ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The fifth and final field season
of the first phase of the Kerkenes project took place during August
and September 1997 under the auspices of the British Institute of
Archaeology at Ankara (BIAA). Once more it is a pleasure to thank
participants, sponsors and friends for all the enthusiastic support,
donations, hard work and encouragement.
We wish to thank the General Director
and staff of the General Directorate of Museums and Monuments and
Mr Musa Ozcan, Director of the Yozgat Museum, for continuing help
and encouragement. The Vali of Yozgat, Mr Naflz Kayali, the Director
of the Yozgat office of the Ministry of Culture, Mr Veyis Sanal and
the Kaymakam of Sorgun, Mr Ekrem Yaman, renewed their support. We
are greatly indebted to our representative, Mr Ugur Terzioglu of the
Samsun Museum, for his enthusiastic participation and assistance.
The village of Sabmuratli and its Muhtar, Mr Osman Muratdagi, again
extended its friendly hospitality and the expedition house offered
the facilities and friendly atmosphere essential to the good progress
of work. Special thanks are due to Dr. Sevket Bagci and to the house
staff without whom running the expedition would have been an impossible
task.
Grants for 1997 were awarded by the British Academy and the BIAA.
The donation, from Yibitas Lafarge, of a powerful Intergraph computer
and a grant for a research assistant will enable the progress of the
post-survey processing of data at METU. An educational copy of Intergraph
GIS software package was bought with an anonymous donation. Scans
of photographs were made at the Dept. of Graphic Design, Bilkent University,
with the kind cooperation of Prof Dr. Bulent Özguc, at TAI Inc. and
the BIAA; Mr Zeki Sagay of MNG Inc. oversaw the production of an orthophoto,
the digital camera was donated by Nurol Inc. and an eight page colour
brochure, primarily intended for PR and fund raising, was printed
for the project by the Is Bank. Much valuable help in kind came from
Core Resources Management, the Galata Hotel - Yozgat, Hilton Ankara,
Intergraph, MESA Inc., METU, Metis-Balfour Beatty Joint Venture, Sheraton
Ankara, Sokkia Seza, Yenigun Insaat and Yimpas. Dr. Ronald Gorny,
Director of the Alisar Project, loaned equipment. Dr. Attila Ciner
and Onur Köse, from the Geology Department of Hacettepe University
produced images combining the Digital Terrain Model with the Landsat
Satellite Image provided by MTA.
We were pleased to welcome again Simone Korolnik, our conservator,
whose meticulous work last autumn on the conservation of the ivory
can now be admired in the new gallery of the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations
in Ankara. Special thanks are due to the Museum Director, Mr Ilhan
Temizsoy.
Scott Branting, Director of the GIS Office, Oriental Institute Chicago,
undertook the GPS survey with equipment loaned by the 01. Survey of
the city defences was completed by Nilufer Baturayoglu, and the detailed
study of gates by Ömur Harmansah. Christine Perrier was largely responsible
for co-ordinating the cadastral survey and her contribution as research
and publication assistant continues to be essential. Graphics and
electronic data management continue to progress thanks to the efforts
of Levent Topaktas and Deniz Kutay. Graphic design and the World Wide
Web page remains the responsibility of Jakub Michalski, a graphic
design student at Bilkent University. Prof Dr. Mete Nakiboglu and
Dr Mustafa Turker are supporting post-survey GIS analyses under the
umbrella of the newly established Graduate Programme for Geodesics
and Geographical Information Technologies (METU). Geological and geomorphological
studies were carried out by Prof. Dr. Ayhan Erler, Kadir Dirik, Piril
Onen (METU) and Christine Perrier. Nahide Aydin, who has participated
in every season since the start of the project, has become an essential
member of the team. Other team members played invaluable roles: Kamyar
Abdi, Jennifer Alcock, Fiona Armitage. Stevan Beverley, Katherine
Geers. Andrew Goldman, Ivgeniya Grigoriev, Zenia Huserich, Pen Johnson,
Torben Larsen, Jared Miller, Jennifer Ross and Stine Rossel. The team,
truly international, was drawn from the Universities of Bilkent, Chapel
Hill, Chicago, Copenhagen, London, METU, Michigan, Sheffield, Tel
Aviv and UCLA.
Dr. Lewis Somers, GEOSCAN, designed geomagnetic sampling strategies
and image processing from data collected by Ibrahim Ciftci. Some team
members took up the opportunity to develop skills in geophysical survey
with commendable success.
A BIAA supplementary grant was awarded to Dr. Wendy Matthews for study
of the samples that she took for micromorphological research during
the 1996 season.
Of the many who freely gave advice and encouragement special thanks
are due to Prof Crawford H. Greenewalt Jr., Dr. David French, Dr.
Roger Matthews and Prof Henry T. Wright Jr.