The Aliar Regional Project (1993-1994)

Author(s): Ronald L. Gorny

Source: The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), pp. 52-54
Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3210468
Accessed: 27-01-2017 07:46 UTC

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The Alisar Regional Project (1993-1994)
XCAVATIONS RESUMED AT ALISAR
Hoyiik in central Turkey dur-
ing the summer of 1993 as
part of a project designed to answer
questions left unresolved when the
the original Oriental Institute excava-
tions ceased in 1932. Initial site sur-
vey was followed by test excavations
on the lower terrace. A new topo-
to capacity, the lake created by this
dam will cover an area of 24,806 ha.
Several large mounds in the dam
Gelingiilllti Dam Project. While aerial area have already been surrounded
photography, mapping, and survey by water and will soon be lost. These
continued on and around Alisar include Cemalli H6ytik in the Egri
itself, the primary focus of our activi- Ozu valley, as well as Orta, Kiciik,
ties in 1994 were concentrated on and Dedik H6yiiks in the Kanak Su
obtaining as much information as valley. Although (adir Hoyuik is
possible about (]adir H6yuik and the threatened, only the lower portions of
long valley that connects it with the site will be affected.
other ancient settlements in the area, Various aspects of the project

! .

'F..
R?;,h: . ".
? .;," . .. ..l.t

Aerial photograph of Alisar Ho6yk showing areas excavated from 1927-1932 by the Oriental Institute. Photograph courtesy of Ge
and Frangoise Summers of the Kerkenes Dag Survey Project

graphic map of Alisar was also the whole length of which is to be which were centered on the mound
begun, and a Regional Survey wasflooded. Efforts in the vicinity of at Alisar H6yiik continued in 1994,
undertaken to document the cultural (adir Hbyfik included a systematic the most detailed of which was the
inventory of the surrounding Kanak site survey and an intensified topographic mapping of the site.
Su basin. regional reconnaissance of the area to Aerial photography was accom-
In 1994, the attention of the exca- be impacted by the new lake. plished with the aid of a camera-
vation team temporarily shifted to Part of a regional project that will laden balloon supplied by the
nearby (adir H6yiik because of the provide irrigation water for much of Kerkenes Dag Survey Project being
impending threat to the site by wa- central Turkey, the Gelingiillii Dam conducted by Geoff and Franqoise
ters from the newly constructed was completed in 1993. When filled Summers of Middle East Technical

52 Biblical Archaeologist 58:1 (1995)

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University. Work also continued on valley plain. The main mound is A broad defensive wall with a
refining the Alisar ceramic repertoire, approximately 240 x 185 m and has a nicely fashioned interior face
including the first publication of lower occupied terrace that runs for emerged from beneath the burned
Chalcolithic pottery with curvilinear another 200 m along a ridge to the mudbrick. The partially exposed wall
decoration. These pieces, which sug- northeast. In 1993, an initial inspec- seems to be part of a fortification
gest connections with the Balkans, tion of the site revealed occupation system that can be seen completely
are paralleled by examples from from at least the Chalcolithic through encircling the mound. The deepest
Giuzelyurt and Kamankale H6yiik in the Late Roman-Byzantine periods. portion of the step-trench also con-
Turkey and by specimens from the tained the remnants of what appears
Excavation began in a narrow
Precucutine phase of the Thracian to be a smaller Bronze Age wall
step-trench situated near the base of
Vinca culture. the mound which produced Iron Age which has an orientation roughly
(adir Hbyiik is located approxi- materials. A 2 m thick layer of perpendicular to the main fortifica-
mately 13 km northwest of Alisar 10 burned mudbrick found just below tion wall.
km and southeast of the large granite the surface suggests a broad destruc- The highest section of the step-
outcropping known as Kerkenes Dag. tion across this portion of the site in trench revealed the comer of a room
Situated along the northern edge of a the late Iron Age. The burned mud- or building with a series of plaster
long east-west valley that may have brick appears to have come from a floors, and several pieces of
been a major ancient thoroughfare in wall higher up the slope which had Achaemenid (Persian) gray ware
antiquity, ?adir rises 32 m above the tumbled into our excavation area. along with other pottery showing

420

Istanbuu Va

. Aras
...............................................................................................................a A n k a r a . .X..Ais a r O -__ ../ . .

k ~ (h
~G6lii"L
To Yozgat
f Beysehir

Kerkenes

Da)
?adir

Gelingillii
Gelingillii Lake
Dam "Alisar
Dam HoyOk
Su

Alisar Regional
Survey Area
To
Kayseri

MAP of Anatolia (Turkey) with inset of Alisar regions.

Biblical Archaeologist 58:1 (1995) 53

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 i~ i i i........................! i ! i i l i ! ! i .... .... . .

Achaemenid influences and appar- (adir H6yik, viewed from the north. The
radar. At (adir, work will continue insouthern side rises 32 m above the level of
ently dating to the 5th century BCE. the step-trench extending the trench
the plain.
Two soundings were dug as a control to the top of the mound. On the
for materials excavated from the south side of the mound, the sound-
main trench. One encountered a wall ing in square will be expanded. The
of Roman date followed by Hellenis- Regional Survey team will also con-
tic remains before reaching virgin tinue to document the Kanak Su
soil at a depth of two meters. On the valley's cultural inventory
opposite, southern side of the Iron Age city wall at (adir H6yUk and
mound, the second sounding Ronald L Gorny smaller Bronze Age wall (right) excavated
produced large amounts of black- in the step trench.
polished pottery in association with
obsidian debutage. Examples of a
red-black polished pottery known
from other central Anatolian sites

such as Kiosk, Oyma Aga<, Diin-

dartepe, and Ikiztepe were found in
levels below those which produced
the initial black-polished pottery. The
whole assemblage is tentatively dated
on the basis of parallels from these
sites to the Chalcolithic period,
though there is some basis for ex-
tending this date back into the late
Neolithic.
Plans for the 1995 season include
work at both Alisar and (adir
Hdyiiks. Although the primary focus
of the project will continue to be on
(adir Hdytik, we plan to continue
our work at Alisar by exploring the
dynamics of site development with
environmental and geomorphologic
studies which will include coring
and the use of ground penetrating

54 Biblical Archaeologist 58:1 (1995)

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