Arslantepe (“hill of the lions”) is in the modern village of Orduzu, in the southeastern area of large Malatya plain (Eastern Anatolia), an oasis within the mountain chain of the Anti-Taurus. The site is only 6km away from the modern city of Malatya and 15km west of the Euphrates river.

The site is a tell, in other   words an artificial mound formed by the overlapping deposits of many villages, built for millennia in the same place. Arslantepe has been occupied without interruption at least from the Vth millennium B.C., until Roman and Byzantine periods, when the site became a small agricultural village (IV-VI cent. A.C.) and the large castrum of Melitene was built nearer to the river Euphrates (the town of Eski Malatya). The modern city of Malatya, although preserving the historical name, was only founded in 1838.

The fascinating and temporally stratified story of this area is all contained in the long sequence of villages that, one on top of the other for millennia, have formed the tell of Arslantepe, a large artificial hill approximately 30m high and with a surface of 4 hectares.

The events that the archaeological investigations of the  Italian Archaeological Expedition of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” have brought to light in more than 40 years, from 1961 onwards, have characterised and left an indelible trace not only in the history of that specific region, but have also signed some of the principal moments in the origin of our proper civilisation.  In particular, the finds at Arslantepe have shed new light on the origin of cities and in the process of State formation. Arslantepe has been a political and economic centre in the region fits history; it controlled, at different levels in distinct historical moments, the surrounding territory and directed the external relations.

The beginning of the excavations at Arslantepe is linked with the discovery of the famous Neo-Hittite city entrance (Porta dei Leoni); in this period Arslantepe was capital of a small Neo-Hittite Kingdom. This majestic entrance, sided by two large relieves of lions (hence the name of the site: Arslan = Lion, Tepe  = Hill, hill of the Lions) and various other scenes, was part of a large fortification wall in mud brick surrounding the site. Remains of a palatial complex and a large sculpture of a probable King are the other finds of this period.

Just as imposing and certainly unexpected has been the discovery of a palatial complex dated to the end of the IV millennium B.C., surely amongst the most ancient in the world, of a large temple of the beginning of the IV millennium B.C., of a Royal Tomb of the beginning of the III millennium B.C., and of a fortified citadel with a fortification wall preserved in height to at least 3m.

In the palace of the end of the IV millennium B.C. the most important finds were: walls with painted decorations, weapons made of a bronze alloy, store rooms full of containers, thousands of bowls used for food rations for the workers, seals for administrative control of the goods entering and exiting the palace, documents of economic transactions, hundreds of kilograms of seeds that had been left to dry on the roofs of the houses when the village was burnt, butchering areas, craftsmen laboratories………………….

Università di Roma La Sapienza

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