Arslantepe Mound, a 7,000-year-old archaeological site located in Malatya, Türkiye, continues to shed light on the origins of statehood and complex societies. Listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Arslantepe is recognized as the birthplace of one of the earliest known city-states in history, offering researchers a unique opportunity to decode the roots of governance, social hierarchy, and early bureaucratic systems.
The first excavation at Arslantepe began in 1932 under the direction of French archaeologist Louis Delaporte. For nearly three decades, French teams conducted extensive digs before Italian scholars from Rome’s La Sapienza University took over in 1961. Since then, Arslantepe has been one of the longest continuously studied archaeological sites in Anatolia.
A Palace That Redefined Civilization
One of the most striking discoveries is the mudbrick palace complex, regarded as the world’s earliest known palace, dating back more than 5,000 years. Excavations in 2021 revealed 250 seal impressions inside a 5,625-year-old temple, providing strong evidence of administrative and bureaucratic practices. Archaeologists also uncovered weapons such as spears and intricately decorated swords, believed to represent some of the earliest examples of organized military structures in human history.
The site has also yielded thousands of clay seals, monumental lion statues, a toppled king sculpture, and even ancient drainage systems—demonstrating that Arslantepe was not only a center of political power but also of urban planning and technological innovation.
Voices from the Excavation Site
Prof. Dr. Francesca Balossi Restelli, the current head of the Arslantepe excavation team, emphasized the site’s unparalleled importance in understanding how early state systems developed:
“Arslantepe tells us how the very first forms of governance and social hierarchy emerged. Here, you can see the world’s oldest palace, which offers insight into the roots of bureaucracy, kingship, and centralized power,” Restelli explained.
She further noted that thousands of accounting tablets and sealed receipts were found in the palace. These records documented the distribution of food and resources to workers, proving that a complex system of taxation and redistribution was already in place more than 5,000 years ago. According to Restelli, “Over 250 unique seals indicate there were hundreds of officials and workers employed at the palace, showing us the scale of this early state system.”
A Living History of Anatolia
Arslantepe Mound has served as a cultural hub from the Late Chalcolithic to the Iron Age, hosting successive civilizations and leaving behind layers of material culture that help researchers trace the transformation of societies. Every excavation season brings new findings that refine our understanding of ancient Anatolia and its role as a cradle of civilization.
For historians and archaeologists, Arslantepe is more than just an excavation site—it is a living archive that explains how humanity took its first steps toward structured governance and urbanization.
With its wealth of artifacts, monumental architecture, and groundbreaking evidence of the first city-state, Arslantepe Mound remains one of the most important archaeological discoveries of modern times.
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