The Royal Stables
     The grant from METU BAP (Bilimsel Araştırma Projeleri) fund enabled further studies focusing on the Royal Stables located on the lower southern slope of the Kale adjacent to the Field, an adjacent flat area (Fig. 53). Participants from METU included Sema Bağci, Güzin Eren, Yasemin Özarslan, Geoffrey Summers and Françoise Summers. The additional geophysical survey conducted in 2010 permitted an increased understanding of the surrounding area and associated structures. Two other aspects of the study, phosphate analysis and ethnographic study, are described below.

     Phosphate Analysis
     Phosphate analysis is a standard method for testing archaeological interpretation of ancient structures such as animal stables. Iron Age horses, which were smaller than modern breeds of military horse, would each have produced about 16 litres of urine per day. Urine is high in phosphates with the result that surfaces, floors and subsurface deposits beneath and in the immediate vicinity of ancient stables are expected to contain high concentrations.
     In order to test the hypothesis that the structures under discussion were stables and that the field was primarily used for the exercise and training of horses a series of samples were collected from topsoil and from below stone paving (Fig. 58 and Table 1). Control samples were collected from a very similar situation on a part of the site that was certainly not used for the stabling of animals.
     In theory there should be a clear and significant difference in the phosphate content of samples from the putative stables and the control area. If this turns out to indeed be the case the interpretation of the structures as stables would almost certainly be proven. However, the results of laboratory analysis at the University of Wisconsin are not yet available. It is possible that some 2,550 years of leeching of the soil and subsoil, and perhaps also the relatively high acidity of the granitic soils, may have reduced levels of phosphate to such a degree that the analysis will be inconclusive.

     Ethnographic Study
     The importance and role of horses in the region has been the focus of an ethnographic study in Şahmuratlı and neighbouring villages. Merchants on a horse drawn cart were photographed in Şahmuratlı village (Fig. 59) and a pair of horses pulling a cart encountered in the Köhnüş Valley during a trip to the Highlands of Phrygia (Fig. 60).
     Attesting the long tradition of horse breeding in Cappadocia, a statue in the town of Esenli (Fig. 61), commemorates famous racehorses from the village of Dedik now drowned by the waters of the Gellingöllü Dam. A disused animal powered mill in Şahmuratlı village points to the importance of equid power a generation ago (Fig. 62). In nearby Emirhan, a donkey mill is still used to crush grain (Fig. 63).

     Kara Mehmet's Stable in Şahmuratlı Village
     Kara Mehmet Erciyas was the last man in Şahmuratlı village to own a horse. Fifty years ago, however, at a time when the village had a considerably larger population than it does today, almost every family owned a pair of horses for ploughing. These horses were stabled in the same animal sheds as the cattle and donkeys but were separated from each other as well as from other animals by wooden stalling. The width of the building, erected by Kara Mehmet's father perhaps 65 years ago, is 5m. Stalls were sufficiently wide for the animals to lie down and straw bedding changed more or less weekly as long as sufficient was available. Floors were of hard-packed earth rather than stone with a central drain running the length of the building. The large juniper roof timbers were probably reused from an older building and feeding troughs line one of the walls (Fig. 64). The original flat roof was constructed of beams supporting rafters covered with split branches and a thick layer of mud. A trap door cut through the original roof (Fig. 65) provides a glimpse of the recently added clay tile pitched roof. Today Kara Mehmet uses the same stable (Fig. 66). Although the floor is now of concrete, the central drain is retained and wooden stalling used to separate calves from their mothers (Figs 67 and 68).

     Breeding and Training of Racehorses at Mehmetbeyli Village
     In the neighbouring village of Mehmetbeyli racehorses are bred and raised (Fig. 69). The modern stable is built of bricks and concrete, preferred contemporary building materials that do not demand as much maintenance as timber and mud (Fig. 70). The building is roofed with a low-pitched reinforced concrete slab covered with corrugated sheeting to keep the slab dry. The structure is 9m wide and divided into three along its length with a central nave flanked by cubicles each measuring 3 by 3m (Fig. 71). There are high windows providing ventilation without a chilling draft. The total length is over 20m, only about one quarter of the combined length of the Kerkenes Stables as drawn in Figure 45b.
     Paddocks and fodder store (Figs 72 and 73) adjoin the stables. Even in the depths of an Anatolian winter there is rarely a day when the weather is so inclement that horses are not put out for exercise. Each animal consumes four bales of feed per day plus a supplement of grain. As can be seen in Figure 73, there are three types of bale: korunga, perennial herbaceous plants including vetch, hay (ot); and alfalfa (yonca,). Sacks of grain are stored in one cubicle of the stable building while bales and bedding is only partially covered. Bedding is of talaş, wood chips, purchased in Ankara and changed every three months. If straw is used it should be changed every day because it is not absorbent.