The Middle Bronze Age at Zeytinli Bahçe Höyük - Birecik (Urfa-Turkey): the fortified structure

Abstract

The mound of Zeytinli Bahçe is 2 km south of the town of Birecik, on the left bank of the river Euphrates, in the Şanliurfa province, South-Eastern Turkey. The investigations of the Italian team have documented a long occupation starting with the Late Chalcolithic period (4th millennium BC) and ending in medieval times. The long sequence at the site brings light to many chronological and cultural characters of the region and thus contributes greatly to the knowledge of the history of this western region of Upper Mesopotamia in the moments of formation and development of the first urban societies. It is, above all, with the Middle Bronze, at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, that we assist at a radical change at Zeytinli Bahçe, testifi ed by the presence of a monumental structure on the highest point of the mound.