Today, on the 26th of July 2021, the World Heritage Committee added seven sites to the famous UNESCO's World Heritage List. Among the newly inscribed places, there is one archaeological site from the area of Turkey - Arslantepe Mound.

Arslantepe Mound is a 30-metre-high tell located in the Malatya Province in eastern Turkey, just 12 kilometres to the south-west of the Euphrates River. Archaeological evidence indicates that the site was occupied from at least the 6th millennium BCE until the late Roman period.

The most prominent period of Arslantepe was in the Late Chalcolithic period, when the so-called palace complex was constructed. Significant material evidence also testifies to the importance of the site during the Early Bronze Age, most prominently identified by the Royal Tomb complex. The archaeological stratigraphy also extends to the Paleo-Assyrian and Hittite periods, including Neo-Hittite era.

The site of Arslantepe is an excellent illustration of the processes that led to the emergence of a state society in the Near East and a sophisticated bureaucratic system that predated writing. Exceptional metal objects and weapons were excavated at the site, among them the earliest swords so far known in the world, which suggests the beginning of forms of organized combat as the prerogative of an elite, who exhibited them as instruments of their newly acquired political power.