Settlement organization and traits of material culture in the Malatya Plain along the Upper Euphrates between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC: patterns of change and elements of continuity

Abstract

This contribution aims at reconsidering the available data regarding the second half of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC at the site of Arslantepe-Turkey, in relation to the Malatya plain and, more generally, the Upper Euphrates region. This time span is associated with the Early Bronze III and Middle Bronze Ages. The stratigraphic investigations carried out at Arslantepe and the survey projects carried out in the plain have allowed to identify an articulated organization of the settlements in the region. These studies are associated with climatological and environmental research, which made it possible to determine that a period of drought occurred at a local level between 2300 and 2200 BC. According to the outcomes of investigations on the ratio of stable carbon isotopes 12 and 13, around 2000 BC winter precipitation seem to have been more intense than the current one. Furthermore, the current summer dryness is less than or equal to the one recorded around 2200 BC. The problem is whether at the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 2nd millennium significant cultural and settlement pattern changes occurred in relation to climatic variables. Although climate variations have been preliminarily documented, the archaeological data regarding the Upper Euphrates actually tend to underline cultural and settlement continuity throughout the region, with a significant change only after the first quarter of the 2nd millennium BC.