The mound was discovered by U. Serdaroğlu and his team during the Lower Euphrates Survey in 1975. In 1978 - 1986 there were carried on rescue excavations by Ufuk Esin from Istanbul University. The excavations yielded 11 layers of occupation from the Chalcolithic Age -Ubaid period, the Early Bronze Age Kura–Araxes culture, the Middle Bronze Age, the Iron Age, till the Byzantine remains. The Chalcolithic Age is the best preserved strata. According C14 it this period covers the end of the sixth millenium and the fifth millenium BC.
See:
- Ufuk Esin “Salvage excavations at Değirmentepe (Malatya)”. In O. Belli eds.,Istanbul University’s Contribution To Archaeology in Turkey (1932-2000), Istanbul 2001, pp. 18-24
- Giulio Palumbi, I. Caneva, A. Pasquino: The Ubaid Impact on the Periphery: Mersin-Yumuktepe during the Fifth Millennium BC, in C Marro eds. After the Ubaid: Interpreting Change from the Caucasus to Mesopotamia at the Dawn of Civilization (4500-3500 BC), Varia Anatolica XXVII, Paris 2012, pp. 354