Hasankeyf’s Great Palace to be fully unearthed
BATMAN
Archaeological excavations in the historic district of Hasankeyf in southeastern Türkiye will fully reveal the so-called “Great Palace” along with its adjoining structures during the new excavation season.
One of humanity’s oldest settlement sites, Hasankeyf has been the focus of ongoing archaeological work led by Associate Professor Zekai Erdal of Mardin Artuklu University’s Faculty of Letters, Department of Art History. Excavations this year began in July at the Hasankeyf Ruins, where a 30-member team of archaeologists, art historians, architects and anthropologists is carrying out research.
The 2024 campaign is centered on the Great Palace located in the citadel of Hasankeyf, with the goal of fully uncovering the structure and preparing it for restoration.
Erdal told Anadolu Agency that the excavations are being conducted under the auspices of the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Directorate General of Cultural Heritage and Museums, within the framework of the “Heritage for the Future” project. “Our priority this year is to fully unearth the Great Palace in the citadel,” he said, noting that scholars from various Turkish universities are contributing to the project.
The Great Palace is considered the main structure of the Hasankeyf Citadel, although its exact date of construction and original builder remain uncertain. “Due to similarities between the mason marks on the palace stones and those on the Hasankeyf Bridge, sources suggest the structure may have initially been built as part of a Roman military garrison, later repurposed as a palace during the Artuqid era,” Erdal explained.
After falling out of use for an unknown period, the palace was filled with earth and rubble and eventually overlaid with a cemetery. Excavations first began in 1986, and by 2021, about half of the palace had been uncovered. Since then, work has focused on the palace and its surroundings.
“Our first priority is to expose the palace’s soil-filled walls, determine its boundaries, and then prepare it for conservation and restoration. We aim to achieve this goal by the end of this year,” Erdal said.
‘A key medieval center’
Erdal emphasized that the citadel, with its 12,000-year history, cannot be separated from the nearby Hasankeyf Mound. “The mound is dated to around 12,000 years ago, making it one of the earliest settlements in Anatolia,” he said.
“Hasankeyf Citadel, particularly in the Islamic period, served as a capital under the Artuqids and Ayyubids and was one of the most important centers of the Middle Ages,” he added. Most of the finds unearthed so far belong to the Islamic and Turkish-Islamic periods, but the team also expects to discover pre-Islamic artifacts connected to the Hasankeyf Mound during deeper stratigraphic work.
