The single, most important, overall result of the 2003 season of survey and excavation at the Iron Age city on the Kerkenes Dag in Central Anatolia (Figs 2, 3, 4) has been the revelation of very considerable evidence that further exemplifies the Anatolian characteristics of this large mountain-top capital. In summary this new evidence has shown it to be highly probable that the city was the centre of an Anatolian polity which was perhaps founded around the middle of the seventh century BC. Inscriptions on stone in the Old Phrygian language together with iconographic evidence perhaps point towards cultural influences from more westerly regions of Central Anatolia.

It remains clear that the city was, as has long been realised, a "new foundation" which displays unmistakable indications of a high level of centralised planning as well as the ability to command, organise and supply a huge workforce. In other words, the city was undoubtedly the capital of a powerful state and a part of its purpose was to make a very strong visible statement of that dominance which could be seen from a considerable distance in almost every direction. While it seems probable that the new evidence requires raising the date for the foundation of the city into the seventh century, it still appears that the city had a relatively short life. The 2003 season has provided yet further vivid demonstrations of the torching of the city followed by the thorough destruction of its stone defences. Architectural elements, relief sculpture, inscriptions, small objects and pottery, all reinforce the suggestion that the date of the destruction and abandonment can hardly have been much earlier than the mid sixth century, in which case it remains very probable that the destruction should be attributed to the activities of Croesus, King of Lydia, in or around 547 BC.