Origini ed evoluzione del sistema centralizzato ad Arslantepe: dal tempio al palazzo nel IV millennio A.C.

This article reconsiders the nature of the development of a highly centralised political and economic structure at Arslantepe at the end of the fourth millennium BC (period VI A) in the light of a recent discovery of a huge ceremonial building from the middle of the 4th millennium (period VII), which stresses the importance of local components. This earlier building has a tripartite layout that clearly recalls a typical Mesopotamian architecture typology, but the archaeological materials show completely and exclusively local characteristics, without any evidence of Uruk influence. On the other hand, the main activity performed in this building, which seems to be a temple or ceremonial structure, was redistribution carried out under an administrative control, as is suggested by hundreds of mass-produced bowls and numerous clay-sealings. The development of the Arslantepe period VI A society, expressed in what appears to be the first example in the Near East of a "palace" complex, in this perspective, should be seen as a local and original evolution from earlier developments shared with other regions of Greater Mesopotamia, rather than the effect of an emulation of foreign communitie

Collapse or transformation? Regeneration and innovation at the turn of the first millennium BC at Arslantepe, Turkey

Ongoing excavations at Arslantepe in south-eastern Turkey are revealing settlement continuity spanning two crucial phases at the transition from the second to the first millennium BC: the post-Hittite period and the development of Syro-Anatolian societies

Genomic history of Neolithic to Bronze Age Anatolia, Northern Levant, and Southern Caucasus

Here, we report genome-wide data analyses from 110 ancient Near Eastern individuals spanning the Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age, a period characterized by intense interregional interactions for the Near East. We find that 6th millennium BCE populations of North/Central Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus shared mixed ancestry on a genetic cline that formed during the Neolithic between Western Anatolia and regions in today’s Southern Caucasus/Zagros. During the Late Chalcolithic and/or the Early Bronze Age, more than half of the Northern Levantine gene pool was replaced, while in the rest of Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus, we document genetic continuity with only transient gene flow. Additionally, we reveal a genetically distinct individual within the Late Bronze Age Northern Levant. Overall, our study uncovers multiple scales of population dynamics through time, from extensive admixture during the Neolithic period to long-distance mobility within the globalized societies of the Late Bronze Age. Video Abstrac

Scavie e Ricerche ad Arslantepe-Malatya (Turchia)

Scavi in una collina archeologica (tell) situata nella valle dell'Alto Eufrate turco, formatasi per il sovrapporsi di una lunghissima sequenza di livelli d'abitato, dal VI millennio a.C. all'età Bizantina

Centralization processes in Greater Mesopotamia. Uruk “expansion” as the climax of systemic interactions among areas of the Greater Mesopotamian region

Advanced Seminar Serie