Osmaniye lies in the east of the Çukurova plain and has been settled for thousands of years. From the earliest periods it was the setting for Hittites, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines, and for a number of other peoples besides. Later the Umayyads and Abbasids lived on this ground, and with the Turkish conquest of Anatolia, Turkish tribes began arriving from about 1080. From the start of the 12th century the region has been Turkish country.
The prehistoric record is in the mounds. On the southern and western slopes of Domuztepe, now under the Aslantaş reservoir, settlements of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages were uncovered. In Kadirli district there are the mounds of Topraktepe, Taşlı, İspir and Tırmıl, and at Cevdetiye the mound of Karataşlı.
