New Symbols of a New Power in a "Royal" Tomb from 3000 BC Arslantepe, Malatya (Turkey)

The paper presents the extraordinary discovery at Arslantepe, on the borderline of the large period VI A public area, of an isolated burial from the very beginning of the 3rd millennium (period VI В) with imposing size and construction features , complex ritual, and very rich funerary gifts, which seems to be ascribable to a high-status person. The high rank of the man buried in this tomb was also stressed by the presence of four adolescents probably sacrificed on the stone slabs covering the cist grave with the main personage. Various specialists present the results of their investigations (typological connections, anthropological and paleopathological features, metal composition, geological provenance of the stone slabs, identification of wood remains and. C14 date) converging in an interdisciplinary study which allows to debate the cultural and ethnic identity of the deceased, the external relationships evidenced by the tomb, its cultural/historical significance in the development of the site. The unusual characteristics of this tomb, its dating to the period immediately after the collapse of the Mesopotamian-type palatial system, the presence in it of both handmade red-black Transcaucasian pottery and light-coloured wheel-made pottery in the local VI A tradition, open the debate on the role the Transcaucasian component may have played both in the collapse of the powerful religious/ administrative 4th millennium centre at Arslantepe and in the radical changes that took place in the political and socio-economic systems of the Eastern Anatolian communities at the beginning of the third millennium.