Müslümantepe is located in the Bismil district of Diyarbakır province. It is approximately 22 km on the road route to the town of Tepe in Bismil. The mound was visited by Algaze and surveyed and published by us in 1999. Within the framework of the Ilisu Dam rescue excavations, excavations were started in 2000 under the coordination of METU-TAÇDAM, the Diyarbakır Museum Presidency and our scientific consultancy. The excavations carried out within METU-TAÇDAM between 2000-2002 were also evaluated within the publications of TAÇDAM. In 2003-2004, the excavations were cancelled due to TAÇDAM's failure to allocate a budget for the Müslümantepe excavations. In 2005, when the project coordinatorship was taken from TAÇDAM and given to the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, a budget allocation was made for the Müslümantepe excavations and the excavations started again.
With the new excavations, the topographic map of the mound was prepared and new equipment was purchased. In addition, the excavation strategy and work schedule of the excavation, which is scheduled to continue until 2015, have been redefined. Accordingly, three main excavation areas were identified to investigate the horizontal and vertical spread of the mound in detail, and the method and duration of work in these excavation areas were programmed. In this context, the Müslümantepe mound area was determined as the main excavation area to determine the vertical stratigraphic formation, and the Hristiyantepe area was determined as a separate excavation area to investigate the horizontal spread of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC settlements and the Obeid Period documented in this area. The cemetery area located approximately 150 m southwest of the mound, which had been excavated in previous periods, was also designated as a third excavation area. An important factor encouraging the excavations in the cemetery area is the fact that it is the cemetery of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC settlements on the mound as well as a settlement dating back to the Chalcolithic (Obeid) period. Therefore, since the 2005 excavation season, the cemetery area has become an important study area in terms of tracing the Chalcolithic cultural layers of Müslümantepe settlement.
When the topographical structure of Müslümantepe and the historical development of the identified settlements are analysed, it is understood that the geographical location of the mound and its relationship with the Tigris River played an important role. The Müslümantepe settlement is located in an arable valley starting from the south and extending towards the Tigris. In addition, the presence of oak trees on the high hills surrounding the mound until recently and especially the hunting dog skeletons recovered from the excavation site of Hristiyantepe show that the region had wild life and the privileges it provided in addition to its agricultural opportunities. According to the information provided by the geological soundings, it is understood that the Müslümantepe settlement was founded on a peninsula-like sedimentation coming from the south and inserted into the base of the Tigris. This should be noted as an important factor that facilitated the defence of Müslümantepe settlement within the conditions of the period. The Çoramezri stream, which passes just east of the cemetery area, has the appearance of a dried up stream and a spring emerged in the bed of the stream in 2007 due to the flood events in the region. This unexpected event gave a new meaning to the Chalcolithic settlement in the excavation area of the cemetery.
The Müslümantepe settlement was found to be spread over an area of 20 hectares in the horizontal plane contrary to what was thought, except for the mound cone observed in the field. As it can be observed from the topographic map and the results obtained from the surface survey and the boreholes opened outside the mound cone; it is seen that both the settlement and the cemetery spread over large areas from time to time. Accordingly, the part of the mound cone facing the Tigris should be twice as big as it is now. However, the northern half of the settlements of the period was completely destroyed by soil withdrawal and flooding of the Tigris River, as evidenced by a large mudbrick fortification wall built in the 3rd millennium BC and an enclosure wall built with stones collected from the stream in the 2nd millennium BC. As a matter of fact, the architectural remains recovered during the excavations in the mound are mostly architectural remains of the courtyard and outbuildings in the south of the buildings that should have existed in the destroyed area. Approximately 60 m north of the existing mound cone and 15 m below it, a 2 m thick cultural deposit was encountered during the drilling works carried out in the area used as a field by the Tigris. All these data make it almost impossible to identify the settlement texture of Müslümantepe, where we are currently carrying out excavations, and the important civil and official buildings and to construct their contexts within their own periods. Despite all these negativities, the fire-exposed temple outbuilding and the Insitu artefacts inside, which were unearthed in the mound cone in 2008 and dated to the 2nd millennium BC, are important finds for the archaeology of the region. In addition, a bulla (clay seal impression) dating to the Assyrian Trade Colonial Age recovered from one of the storage structures unearthed on a lower step of the same staircase-opening during the 2009 excavations is of unique importance in determining the commercial activities and road routes of the Colonial Age in the Upper Tigris Region. In the 2010 excavation season, it will not be a surprise to find a merchant archive in the same area.
Müslümantepe is one of the best representative centres of the Obeid culture that dominated Mesopotamia in the 5th millennium BC in the Upper Tigris region and shows that it was in close contact with the south. This situation continues in the Late Uruk Age of the Sumerians and the Erhanedenan Period, and the seal finds from the Jemdet Nasser Period and the Erhanedenan Period buttressed fortification structure show a living standard, political organisation and commercial activities close to their southern contemporaries. Furthermore, it is observed that during the Erhanedenid period, the city was in close contact with the Caraz culture coming from the north (Caucasus) and attributed to the Huris. In the period following the Caraz culture (Middle Bronze Age), Müslümantepe starts to show more northern influence. It is the centre where the Dark Rim Orange Pottery DROP, Red Brown Washed Face (Dark Rim Orange Pottery DROP, Red Brown Washed Face) vessels attributed to the Hurrians are best and intensively represented in the Upper Tigris Region. In fact, recent grave finds have proved that this type of pottery took root in Müslümantepe as early as the Erhandedan Period, not in the 2nd millennium BC as in other centres, and became the dominant culture in the second millennium. In this context, Müslümantepe is one of the most important centres that traces the presence of the Huris in the region back to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, bearing in mind the relationship between the Karaz culture and the Huris. The iconographic features of the goddess figure on the tower-shaped pedestal Ryton found in the temple outbuildings and the painted depictions on the specially shaped cups used in the ritual are among the rare finds that preserve the originality of the art of this mountainous tribe from the north, the Huris, before they were assimilated to the Mesopotamian arts. The clay seal impression (Old Babylonian style seal impression) recovered in the Middle Bronze Age not only proves the trade relations of Muslimantepe with Assyria and Babylon to the south but also reinforces its central position in its region.
The survey conducted in the areas west, south and south-east of the mound cone, which are currently used as fields, as well as the ceramic sherds recovered during the survey and the graves and grave goods found by the villagers during agricultural activities indicate that the Müslümantepe cemetery spread over a wide area in the 2nd millennium BC and the Late Iron Age and later. In addition, the foundation excavations and soundings in the village revealed that the Late Iron Age and later (including Seljuk and Ottoman) settlement was under the contemporary village settlement at the southeastern foot of the mound. Therefore, when we include these data and consider them as a whole, it is understood that Müslümantepe has seen a significant settlement from the Obeid period to modern times and that this settlement has expanded and contracted from time to time. Therefore, in order to excavate and understand the cultural layers of Müslümantepe as a whole before it was left in the watershed, a large amount of time and material resources are needed. Another important issue is that the modern village settlement should be moved to a new area as soon as possible in order to investigate the Late Iron Age and later settlements in a healthy way.
Assist. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eyyüp AY