Melid, also known as Arslantepe, 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, Turkey.

It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name Arslantepe Mound on 26 July 2021.

History

Late Chalcolithic

The earliest habitation at the site dates back to the Chalcolithic period.

Arslantepe (VII) 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.

Degirmentepe

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.

Early Bronze

By the late Uruk period development had grown to include a large temple/palace complex.

Culturally, Melid was part of the "Northern regions of Greater Mesopotamia" functioning as a trade colony along the Euphrates River bringing raw materials to Sumer (Lower Mesopotamia).

Numerous similarities have been found between these early layers at Arslantepe, and the somewhat later site of Birecik (Birecik Dam Cemetery), also in Turkey, to the southwest of Melid.

Around 3000 BCE, 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.

The causes of that previous destruction remain unclear, because the Kura–Araxes culture is not known for military conquests or maintaining large armies. Nevertheless, there was also another culture present in this area at about the same time, which built a monumental cist tomb among the remains of the previous Late Uruk-related central building (see below). This tomb had many weapons in it, and it was built with very large stone slabs, demanding a lot of labour. Kura–Araxes culture is not known for such large constructions.

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.

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.

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. At the same time, the Cimmerians and Scythians invaded Anatolia and the city declined.

According to Igor Diakonoff and John Greppin, there was likely an Armenian presence in Melid by 1200 BCE.

Archaeology

Arslantepe was first investigated by the French archaeologist Louis Delaporte from 1932 to 1939. From 1946 to 1951 Claude F.A. Schaeffer carried out some soundings.

The first Italian excavations at the site of Arslantepe started in 1961, and were conducted under the direction of Professors Piero Meriggi and Salvatore M. Puglisi until 1968. The choice of the site was initially due to their desire to investigate the Neo-Hittite phases of occupation at the site, a period in which Malatya was the capital of one of the most important reigns born after the destruction of the Hittite Empire in its most eastern borders. Majestic remains of this period had been known from Arslantepe since the 1930s after they were brought to light by a French expedition. 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. In the early 21st century, the archaeological investigation was led by Marcella Frangipane.

Early swords and metal trade

The first swords known so far date to ca. the 33rd to 31st centuries BCE, during the Early Bronze Age, and have been founds at Arslantepe by Marcella Frangipane of Sapienza University of Rome. A cache of nine swords and daggers was found; they are cast from an arsenic–copper alloy. Analysis of two swords showed a copper/arsenic composition of 96%/3.15% and 93%/2.65%. Two daggers tested at copper/arsenic 96%/3.99% and 97%/3.06% with a third at copper/silver composition of 50%/35% with a trace of arsenic. Among them, three swords were beautifully inlaid with silver. These objects were found in the "hall of weapons" in the area of the palace.

These weapons have a total length of 45 to 60 cm which suggests their description as either short swords or long daggers.

These discoveries were made back in the 1980s. They belong to the local phase VI A. Also, 12 spearheads were found. These objects were dated to the period VI A (3400-3200 BC). Phase VI A at Arslantepe ended in destruction—the city was burned.

Kfar Monash Hoard was found in 1962 in Israel. Among the many copper objects in it, "Egyptian type" copper axes were found. These axes were made using copper-arsenic-nickel (CuAsNi) alloy that probably originated in Arslantepe area. Objects from Arslantepe using such polymetallic ores are mainly ascribed to Level VIA (3400–3000 BCE), dating to the Uruk period.

The next Phases or periods were VI B1 and VI B2. This is the time to which the other big discovery at Arslantepe belongs. This is the rich “Royal Tomb” where high quality pottery, and a large number of refined metal objects, made with several kinds of copper based alloys, were found. A sword was also found in the tomb. This tomb is also known as the tomb of "Signor Arslantepe", as he was called by archaeologists. He was about 40 years old, and the tomb is radiocarbon dated to 3085–2900 Cal. BC.

This “Royal Tomb” dates to the beginning of period VI B2, or perhaps even earlier to period VI B1. There’s a considerable similarity between these two groups of objects in the “hall of weapons”, and in the “Royal Tomb”, and the times of manufacture of some of them must have been pretty close together.

Expansion of Kura–Araxes and trade in ores

Arslantepe probably participated in the metal and ore trade between the areas north and south. To the north were the metal-rich areas of the Black Sea coast; ores and metals from there were traded to Upper Mesopotamia in the south. Already during the older Arslantepe VII period, metal objects could be found with a signature of ores from near the Black Sea coast. This makes it probable that some Transcaucasian groups would have been present at Arslantepe already in the fourth millennium.

Also some of the metal artefacts from the “Royal Tomb” clearly belong to Kura–Araxes culture manufacturing traditions, and the metal analysis even shows provenance from northern Caucasus. All this indicates that the expansion of Kura–Araxes culture to wider areas may have been prompted in part by a trade of ores and metals.

Nevertheless, according to Martina Massimino (2023), the widespread metal trade was rather conducted by the Maikop-Novosvobodnaya kurgans group which constructed the big chiefly tomb at Arslantepe. According to her, the recent excavations at Basur Hoyuk in Turkey indicate the presence of the same group there, and provide more evidence for this theory.

See also

• List of Neo-Hittite kings
• List of cities of the ancient Near East
• Chronology of the ancient Near East