State of the art survey techniques are providing a unique understanding of this major Iron Age city through the recovery of a remarkably detailed plan. Imaging techniques allow for graphic visual display and permit the formulation of testable hypotheses that will shed light on the urban dynamics. Of the three major components two, balloon photography and GPS mapping, are now complete. Geomagnetic survey will require two further seasons of intensive work. The results should be of extreme interest to students of the Ancient Near East.

Clearance of a portion of the defences is revealing a city gate that turns out to be far more substantially preserved than had been anticipated. The gate, already visually impressive, will be enhanced by clearance of the passage and chamber and through a program of limited conservation that will afford protection and enhance the safety of visitors.

The discovery that the east end of the 'Palace Complex' underwent a major remodelling has added a new dimension, as has the realisation that, in spite of its exceptional size and the grandeur of some of the freestanding structures at its east end, the complex as a whole appears closely to resemble other large urban blocks within the city. Sparse finds from limited areas of excavation extend the previously known taste for exotic trappings of ivory and gold and have provided a valuable corpus of pottery vessels from a secure context. If the charcoal beams have sufficient annual growth rings, the question of the date and, therefore, of the identification of the site, will no doubt be resolved.

Regional landscape studies will provide a wider setting within which cultural choice and still other consequences of dramatic human intervention can be assessed.