There were many discoveries made during the eighth campaign of excavations at K\u0131n\u0131k H\u00f6y\u00fck, Ni\u011fde.\u00a0The excavation at the archaeological site of K\u0131n\u0131k H\u00f6y\u00fck is a joint research project\u00a0of the University of Pavia (Department of Humanities) and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World of New York University, led by Professor Lorenzo d\u2019Alfonso and supported by the General Directorate of the Antiquities and Museums of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey. In addition to the financial support provided by the two Universities mentioned above, the project can count with a grant from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the fund for excavation projects at The Metropolitan Museum of New York, and a sponsorship by T\u00fcrk Trakt\u00f6r.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0excavation campaigns carried out in the 2014 – 2016 period in Operation A, sector A1, on the north-western slope of the mound uncovered four rooms of a sanctuary. There were two main levels of occupations, one\u00a0 Late Achaemenid, and one Late Hellenistic (around 400 – 50 BC), where\u00a0zoomorphic vessels representing\u00a0birds (often identified as birds of prey) were found. In the Late Hellenistic levels of the sanctuary,\u00a0besides a \u00a0number of coin hoards and other precious metal objects, fragments of three female figurines were found: two of them were\u00a0identified as a Kybele and an Aphrodite (the latter an import from Tarsus). The third female figurine was\u00a0too fragmentary to be identified. Excavations in 2018 continued in the sanctuary with a view to\u00a0defining the limits of the site to the West\u00a0and to the South.\u00a0Moreover the\u00a0sanctuary area was equipped\u00a0with a semi-permanent cover to facilitate the stabilisation and restoration of the whole building.<\/p>\n
The most interesting aspect of this excavation campaign was the discovery of cultic finds and a new public monumental architecture east of the sanctuary.\u00a0Excavation in a new trench uncovered the citadel walls from the Late Hellenistic and Archaemenid period, and possibly the northern gate of the acropolis of the temple-city.\u00a0Inside the citadel walls, a stone-paved\u00a0square was found\u00a0dating back to the Late Hellenistic period, and\u00a0excavated\u00a0 for a surface area of more than 110 m2.\u00a0\u00a0In the eatern section, the paving of the\u00a0square was not preserved, and stone and buidling debris covered the floor.\u00a0\u00a0The debris contained\u00a0hundreds of ceramic fragments, which can be traced back to at least thirteen statues of bulls.\u00a0\u00a0 Preliminary observations on the dimension of the\u00a0bull heads would make it reasonable to think that the statues were of two main sizes and namely: statues of approx.\u00a0\u00a050 cm (head of about 15 cm) and statues of over 1 m (head of about 35 cm). Some fragments of these statues showed figurative appliques of\u00a0Greek gods Athena and Dionysus, and a molded panel of Silenus on the back of a donkey in a frame of grapes. The set of finds from this area also included votive inscriptions on the bulls and marble architectural decorations. According to the data available, the finds pertain to a\u00a0second sanctuary located to the east of the\u00a0piazza, and possibly dedicated to Dionysus. The hypothesis of a Hellenistic cult of\u00a0Dionysus in this region is particularly interesting, since it could be considered as a\u00a0Greek reinterpretation of the\u00a0 Neo-Hittite local cult of the storm god\u00a0Tarhunzas of the vineyards, also known to non-experts thanks to its representation on the\u00a0famous Ivriz relief. To confirm these hypotheses,\u00a0excavations will resume in 2019, incorporating the area to the east of the square.<\/p>\n
The last week of excavations revealed the most extraordinary find of the entire season: a marble statue of an eagle clutching the head of a young goat in its left claw. This headless statute is higher than 1.5 m, and was found in a hole\u00a0near the Hellenistic town wall. The head of the eagle had been previously found in the same zone at a higher elevation in the 2017 campaign of excavations. The eagle is a very well-known symbol of power, common in Anatolia during the Hellenistic and Ancient Roman periods. The statute is currently being restored at the archaeological museum in Ni\u011fde, and should be available for viewing by the public soon.<\/p>\n
Significant data was also gathered from the excavations in other areas of the site. The results of a deep sonar campaign\u00a0investigating the stratigraphy of the lower town of K\u0131n\u0131k H\u00f6y\u00fck were particularly significant, for it was possible to reach\u00a0 – for the first time outside the acropolis area – levels dating back to the Early and Middle Iron Age. This stratigraphic data proves the existence of a lower town in the first centuries of the I millennium BC, therefore indicating that the K\u0131n\u0131k H\u00f6y\u00fck site was already a great urban centre at that time. Suffice to say that\u00a0to date, no other sites of the same age (beginning of the I millennium BC) are known in Central Anatolia\u00a0with documentation proving\u00a0the presence of an acropolis or lower town. Further surprises were in store\u00a0when excavating\u00a0 the levels of occupation before the Iron Age. The\u00a0context below the levels dating back to the beginning of the I millennium BC included a complete\u00a0 wheel-made, red-slipped, carinated, collared juglet vase\u00a0unequivocally dated to the Middle Bronze Age, historically known also as\u00a0the Assyrian Colony Period in Anatolia. Fragments of metallic ware\u00a0jugs found\u00a0in secondary contexts indicate that the lower town of K\u0131n\u0131k H\u00f6y\u00fck was also occupied during the Early Bronze Age II-III (mid III millennium BC). Given the strategic position of the site along commercial routes connecting Cilicia and the Levant to Central and Western Anatolia, and close to the rich mining area of Bolkar Da\u011f (Taurus), the discovery that K\u0131n\u0131k H\u00f6y\u00fck was an important centre that already had a lower town during the III and beginning of the II millennium BC, puts the importance of the site and the strategies to adopt to excavate it in the future into a whole new light.\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were many discoveries made during the eighth campaign of excavations at K\u0131n\u0131k H\u00f6y\u00fck, Ni\u011fde.\u00a0The excavation at the archaeological site of K\u0131n\u0131k H\u00f6y\u00fck is a joint research project\u00a0of the University of Pavia (Department of Humanities) and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World of New York University, led by Professor Lorenzo d\u2019Alfonso and […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[32,9],"class_list":["post-60707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retediplomatica","tag-diplomazia-culturale","tag-europa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}