Excavations of the Quarter of Inner Fortress at Harput: An Archaeological Approach to Osmanlı

Abstract

The ancient city of Harput was occupied from the Kingdom of Urartu to the beginning of twentieth century AD without a break. It was conquered by Yavuz Sultan Selim, the Ottoman king, at 1516, and was one of the important sites of Anatolia with its social, cultural and economical structure during the Ottoman era. At the citadel of Harput built on a rocky hill near the modern city of Elazığ an archaeological salvage project was initiated by the Museum of Elazığ from 2005 onwards. The aim of the excavation was to unearth the small district with its few houses, mosques, shops, ateliers and narrow streets that had been settled from the beginning of the Ottoman rule within the citadel. The mosque, Kale Camii, constructed on the Urartian stone foundations was excavated between 2006 and 2007. Stratigraphical data, structural characteristics and some small finds suggest that this building was one of the oldest mosques in Anatolia constructed by the Artuqids. Additionally two houses and a tin-maker's shop were excavated so far. The new excavation, however, carried on the district of the citadel at Harput directing in the approach of Ottoman archacology is at its preliminary stage yet.