Silver Hill Altintepe
Altintepe ("Silver Hill") is one of the most impressive Urartian sites in eastern Anatolia, occupying a prominent position on the plain 20km/12mi east of Erzincan. A chance find of some bronze objects during the building of the railroad in 1938 led to the discovery of the site. Working on the citadel between 1959 and 1966, Turkish archeologists identified two levels of Urartian occupation (eighth/seventh century B.C.), uncovering the foundations of a palace and a square temple, with walls almost 5m/16ft thick, dedicated to the Urartian god Chaldi.
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Royal tombs containing a large array of funeral gifts (weapons, jewelry, horses' tackle, chariot parts, carved ivory etc.) were found on the upper slopes of the hill. The complex, encircled by two walls, seems to have been abandoned at about the turn of the seventh and sixth centuries. Little is so far known about its apparently violent end.
The dimensions (14 x 14m/46 x 46ft) and construction of the temple foundations (dressed masonry with bastion-like projections at the corners) identify it as a prototype of the Urartian "Susi" temples, with an altar in front of the entrance. Destroyed in the early seventh century B.C., it also had a colonnaded hall. The palace, adjacent to but not aligned with the temple, dates from the late seventh century. Traces of wall paintings were still visible in the large hall when it was first found but have since completely disappeared.
The dimensions (14 x 14m/46 x 46ft) and construction of the temple foundations (dressed masonry with bastion-like projections at the corners) identify it as a prototype of the Urartian "Susi" temples, with an altar in front of the entrance. Destroyed in the early seventh century B.C., it also had a colonnaded hall. The palace, adjacent to but not aligned with the temple, dates from the late seventh century. Traces of wall paintings were still visible in the large hall when it was first found but have since completely disappeared.
