By the late Uruk period development had grown to include a large temple/palace complex.
Culturally, Melid was part of the "Northern regions of Greater Mesopotamia" functioning as a trade colony along the Euphrates River bringing raw materials to Sumer (Lower Mesopotamia).
Numerous similarities have been found between these early layers at Arslantepe, and the somewhat later site of Birecik (Birecik Dam Cemetery), also in Turkey, to the southwest of Melid.
Around 3000 BCE, the transitional EBI-EBII, there was widespread burning and destruction, after which Kura–Araxes pottery appeared in the area. This was a mainly pastoralist culture connected with the Caucasus mountains.