Tepecik ve Yukarı Fırat Havzası MÖ 3. Binyıl Yerleşmeleri

MÖ. III. Binyılda Anadolu, Mehmet Işıklı Erkan Fidan Atila Türker Mehmet Ali Yılmaz, Editör, Ege Yayınları/Zero Books, İstanbul, ss.539-552, 2022

Upper Euphrates basin is one of the most important and well-investigated regions

of Anatolia, which has been home for prehistoric cultures and cultures in history.

Situated in the east of the Upper Euphrates Basin, Keban Region is located about

47 kilometers of Elazığ. Within the framework of the Keban Dam Project, rescue

excavations were carried out in Aşvan, Ağın, near Pertek and in Altınova between

1968-1974.

Doomed by the water of the Keban Dam Reservoir, Tepecik was one of the middle-

sized settlement mounds in Altınova. Besides the other important sites like

Norşuntepe and Korucutepe, Tepecik was an extensively researched settlement,

where apart from other prehistoric cultures, the Karaz culture of the Early Bronze

Age and its relations to the other contemporaneous cultures in Anatolia could be

traced clearly. Known as Kura-Araxes culture in Transcaucasia and the Near East,

this long-lasted culture can be traced in Tepecik from the Late Chalcolithic to the

beginnings of the Middle Bronze Age in an almost uninterrupted sequence.

In this article, the Early Bronze Age settlements of the Keban Region are discussed

briefly. Thereby, the archaeological data from the settlements forms the basis for

interpreting the social situation and interregional relationships in this Anatolian

region in the 3rd millennium BC. Because of its almost continuous cultural

sequence, the focus is put on the architectural remains and findings of Tepecik.

This prerequisite would be a good refrence for undersanding the socio-cultural

interactions at the eastern part of the Upper Euphrates Basin at the end of the Late

Chalcolithic Period and the Early Bronze Age.