Malatya Arslantepe Archaeological Site and Open Air Museum

Arslantepe Höyük is 7 km from Malatya. It is located in Orduzu district in the east. The Arslantepe excavations are very important for Eastern Anatolian settlements and civilizations in terms of showing an uninterrupted settlement and stratigraphy from the Late Chalcolithic Age to the Islamic Ages. During the excavations in Arslantepe, 6 settlement and culture layers were unearthed. While the remains of the Islamic Period and the Byzantine-Roman Ages were found on the surface, settlements, ruins and finds representing the Chalcolithic Period, Early-Middle and Old Bronze Age, Hittite Imperial Period, Late Hittite Period and Iron Age were unearthed in the other layers.

As a result of the excavations in Arslantepe, the remains of the Late Chalcolithic Period, the entrance and hall of a temple with stone foundations and mud-brick walls, potteries, beads and seals were unearthed. Seals in Arslantepe also indicate that Arslantepe was a customs control unit. These seals, which we call bulla, are opened after the commercial products entering the city are received from the caravans. Commercial products exported from the city are also sealed in the same way. The data obtained reveal that Arslantepe was the official, religious and cultural center where the aristocracy was born, and the first state form emerged.