters above the plain. The site was visited by Gertrude Bell and Hansen van der Osten in the earliest part of the 20th century. It was first investigated by the French archaeologist Louis Delaporte from 1932 to 1939, focusing on the Neo-Hittite remains in the northwest section of the mounds slope.Louis Delaporte, "Malatya. La Ville et le Pays de Malatya", Review Hittites et Asian, vol. 2, no. 12, pp. 119–254, 1933Louis Delaporte, "Malatya – Céramique du Hittite Recent", Review Hittites et Asian, vol. 2, no. 15, pp. 257–285, 1934Louis Delaporte, "La Troisième Campagne de Fouille è Malatya", Review Hittites et Asian, vol. 5, no. 34, pp. 43–56, 1939Delaporte, L., "Malatya. Fouilles de la Mission Archeologique Francaise. Arslantepe, I. La porte des lions De Boccard", Paris, 1940 From 1946 to 1951 Claude F.A. Schaeffer focused on site stratigraphy cutting deep trenches across the top of the mound. The results were never published.Schaeffer, C., "Fouilles à Enkomi et à Arslantepe", in Comptes Rendies de l'Academie des Inscription et Belles Lettres, Impremerie Royal, Paris, p. 341, 1948
The first Italian excavations at the site of Arslantepe started in 1961, and were conducted by a Sapienza University of Rome team under the direction of Professors Piero Meriggi and Salvatore M. Puglisi until 1968.S.M. Puglisi and P. Meriggi, "Malatya I: Rapporto preliminare delle Campagne 1961 e 1962", Orientis Antiqui Collectio, vol. 7, 1964E. Equini Schneider, "Malatya II: Rapporto preliminare delle Campagne 1963–1968. Il Livello Romano Bizantino e le Testimonianze Islamiche", Orientis Antiqui Collectio, vol. 10, 1970P.E. Pecorella, "Malatya III: Rapporto preliminare delle Campagne 1963–1968. Il Livello Eteo Imperiale e quelli Neoetei", Orientis Antiqui Collecti, vol. 12, 1975 The Hittitologist Meriggi only took part in the first few campaigns and later left the direction to Puglisi, a palaeoethnologist, who expanded and regularly conducted yearly investigations under regular permit from the Turkish government. Alba Palmieri took over the supervision of the excavation during the 1970s.Alba Palmieri, "Excavations at Arslantepe (Malatya)," Anatolian Studies, vol. 31, pp. 101-119, 1981Alba Palmieri, "Arslantepe Excavations, 1982," Kazi Sonuçlari Toplantisi, vol. 5, pp. 97-101, 1983 In the early 21st century, the archaeological investigation was conducted by a Sapienza University of Rome team led by Marcella Frangipane.Frangipane, M., Di Nocera, G. M. and Palumbi, G., "L'interazione tra Due Universi Socio-Culturali nella Piana di Malatya (Turchia) tra IV e III Millennio: Dati Archeologici e Riconoscimento di Identita'.", Origini, vol. XXVII, pp. 123-170, 2005 Beginning in 2008, excavations focused on the Late Bronze and Iron Age areas of the site.Manuellı, Federico, and Giovanni Sıracusano, "Economies in Transformation: A Zooarchaeological Perspective from Early Iron Age Arslantepe (Southeastern Türkiye)", Adalya 25, pp. 1-29, 2022
A few shards of Halaf period pottery were found and in Level VIII (early 4th millennium BC) there was a modest, village type Late Ubaid settlement. In Level VII (LC 4, Middle Uruk) an isolated monumental building was found and the settlement grew to cover the entire mound. Over time elite residences were built nearby. In Level VIA (LC 5, Late Uruk) four monumental buildings, terraced and largely interconnected, were constructed on the site of the Middle Uruk building. Two have been identified as temples (Temple A and Temple B) while the others (Building III and Building IV) are of unknown functions. Butted metal spearheads were found in Building III. A large number of vases and clay sealings were found in the temples. Most settlements formed as part of the Uruk Expansion, such as Jebel Aruda, Tell Sheikh Hassan, and Habuba Kabira, were abandoned at the end of the Late Chacolothic 5 period and anything of note removed, leaving little for archaeologists but walls and bits of pottery and clay sealings. Arslantepe was violently destroyed at the end of LC 5 leaving a number of small finds in situ.D'Anna, Maria Bianca, Pamela Fragnoli, and Akiva Sanders, "The Late Chalcolithic Pottery of the Malatya and Altınova Regions: Distinct but Overlapping Communities of Practice", Istanbuler Mieilungen, 72, pp. 27-71, 2023 As at other middle and late Uruk period sites, despite extensive excavation no Uruk period burials were found.Fuensanta, Jesús Gil and Crivelli, Eduardo, "Where are the Uruk Necropoles? Regional Innovation or Change in Tradition for Northern Mesopotamia", Tradition and Innovation in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 57th Rencontre Assyriologique International at Rome, 4-8 July 2011, edited by Alfonso Archi, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 81-90, 2015
In Level VIB1, at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, a large cist burial was found, traditionally called the "Royal Tomb" amongst an otherwise low level settlement consisting of light wooden structures along with one mudbrick structure (Building 36) which appeared to be out of use at the time the tomb was built. Building 36 had one meter thick walls on stone foundations and one terracotta cylinder seal and one stone stamp-seal were found, possibly heirlooms and two copper butted spearheads.Frangipane, Marcella, "After collapse: Continuity and disruption in the settlement by Kura-Araxes-linked pastoral groups at Arslantepe-Malatya (Turkey). New data", Paléorient, pp. 169-182, 2014 Pottery in the level was a mix of local and Kura-Araxes traditions. It has been suggested that the tomb was constructed during a period of abandonment at the end of Level VIB1. The tomb contained two adolescent human sacrifices (adorned with metal ornaments) and the primary body was buried with high