The 41 rock-cut tombs at Etenna provide a clear impression of this very early and widespread tradition for the region. They allow us to compare the Lycian, Pamphylian, Cilician and Pisidian rock-cut tomb architecture and understand connections and discontinuities between them. They also illustrate how features of such tombs are based on natural and technical factors, on local architectural traditions, or on the rock-cut architecture of neighbouring cultures. But basic similarities, such as the cutting of a tomb chamber in the rock, could occur without any influence from other cultural regions, for instance because of similar burial needs, similar natural materials or similar architectural knowledge. The influences between the rock-cut tombs of different regions and periods can be seen in the particular details, and their relation to local burial customs. Questions are asked, such as: if there were Lycian tombs in the Classical period, why were there no rock-cut tombs in Pamphylia in this period; why did the ‘dominant Lycian Classical culture’ not influence Pamphylia; and what were the tombs of the higher social classes of the societies of Classical Pamphylia?

With six rock-cut tombs of Lycian type, the region south of the city of Kibyra (in the southern part of Burdur province) is the northernmost area of their distribution. Five of these are published here for the first time. Comparison with tombs in Lycia proper suggests a date in the fourth century BC. On the basis of this date and of similar tombs found in the region of Oinoanda and in the Elmalı plain, it is argued that the existence of this type of rock-cut tomb in what was part of ancient Milyas testifies to the political and cultural expansion of Lycia under ‘king’ Perikle in the 370s BC.

Located in the central region of the Anatolian mainland, Konya has played an important role in east-west and north-south cultural interactions since prehistoric times. In order to investigate the cultural geography of this region from prehistoric times to the Classical period surveys and museum work have been carried out since 1987 (Bahar 1991; Bahar et al 1996). In the course of this work some observations have been made on the Iron Age, which is a problematic subject for the central Anatolian region as well as for Anatolia as a whole. During the Iron Age the grey pottery known as Phrygian ware occurs over a wide region from the basin of the Meander in the west into central Anatolia (Mellaart 1955: 117; Dupré 1983: 82; Summers 1994: 241-52). We have previously suggested that this ware should be renamed ‘inner-west Anatolian ware’ or ‘Luwian ware’ (Bahar et al 1996: 65-7). It is significant that this pottery is encountered especially around Sarayönü and Kadınhanı where Luwian peoples were intensively settled in the second millennium BC.

The moment when the Ten Thousand sighted the Euxine is one of the most haunting scenes to come down to us from the ancient world. Retreating from Cunaxa near Babylon in 401 BC, Xenophon describes how the Greeks fought their way northwards across Kurdistan to scale the Pontic mountains, and reached the sea at the Greek city of Trapezus, already more than two centuries old. By linking Xenophon's famous account with Hadrian's inspection of his eastern frontier, their route across the mountains, and their triumphant viewpoint, can be determined with some certainty.

About 120 miles before the Greeks reached the Black Sea, the ruler of a large and prosperous city called Gymnias, probably the modern Bayburt, sent a guide to Xenophon.

Excavators have put forward opposing interpretations of the architectural sequence at the Early Bronze Age site of Troy. C.W. Blegen suggested that freestanding ‘megaron’ houses determined the visual pattern of the earliest settlement, while M.O. Korfmann compared Troy I to the circular layout of the Early Bronze Age site at Demircihüyük (the ‘Anatolian settlement plan’). Post-excavation analysis of the archaeological record from the excavations (1987–1992) in ‘Schliemann's Trench’ at Troy suggests a modification of the views of both Blegen and Korfmann. The local building tradition at Troy I was characterised by flat-roofed, long-room dwellings arranged in rows and sharing lateral walls. This peculiar settlement layout, recurrent at coastal and inland sites in the western part of Anatolia during the early centuries of the third millennium BC but unfamiliar at this time in the neighbouring regions of central Asia Minor and the Aegean, can be described as an Anatolian ‘row-house’ style. The present study applies the concept of vernacular architecture to the architectural record of Troy I and other contemporary ‘row-house’ sites to elucidate the social and cultural factors that shaped the domestic architectural traditions of early third-millennium western Asia Minor.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest mechanisms pertaining to the foundation of a new city on the Kerkenes Dağ, in the highlands of central Anatolia in the mid-first millennium BC. Archaeological evidence that Kerkenes was a new foundation is discussed, after which its thoroughly Phrygian culture is outlined. The core of the paper discusses possible explanations for the unexpected appearance of this new capital. Possibilities include Phrygianisation or acculturation, centralisation of pre-existing Phrygian settlements east of the Kızılırmak, eastward expansion of the Kingdom of Phrygia and a large migration from central or western Phrygia. It is proposed that a single large migration provides the most plausible explanation for the founding of the city, for the display of its Phrygian-ness and perhaps also for its ultimate failure.

