--KAPAK ARAÞTIRMA kopya 1 - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

2003 ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN
THE MALATYA TERRITORY
Gian Maria DI NOCERA*
Introduction
The survey project of the Malatya province, the first campaign of which has been
carried out in September 2003 1, is a direct evolution and consequence of the long
lasting Italian archaeological excavations, directed by Professor Marcella Frangipane,
and has as principal aim that of a systematic investigation of the whole Malatya plain,
together with the adjacent pedemont and valley areas. Ultimate goal is that of giving a
historical synthesis of the evolution and dynamics of occupation of this territory. This
project, performed in collaboration with the CNR (National Research Centre), is financed
by the Italian Ministry of University and Research and by the Department of Historical,
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences of the University of Rome "La Sapienza".
The majority of known sites in the Malatya territory have been discovered thanks
to investigations specifically carried out by the Middle Eastern Technical University in
the Keban and Karakaya areas, which were to be flooded by the building of dams.
Not all discovered sites, but the great majority, are the result of research performed
along the margins of the Euphrates. Important publications regarding these are
those of C. Burney, R. Whallon, H. F. Russell, J. Yakar, Ü. Serdaroğlu, and, most of all,
the survey carried out by M. Özdoğan in 1977 2. Today, next to the surveys, is the fundamental
data from systematic excavations. Never the less, in the specific case of the
Malatya territory, it is essentially to the stratigraphic sequence of Arslantepe 3 that one
has to relate to in order to make a coherent chronological correlation of the surface ma-
* Dr. Gian Maria DI NOCERA, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Department of Historical, Archaeological and Anthropological
Sciences, Via Palestro 63, 00185 Rome, ITALY Tel.: (++39) 06 4454603, fax: (++39) 06 4454603,
e-mail: gianmaria.dinocera@uniroma1.it.
1I would like to thank the components of the team: Alberto Palmieri (CNR-Rome, geologist), Bruno Marcolongo (CNR-
Rome, geomorphologist), Mario Mascellani (CNR-Rome, topographer), Romina Laurito (University of Rome, archaeologist),
Paola Piccione, Andrea Ricci, Emanuele Cancellieri (University of Rome, students). I am also grateful to Dr.
Francesca Dellera ( University of Rome) for the observations on the Roman material.
2 Burney C. A., "Eastern Anatolia in the Chalcolitic and Early Bronze Age", Anatolian Studies, VIII, 1958: 157-209; Whallon
R., An Archaeological Survey of the Keban Reservoir Area of East-Central Turkey, Memoirs of the Museum of
Anthropology, University of Michigan, N. 11, 1979, Ann Arbor; Russell H. F., Pre-Classical Pottery of Eastern Anatolia,
British Archaeological Report, International Series, 85, 1980, Oxford; Yakar J., Gürsan Salzmann A., "Archaeological
Survey in the Malatya and Sivas Provinces, 1977", Tel Aviv 6: 34-53; Serdaroğlu Ü., Surveys in the Lower Euphrates
Basin, O.D.T.Ü., 1977, Ankara; Özdoğan M., Lower Euphrates Basin 1977 Survey, Middle East Technical University,
Lower Euphrat Project Publications, Series I, N. 2, 1977, İstanbul.
3 Frangipane M., "Melid", Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, 8,1/2, 1993: 42-52. Frangiane
M. "The Late Chalcolithic/EB I Sequenze at Arslantepe. Chronological and Cultural Remarks from a Frontier Site",
in Chronologies des pays du Caucase et de l’Euphrate aux IVe-IIIe millenaires, Actes du colloque d’İstanbul, 16-
19 décembre 1998, Marro C., Hauptmann H. (eds.), Institutes Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes d’Istanbul, De Boccard,
2000, İstanbul: 439-471.
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