It was occupied from the Late Early Bronze Age until the Roman period and is notable as the discovery location of the Kurkh Monoliths.

The site (at that time called Kurkh) was first excavated by John George Taylor in 1861 to 1863 and again in 1866 observing "a high mound and a cluster of lower heaps about its base, situated at the eastern end of an elevated platform evidently the site of a large town on the right bank of the Tigris" with the high mound topped by a large Parthian fort "about a mile in circumference".

In the soil by the fort Taylor found the two Neo-Assyrian period Kurkh Monoliths, dating to the reigns of Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) and his son Shalmaneser III.

[7] The Üçtepe Höyük was excavated between 1988 and 1992 by a joint Diyarbakır Archaeological Museum and Istanbul University team led by Veli Sevin.

[12] At one point the site was proposed to be Tidu, a Neo-Assyrian satellite of Tušḫan and with the Mitanni period Ta’idu.

If my lord would order it, my messengers should keep on going to these people, so that with 20 manas of silver I could bribe them and make them the enemy of the ruler of Elaḫut in a very short time.