Arslantepe: Early Palace and the World's Oldest Swords

Arslantepe is a large settlement mound near Malatya in eastern Turkey, occupied over thousands of years, from prehistory to the Byzantine period. Around 3400–3100 BC it was the seat of one of the earliest known public palace complexes, where officials controlled stored food and goods with clay seals. A hoard found in the palace includes arsenical copper swords that are widely considered the oldest swords in the world, and in 2021 the site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Setting and history of the site

Arslantepe lies on the fertile Malatya plain, about 7 kilometres north-east of modern Malatya and a few kilometres from the Euphrates. The plain sits at a crossroads between Mesopotamia to the south, the Anatolian plateau to the west and the Caucasus to the north-east, and nearby mountains contain copper ores.

The mound, about 30 metres high, contains layers from the Late Chalcolithic, or Copper Age, through the Bronze and Iron Ages. In the Iron Age it was Melid, the capital of a Neo-Hittite kingdom, whose carved lion statues gave the site its Turkish name, meaning Lion Hill.

Excavation

The French archaeologist Louis Delaporte dug at Arslantepe between 1932 and 1939, revealing the Neo-Hittite Lion Gate and relief sculptures, which are now in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.

In 1961 an Italian mission from Sapienza University of Rome began work. Alba Palmieri directed it from the 1970s, and from 1990 Marcella Frangipane led the project for nearly three decades. Their excavations focused on the much earlier prehistoric levels, which turned out to be among the most important for understanding how centralised government emerged in the Near East. Parts of the excavated palace are now protected beneath a roof and can be visited, and the site’s inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021 recognised it as an outstanding record of the emergence of early state societies.

Before the palace

The roots of the palace lie in the preceding phase, known as Period VII, roughly 3900–3400 BC. At that time Arslantepe was already a substantial village with a monumental building of mud brick on the higher part of the mound, set apart from ordinary houses.

Inside this building, excavators found hundreds of mass-produced bowls of the kind associated with food distribution. This suggests that ceremonial meals or the handing out of food were already used by leading families to build influence. Over the following centuries these practices seem to have become more formal and bureaucratic, culminating in the palace complex of Period VI A.

The palace complex

In the period archaeologists call VI A, roughly 3400–3100 BC, the top of the mound was occupied by a large complex of public buildings. It included two successive temples, long corridors, storerooms and courtyards. Some walls were decorated with paintings and moulded designs, including human figures and geometric patterns.

The storerooms held large numbers of mass-produced bowls, probably used for handing out rations of food. Excavators found thousands of clay sealings, small lumps of clay pressed over the fastenings of doors, jars and sacks and stamped with seals. Officials broke and kept them when a store was opened, as a record of who had accessed goods.

Archaeologists interpret this as a system in which an elite collected staple products, especially cereals, and redistributed them to workers and dependants. It was a form of administration that appeared before writing reached the region, and it resembles systems known from the cities of southern Mesopotamia such as Uruk.

The oldest swords

In a room of the palace complex the excavators found a hoard of metal weapons. It contained:

• nine swords, several of them inlaid with silver;
• twelve spearheads;
• a decorated metal plaque and other objects.

The swords measure roughly 45 to 60 centimetres long, longer than any earlier dagger, and were made of arsenical copper, an alloy of copper and arsenic that is harder than pure copper. They date to the later fourth millennium BC, around 3300–3000 BC, making them the oldest known swords.

Their discovery shows that the palace elite controlled not only food but also weapons and the skilled metalwork needed to make them. Whether the swords were used in fighting or mainly as symbols of status remains debated. They are displayed in the Malatya Museum.

Arslantepe’s smiths drew on a long tradition of Anatolian and Balkan metallurgy that began with early copper smelting, and its metalwork has parallels with the contemporary Maykop culture of the North Caucasus.

Arslantepe and the Mesopotamian world

During the fourth millennium BC, southern Mesopotamia saw the growth of the first cities, and its pottery, building styles and administrative tools spread far to the north along the Tigris and Euphrates. Archaeologists call this the Uruk expansion.

Arslantepe shared some features with this world, such as mass-produced bowls, seal use and tripartite temple plans. Yet its excavators stress that it was not a Mesopotamian colony. Its local pottery, architecture and seal designs show that it developed its own form of centralised government, drawing on Mesopotamian contacts but rooted in local traditions. This makes it a key case for understanding how early states could arise in more than one place.

Collapse and the Royal Tomb

Around 3100–3000 BC the palace complex was destroyed by fire, and the system it represented collapsed. The links with southern Mesopotamia faded, and the site was briefly occupied by people whose pottery and buildings suggest connections with the Kura-Araxes culture of the Caucasus.

Soon after, around 3000 BC, a rich burial known as the Royal Tomb was made at Arslantepe. A man was buried in a stone cist with many metal objects, while the remains of several young people were placed on the slab covering the tomb, possibly as human sacrifices. Its interpretation remains discussed, but it shows new forms of power after the palace fell.

Later history: Melid

Arslantepe remained an important settlement through the Bronze Age. In the second millennium BC it lay within the sphere of the Hittite kingdom centred on Hattusa, and fortifications and a city gate were built.

After the Hittite empire fell around 1180 BC, Melid became the capital of a Neo-Hittite kingdom, known to the Assyrians as Melid or Meliddu. Its rulers set up the Lion Gate and reliefs showing royal ceremonies and hunting scenes. The city was attacked by Assyrian armies and was eventually sacked by Sargon II in 712 BC, after which the mound declined in importance.

Timeline

• c. 3900–3400 BC: Period VII: a growing Late Chalcolithic settlement with large elite buildings.
• c. 3400–3100 BC: Period VI A: palace complex, temples and storerooms in use.
• c. 3300–3000 BC: Arsenical copper swords and spearheads are made and stored in the palace.
• c. 3100–3000 BC: The palace is destroyed by fire; centralised administration collapses.
• c. 3000 BC: The Royal Tomb is built.
• 1932–1939: Louis Delaporte excavates the Neo-Hittite remains.
• 1961: The Italian mission from Sapienza University of Rome begins work.
• 2021: Arslantepe Mound is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Why it matters

Arslantepe shows how a state-like administration, built on control of food and goods, emerged in Anatolia at the same time as the first cities of Mesopotamia. Its swords are the earliest known weapons made longer than a dagger, a design that would spread across the Bronze Age world. The site therefore illuminates both the rise of early government and the beginnings of organised warfare.