The city on the Kerkenes Dağ in central Anatolia is the largest pre-Hellenistic urban centre on the plateau (figs 1–2). It has plausibly been identified with a city of the Medes, called Pteria by Herodotus (1.76). If the identification is accepted, the city represents an expansion and imposition of Iranian power over the northern part of the central plateau. Kerkenes might thus provide evidence concerning the first sustained cultural, political and military contact between an Iranian imperial regime and Anatolian powers. Unique circumstances and developing technologies are providing an opportunity to map the city in great detail. The data base will enable analyses of the urban dynamics of an ancient city that, by combining Iranian, Anatolian and east Greek elements in centralised urban planning, were perhaps catalytic in the formation and development of the Achaemenid Empire.

This paper presents a detailed investigation of an Early Bronze Age clay sealing from Boz Höyük, a settlement mound located along the Büyük Menderes valley (inland western Anatolia). The artefact, clearly local in manufacture, was employed as a stopper to seal a bottle/flask and impressed with two different stamp seals. These elements are compared to all other published contemporary sealings in western and central Anatolia, in order to understand the degree of complexity of sealing practices in the region. In turn, evidence of Early Bronze Age Anatolian sealing practices is discussed in relation to the available evidence regarding the degree of social complexity in local communities. It is suggested that, during the Early Bronze Age, sealings were employed for product branding rather than control over storage and redistribution of commodities, and only at the beginning of the second millennium BC did the region witness the introduction of complex administrative practices.

The region known as the Troad in western Anatolia is famed not only as the setting of Homer's Iliad but also for the Hellespont strait (modern Çanakkale Boğazı) linking the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean. In addition to large cities such as Sigeum, Abydus and Lampsacus, ancient writers also mention smaller cities located on the Hellespont. In this article, the location of the ancient city of Arisbe, presumed to have existed between Abydus and Lampsacus, is examined in the light of new archaeological data. Between 2002 and 2010, the author conducted surveys in the northern Troad. These surveys revealed an ancient settlement with archaeological material belonging to the Late Bronze Age, late Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods. The location of this settlement, the archaeological data and information from ancient literary sources all indicate that this site should be identified as Arisbe.

Although Beycesultan III; the Late Bronze Age is in the course of preparation, it would appear from a number of reviews of Beycesultan II, London, 1965, that some of our colleagues still maintain the erroneous view that Beycesultan was uninhabited during the Late Bronze Age. It is the purpose of this article to show that this view is not supported by the evidence; on the contrary Beycesultan has a rich and well stratified sequence of Late Bronze Age building-levels (III–IA), that run parallel to the Hittite New Kingdom deposits of Central Anatolia.

In the absence of epigraphic material or radiocarbon dates, the dating evidence from Beycesultan consists primarily of a stratified pottery sequence, for which occasional typological parallels can be found at other sites in Anatolia.

