Between 2001 and 2014, the Asia Minor Research Center at the University of Münster investigated the summit area of Dülük Baba Tepesi. In addition, conservation work was carried out from 2019 to 2021. The work of an international team of researchers was able to prove the existence of the Iuppiter Dolichenus sanctuary on Dülük Baba Tepesi beyond doubt.

However, little can be said about the development of the sanctuary in the Roman imperial period. Although a clear monumentalization can be seen, the building remains have been largely destroyed by the long period of subsequent use. The only thing that is clear is that there were paved squares with halls. The entire complex was walled and accessed from the east by a flight of steps. As a rule, however, only the remains of the foundations remain, the function of which can no longer be reconstructed. In addition, there are a large number of different components that indicate the existence of numerous buildings whose location and function are largely unknown. Over the years, however, numerous finds have been made, most of which no longer have a context, but nevertheless contribute to our understanding of the cult in Roman times. They clearly show, for example, that the sanctuary was not only used by the local population, but was also visited by people from various regions of the Roman Empire.

However, numerous finds from the Iron Age were also recovered right at the start of the excavations. It also became apparent that Iron Age building features were still well preserved in the peripheral areas of the central summit plateau. This is due to the fact that these buildings were systematically demolished in the 2nd century BC, after which the ground level was raised and new buildings erected. The latter were largely destroyed, but the underlying Iron Age features were preserved. Analysis of the finds and features shows that the sanctuary was already in use in the 10th century BC. The main construction phases then date to the 7th and 6th centuries BC, when the sanctuary was surrounded by a massive wall. Thousands of small finds from the Iron Age layers can be linked to sacrificial rituals and also show that the people who gathered here had access to prestigious objects from distant regions. The discovery of the Iron Age sanctuary is significant in two respects. Firstly, it proves that the cult of Jupiter Dolichenus actually has ancient oriental roots. The sanctuary was in continuous use from the 10th century BC to the 3rd century AD. This makes it significantly older than the city. The excavations in the city area, which have been ongoing since 2015, have confirmed that the settlement of Doliche was first established in the 3rd century BC, but only took on an urban character in the course of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Doliche thus shows how a rural Iron Age sanctuary, which developed into a regional center after the Assyrian conquest in the 7th century BC, became the religious center of a newly developing city in the Hellenistic period. However, the cult remained fundamentally extra-urban. Doliche is therefore an interesting example of the symbiosis of a Hellenistic, Greek-influenced city and a sanctuary in the ancient Oriental tradition. The fact that evidence of earlier phases of the sanctuary can still be found on the Dülük Baba Tepesi below the Hellenistic horizon is certainly a stroke of luck, not only for research into the sanctuary of one of the most important gods of the Roman Empire, but also for questions of cult continuity and religious history of the entire ancient Near East.

Another important discovery was the existence of an important Christian monastery in the area of the sanctuary, which became the center of a larger settlement in the Middle Ages. Most of the finds and features from the excavations date back to the period between the 5th and 12th centuries A.D. The monastery’s heyday can be traced back to the 8th to 11th centuries, partly on the basis of inscriptions in Syriac. They allow the monastery to be identified as the monastery of St. Solomon, which is well known from contemporary written sources, but whose location was unknown. However, the long life of the monastery has also contributed to the fact that only a few remains of the Roman sanctuary have survived.