The
4.5 hectares large site of Tilmen Höyük (coordinates 37°1’48.49”N,
36°42’16.48”E) lies in the Islahiye valley (Gaziantep, Turkey), which
connects the lower Orontes valley to the southern piedmont of central
Taurus mountain range. During the Bronze age, the region belonged to the
Inner Syrian cultural context, and held a highly strategic
significance, over the course of time, for the connections between Upper
Mesopotamian and Levantine lowlands on the one hand and the Anatolian
highlands on the other. Settled since the Late Chalcolithic period, the
city attained its major flourishing during the Middle Bronze II (c. 18th-17th centuries BCE), when it is probably to be identified with ancient Zalbar/Zalwar.
Key evidence suggests that the site hosted also an Old Babylonian
trading station, which was part of a network running from the Middle
Euphrates to Cilicia and parallel to that of Ashur. With its massively
walled lower town and fortified acropolis and its ‘Cyclopean’ architecture of basalt blocks, Tilmen Höyük is one of the most monumental cities of the area in that period.
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