Excavation at Arslantepe Mound in Malatya, Turkey yielded a 3,000-year-old oven from the Late Hittite period along with three below-ground, tandoor-like installations interpreted as facilities for cooking meat. Arslantepe Mound is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
“We found two tandoor-like structures inside a building from the Late Hittite period, but we realized they were not normal tandoors because they were placed below the ground. We found oven feet made of baked clay and a large number of animal bones inside them. This showed us that these ovens were used not for bread, but for cooking food,” said Francesca Balossi Restelli, head of the Arslantepe Mound excavation team, according to TRT Haber.
“I think it was a method very similar to paper kebab. They put the meat inside, covered it with a baked clay lid, and cooked it for hours, even all night,” she said, according to Tele1.
Restelli said work began in August and focused on the area where the team had found similar structures in 2022; the third installation uncovered this year continued that series. The combination of baked-clay oven feet and abundant animal bones supported the interpretation of prolonged, meat-focused cooking rather than bread baking.
Restelli said the findings added to understanding of the region’s culinary past and showed clear continuities with present-day food culture in Malatya, inviting local chefs to explore those connections.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.