Middle Bronze Age burial customs in Southeastern Anatolia in the light of new excavations

In this dissertation, Middle Bronze Age graves and cemeteries in Southeastern Anatolia and Northern Syria have been investigated in terms of construction techniques and types of graves, burial patterns, grave goods and location of them. Almost 150 graves of Oylum Höyük have been taken as a separate chapter and were compared with the graves of two region. The obtained data showed that intramural graves are commonly seen but there are extramural graves or cemeteries on the slopes of settlements or near them. Also, we can speak the existence of inhumation burial, a reduction in the number of grave goods compared to the previous period, food-offerings in some regions and family graves due to the practise of multiple burial. While studies have showed that there are three cultural regions according to the burial customs, it has revealed the relationships of the Oylum Höyük with this regions. At the end of the IIIrd millennium and beginning of the IInd millennium, absence of a significant difference in burial customs, it has demonstrated cultural continuity. Further in Middle Bronze Age of Southeastern Anatolia, while there is an increase or decrease of some grave types of number, the emergence of shaft graves in MBA II-III showed that this custom later than Northern Syria. A variety of grave types in this period can explain by the interact of surrounding regions with each other and the existence of different communities.