The second season at Hacılar lasted from the middle of August till the middle of September. The writer was in charge, assisted for part of the time by Mrs. Mellaart, and by the Director in an advisory capacity. Miss Elizabeth Beazley, Mr. David Stronach and Mr. David French dealt most efficiently with the architecture, photography and field supervision and pottery respectively. The Turkish Government was again represented by Bay Osman Aksoy. The expedition is much indebted to the Vali of Burdur, Bay Turhan Kapanlı, especially for his generous loan of a bulldozer to assist in re-levelling the site after excavation; also to the Gendarme Commander of Burdur and the Maarif Müdürü, for facilitating our relations with the peasant owners of the site, and for permission to use the large school at Hacılar as expedition headquarters.

Over twenty years have passed since the present writer first drew attention to the remarkable but completely forgotten archaeological discoveries made at the Urartian site of Toprak Kale, discoveries made in 1880 by Rassam and his associates, Dr. Raynolds and Captain Clayton, acting for the British Museum. I also summarised the results of the work in 1898 at the same site done by Lehmann (afterwards Lehmann-Haupt) and Belck; these finds are now all well-known. Since then, modern museum conservation work and study has resulted in several new achievements, such as in a fresh publication of the candelabrum at Hamburg Museum, the discovery and publication by Professor G. R. Meyer of a small silver pectoral at Berlin with a presentation scene and á detailed study by him also of the large bronze figure of a “eunuch” in the same museum. Professor Meyer also mentions a fine bronze palmette forming part of a wall panel of bronze plate made up of 17 fragments, also part of a bronze model building similar to that in the British Museum. Lastly, a brief preliminary report of the fruitful excavations of Professors Afif Erzen and Emin Bilgiç, in 1959–61, has been published. One of their most notable finds was another shield similar to those found by Rassam and Lehmann-Haupt with concentric friezes of lions and bulls and a dedicatory inscription of Rusas III.

The seventh season of excavations took place between July 7 and August 20, although actual digging only lasted for four weeks because of the Project's limited resources this year. Part of the season was devoted to continuing the regional survey that was started on behalf of the Ministry of Culture in 1993. The Project is extremely grateful to the Kaymakan of Emirdağ, the Mayor and Municipality of Emirdağ, the local Jandarma Komutanlığı, and to the many muhtars and villagers who facilitated the survey work with their help, knowledge and advice. A bonus from this work was that 23 stones inventoried in the neighbouring villages at the end of last season were gathered up by the staff of Afyon Museum (with the help of the Emirdağ Kaymakamı) and deposited at the Amorium Dig House for safe-keeping. This year's survey took us up into the northern foothills of the Emirdağ mountains, where we visited 30 villages and sites, recording an impressive number of individual monuments and inscriptions. The survey thus enabled us to see something of the hinterland to Amorium, which appears to have been extensively occupied in the Byzantine period.

In the Byzantine period, urban life in Anatolia underwent a decay in which ancient cities shrank behind reduced circuits of walls or withdrew to the fortified hilltops whence they had descended in the Hellenistic age. Even the greatest city of the empire, Constantinople, saw a drastic diminution of population and resources, abandonment of its ancient public works and services, and consequent transformation from a classical to a medieval city. These changes began with the devastating invasions of Persians and Arabs in the seventh century. Sources reveal little about Anatolia between the early seventh and mid-ninth century, a true dark age, but the evidence of archaeology often makes it possible to visualize conditions at the time.

The Byzantines, whose empire long survived these troubles, generally occupied existing sites in Asia Minor where their ruins are superimposed on those of the Romans or earlier cultures. In only a few instances, usually occasioned by the needs of defence or of a militarized administration, were new sites founded. Although the Dark Ages were not a propitious time for urban development, some new towns did come into existence or prominence. Few of them have been studied. Strobilos on the Carian coast, therefore, is of some potential interest as an example of a Byzantine town which first appears in the historical record in the eighth century, and whose remains have been preserved.

The work at Taşkun Mevkii consists to date of two seasons, 1970 and 1971. A third and final season is projected for the summer of 1973. Excavation in 1970 was restricted to a series of slots and one 4 × 4 m. square at the northern edge of the site in order to test the depth of occupation and to establish preliminary phasing (Fig. 1). On this basis the area was expanded in 1971 to expose structures, particularly of Phase 3 which had proved to be most rewarding in 1970. It was found that the first season's phasing was substantially accurate, requiring only minor adjustments of Phase 1.

