Trace of fortress gate found in Arslantepe

Excavations have been carried out to find a fortress gate from the Early Bronze Age on the south of the Arslantepe Mound in Malatya, which is on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.

Along with the excavations carried out since 1961 by academics from Rome's La Sapienza University at Arslantepe Mound, which has a history of approximately 7,000 years and where the first form of the state emerged, a Turkish team has also started excavation work for the first time this year.

Varlık İndere, who has been working in the excavations at Arslantepe for eight years and serving as the excavation vice president for five years, said that they had been working with the Italian team for a long time and that the excavations were carried out as a Turkish-Italian partnership.

"This year, the Culture and Tourism Ministry wanted a Turkish coordination excavation to continue in the area. We are conducting a trial as part of this project. There is an Early Bronze Age wall in the south of the area, which is a fortress protective wall. This fortress wall revealed its existence 10-15 years ago, but we hadn't found its gate. This year our coordinator president from Hacettepe University, Associate Professor Halil Tekin, and Arslantepe's Italian team leader Professor Francesca Balossi Restelli made a joint decision to find the continuation of this Early Bronze fortress wall, that is, the part that extends eastward, with the idea of finding it. With this aim, we think there is an entrance gate here. That's why we are actually searching for it. The purpose of this Turkish coordination excavation is to find the gate of this fortress wall," İndere said.

Noting that they had just started the excavations, İndere said, "We are progressing slowly, the fortress...