Taşkun Kale is a mound 31 km from
Elazığ
Elazığ () is a city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, and the administrative centre of Elazığ Province and Elazığ District. Founded in and around the former city of Harput, it is located in the uppermost Euphrates valley. The plai ...
city center in the northwest direction, and 4 km southeast of
Muratcik Village, formerly known as Aşvan. The hill is 150 meters in diameter and 20 meters high. On certain years, it becomes an island due to the rising waters of the
Keban Dam
The Keban Dam () is a hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates, located in the Elazığ Province of Turkey. The dam is the first and uppermost of several large-scale dams to be built on the Euphrates by Turkey. Although the Keban Dam was not originally ...
Lake. There is an İlhanlı castle on the
mound
A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...
. The settlement appears to have been a small agricultural community.
Excavations
The mound was identified in 1967 during surface surveys conducted by R. Whallon and S. Kantman as part of efforts to document archaeological sites that would be submerged by the Keban Dam Lake. Excavations were carried out from 1970 to 1973 under the direction of
David French from the
British Institute of Archeology at Ankara, with A. McNicoll leading the work within the scope of the Aşvan Project.
Stratification
The stratigraphy of the mound is similar to the
Aşvan Kale Mound. The earliest settlement dates back to the Early Bronze Age II and III. The mound then supposedly was abandoned for a while, and was inhabited again in the Late
Hellenistic Period
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
and the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
.
[{{Cite book, url=https://library.biaa.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=157390&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl:%20A%C5%9Fvan%20Kale, title=Aşvan Kale: Keban Rescue Excavations, Eastern Anatolia, series=BAR International Series: BIAA Monograph , access-date=18 August 2023, date=1980, language=en, page=22, publisher=B.A.R., isbn=978-0-86054-091-5 ]
Findings
A rectangular structure measuring 6.5 x 4.5 meters, with 50 cm thick mudbrick walls, was partially uncovered. Only two rooms of the structure have been revealed. The larger room, with plastered walls, contains a horseshoe-shaped hearth and a platform. The function of the adjacent room remains unclear.
Early Bronze Age pottery findings are scarce. The predominant ceramic type is the Karaz ware, characterized by dark, burnished surfaces. The most commonly found forms are pots with flared necks. Additionally, fragments of painted pottery from the Malatya-Elazığ region were discovered. These feature decorations such as wavy motifs, parallel lines, and filled triangles, painted in reddish-brown over a cream or pink slip.
The only published chipped stone artifact is a winged arrowhead made of flint, a type seen since the Chalcolithic Period.
A distinctive metal artifact from Taşkun Kale Höyük is a set of bronze styluses. These rare items feature a square-sectioned handle and a hexagonal-sectioned blade.
State of Preservation
The Keban Dam Lake, which rises from time to time, turns the mound into a small island, this gradually causes damage to anything still there.
See also
*
Aşvan Kale
External links
Close-up Sketch
References
Excavations