Dolmens of Hatay (Southern Turkey) and their Connections in Anatolia and the Levant

Abstract

Dolmen-like structures occur through much of the Levant, where they are commonly assigned an Early Bronze Age date. Publication of similar structures in Anatolia has been primarily in Turkish, and the Anatolian evidence has generally not figured in discussions of the ‘dolmen phenomenon’. This study describes in some detail the above-ground burial structures at two locations in Hatay, and, more briefly, describes previously published structures at five additional sites, within the west bank drainage of the Euphrates River in south-eastern Anatolia. The study then situates the dolmen-like structures at these seven sites as part of the transregional ‘dolmen phenomenon’, and locates them in the context of local landscapes and settlement systems.