Yumuktepe, also known as Yümüktepe, is a tell (ruin mound) within the city borders of

Mersin Mersin () is a large city and port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of Mediterranean Region, Turkey, southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of the Mersin Province (formerly İçel). It is made up of four district governorates ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. In 1936, the mound was on the outskirts of Mersin, but after a rapid increase of population, the mound was surrounded by the Toroslar municipality of Mersin.

History

There are 23 levels of occupation dating from the Neolithic.

Neolithic

Occupation begins in the Neolithic, . In his book, ''Prehistoric Mersin'', Garstang lists the tools unearthed in the excavations. The earliest tools are made of either stone or ceramic. Both agriculture and animal husbandry (sheep, cattle, goats and pigs) were among the economic activities in Yumuktepe.

Chalcolithic

In the layer which corresponds to roughly 4500 BC, remains have been found of one of the earliest fortifications in human history to exist. According to Isabella Caneva, during the

Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...

age an early copper blast furnace was in use in Yumuktepe. This was probably a coastal settlement, but because of the alluvion carried by the nearby Efrenk River, the mound is now north of the Mediterranean shore.

Late Bronze

Hittite Period

Yumuktepe was a part of Kizuwatna, a vassal kingdom of

Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

. In a document dated to 1440 BC, a city named Pitura was mentioned. Pitura might be the ancient name of the settlement. But a recent research suggests Elipru as the original name of the settlement. It seems, like most Hittite lands, Sea Peoples from Europe plundered Yumuktepe in 13th century BC.

Iron Age

Assyrian period

A second blow was from Assyrian Empire from Upper Mesopotamia.

Roman-Byzantine Period

During

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, a small city named Zephyrium was established to the south of Yumuktepe. But Emperor

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

() renamed the city as Hadrianapolis. During the early

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

, the nearby settlement of Soli ( at the west) flourished and Yumuktepe further lost its former status.

Excavations

Excavations took place between 1936 and 1938 by the British archaeologist John Garstang (1876–1956). He was the founder of the British Institute in Ankara, have revealed a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

settlement which continued up to medieval ages. However, the excavations halted during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and some documents in the Liverpool University were lost after an air raid. After the war, John Garstang as well as Veli Sevin of Istanbul University and Isabella Caneva of Sapienza University of Rome continued the excavations.