KOCAELİ Kocaeli University’s Archaeometry Research Group has discovered that the copper smelting and casting process in Anatolia dates back 3,000 years earlier than previously known, originating around 8,000 B.C.E. at the Gre Fılla excavation site in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır, rather than the widely accepted 5,000 B.C.E. in the southern province of Mersin. This breakthrough, led by Professor Dr. Ayşe Tuba Ökse of Kocaeli University and directed by the Diyarbakır Museum Directorate,