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MAJOR RESULTS

1. Historical
It has been argued that the city was ancient Pteria, latest observations provide further conformation.

2. Geophysical
Geophysical maps confirmed a number of hypothesis and yielded unexpected results:

  1. Some areas were unfinished at the time of destruction, seemingly areas intended for military and administrative use, a result in keeping with the observation that the ambitious city defences were also uncompleted.
  2. There is only one building level, confirming that occupation was brief, less than a generation.
  3. The city was destroyed by fire, confirmed by geophysics and by further ground observation.
  4. Many (?all) large enclosures visible on the surface in the lower city area contain buried buildings (Figs 7, 10 and 13). Most appear to be domestic, e.g. tworoomed houses with walled courtyards, and do not display the characteristics of centralised planning evident in the layout of enclosures and public buildings in the southern area of the city.
  5. Most of the geo-magnetic maps are of outstanding clarity. Very large areas of the city lend themselves to future geophysical survey.

3. City Plan
Plans of a large portion of the southern end of the city and other areas were produced in AutoCAD (Fig. 3 and 6). It is now possible to understand concepts that underlay the city planning and make a provisional attempt at dividing the city into functional zones: military, public, religious and residential. The importance and sophistication of both communications and water management within the city are more fully comprehended. The inter-regional importance of the city is better understood and its potential as a considerable military base has become clearer. Production of population estimates is a goal for the winter, but it is clear that the population was modest in relation to the size of the city, a few thousand at most. Nevertheless, there were no large empty spaces within the city.

4. Temples
The extra mural temple at Karabas was fully recorded and its plan elucidated (Figs 16, 17, 19 and 20). The smaller temple within the city has also been fully studied (Fig. 18). A
report on both is being prepared for publication.

5. Later Monuments
The walls of the Byzantine castle and of an earlier phase, perhaps Achaemenid in origin, have been planned (Fig. 21), as has the small church complex (Fig. 22) at the castle foot. This completes study of later monuments within the city limits. Publication is in preparation.

6. Regional Survey
The Regional Survey, c. Skins radius, was completed in 1995. Preliminary conclusions are summarised below.

No neolithic or early chalcolithic occupation was observed on the high ground of the Kerkenes Dag, perhaps because it was then forested. Coring at Kusakli Hoyuk in the Esri Oz valley, 4km north of Kerkenes, demonstrates that early sites lie beneath later alluvium in the valley bottoms (as at Alisar Hoyuk, H.H. von der Osten Alishar III). It is postulated that neolithic and early chalcolithic lies obscured below later occupation and geomorphological deposits in the region. Geomorphological landscape change may be related to highland exploitation, concomitant deforestation and erosion. We may be able to demonstrate a shift from small seasonal late chalcolithic sites to larger “urban” sites and permanent villages in Early Bronze II.

Small late chalcolithic or EB I sites are found on higher ground, many in very exposed positions. Models for this pattern of land use are being developed while the question of seasonality remains an outstanding problem.

Later EBA sites are fewer and in less exposed positions, perhaps representing the establishment of settled villages with large and modest sites in river valleys.

Second Millennium occupation is restricted to valleys, late Imperial Hittite being found only at Kusakli, identified with ancient Zippalanda (Prof. O.R. Gurney Anatolian Studies XLV: 69-71; Dr. R.L. Gorny in press). The Kerkenes peak is probably the Hittite sacred Mount Daha, the later Kale presumably masks Hittite remains.

The Achaemenid period Kale was fortified with a stone glacis below strong walls. Small sites exist on surrounding peaks representing a sophisticated late Achaemenid system of control and administration centred on Kerkenes.

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Figure 1

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Figure 10