Tilmen Höyük (Tilmen Hoyuk)
Tilmen Höyük · Tilmen, Tilmen Höyük, Islahiye
EBA through Iron Age; MBA peak·Yamhad (Aleppo) vassal; Syro-Hittite → Assyrian·🇹🇷 Gaziantep Province, Islahiye Plain, Turkey
About
About Tilmen Höyük (Tilmen Hoyuk)
Bastioned MBA palace tell identified as Zalwar / ancient Zalpa (?), capital of Yamhad vassal kingdom. Excavated Italian Bologna team (Nicolò Marchetti) since 2003: 2nd-millennium BCE city with 4-m-wide basalt city gate with lion orthostats, palace quarters and cuneiform tablets, over EBA beneath. Later Iron Age Syro-Hittite and Achaemenid levels cap the mound. The buried lower city (5 ha) shows planned MBA street grid sealed by Iron Age glacis.
Why it mattersIdentifies Zalwar political geography of Old Babylonian period; best-preserved MBA basalt-gate sequence in southeast Turkey.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Is Tilmen = Zalwar/Zalpa? Tablet prosopography uncertain
- 02Extent of buried lower MBA town — magnetometry in progress
Theories
- 01Marchetti Zalwar identification vs separate Tell Tayanit Zalpah debate
- 02Amorite vs Hittite planning influence on grid
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.3000 BCE EBA basal; main MBA palace city c.2000–1600 BCE; Syro-Hittite rebuild c.900 BCE
- Period
- EBA through Iron Age; MBA peak
- Culture
- Yamhad (Aleppo) vassal; Syro-Hittite → Assyrian
- Builders
- Yamhadite Amorite dynasty; Syro-Hittite Luwian rulers
- Purpose
- Fortified gateway city controlling Amanus pass to Cilicia
- Abandoned
- c.600 BCE Assyrian destruction; reoccupied Achaemenid
- Rediscovered
- Sounded 1958; systematic 2003–present Marchetti (Bologna/ Gaziantep Museum)
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
2003
Bologna–Gaziantep joint project reopens mound
2007
Palace cuneiform archive and lion gate excavated
On the ground
Structures & features
37.0750° N · 36.6950° E · 480 m · 3 mapped features
Basalt Lion Gate
gate4 m wide MBA gate with paired lion orthostats
37.0752° N · 36.6955° EPalace archive room
palaceTablet archive in MBA courtyard
37.0750° N · 36.6950° ELower MBA town (buried)
settlement5 ha gridded lower town anomalies
37.0745° N · 36.6945° E
Gallery