Phase 1 (Fig. 2, plan; Fig. 8, section)

(a) In 1970 painted pottery appeared in topsoil, thus linking the top of Taşkun Mevkii with Aşvan Kale and other sites in the area. The painted designs found at Taşkun Mevkii are represented on whole pots from Aşvan Kale (see French and Helms, below, p. 157, Fig. 5). It is now clear that this final occupation exists only in pits cut from topsoil or above and hence no contemporary occupation surfaces could be found in the area excavated.

The trade in tin, textiles, and silver between Ashur and its trading colony Kanesh is by now well known from the partly published archives from Kanesh. While the textiles involved were primarily produced in Ashur itself, a small proportion of them were imported from Babylonia, being described in the texts as “Akkadian textiles”. This link in the trading chain is still scarcely documented in the absence of the trading archives which must be presumed to have existed at Ashur, and probably at Sippar. The Babylonians themselves were actively involved in the trade, as is shown by the well-known but still inadequately published letter VAT 9249, referring to the absence of the Akkadians and their textiles from Ashur because of a revolt in their country.

From its geographical position the city of Sippar must have occupied a focal position in trading relations between Babylonia and the kingdoms to the north and north-west. It naturally figures in the Old Babylonian itinerary from Larsa to Emar. Some years ago W. F. Leemans summarised the evidence for trading relations between Sippar and Assyria and the Middle Euphrates and for Sippar's involvement in the trade in tin in the reverse direction from Ashur to Babylonia.

The so-called Tawagalawas Letter – the longest and most controversial document in the Ahhiyawa dossier – opens with the well-known incident in which (as hitherto understood) Tawagalawas sends a message to the Hittite king demanding recognition as a vassal and requesting the dispatch of the tuhkanti- to conduct him into the royal presence. The king dispatches the TARTĒNU, one of his sons, but Tawagalawas refuses to go with him and demands immediate recognition on the spot. The demand is refused and the king protests to the king of Ahhiyawa in this letter about the insult inflicted on his representative.

Dr. Itamar Singer has shown, in an article later in this volume, that the applicant for vassaldom was most probably not Tawagalawas at all but Piyamaradus, whose activities are the subject of the rest of the document. The present article however is concerned rather with the rank of the envoy sent by the Hittite king.

This paper provides an assessment of four grave stelae that were found recently in the area surrounding Bozüyük, on the Anatolian plateau in the south of the Bilecik province. The plateau was part of the core of the kingdom of Phrygia during the Early and Middle Iron Ages, and part of the satrapy of Phrygia during the Achaemenid period of the Late Iron Age in Anatolia. The main focus is to examine the place of such stelae among Anatolian-Persian examples and to explore elements of Persian presence and organisation in the region. The precise archaeological contexts of these stelae are unknown, but are likely to have been tumuli. They are examples of an Anatolian-Persian style from the Achaemenid period, but can also be considered to be part of a somewhat rustic 'rural' sub-style, compared with more elaborate stelae that have been found around Dascylium, the satrapal capital of Hellespontine Phrygia. The Bozüyük stelae feature banquet, hunting and ritual scenes, and also battle scenes that distinguish them from other Anatolian-Persian stelae. Despite similarities, particularly with the Vezirhan stele, there are also discrepancies that make precise analogies with reliefs on other stelae difficult, though not impossible. It is likely that they were created by a connected group of sculptors, and might therefore be evidence of a workshop that sculpted local materials in a unique rural style.

With an overall length of about 550km, the Pontic-Cappadocian frontier was among the longest in the Roman Empire. It is also the least known, as there is a minimal amount of literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence available for the location and identity of the province's garrison. In addition, many of the military stations known or believed to have existed on the frontier are now lost beneath the waters of the Keban dam. However, a re-examination of the available evidence, along with recent limited and spontaneous fieldwork in the region, allows for some tentative remarks to be made on the origins and early history of this frontier. These form the main subject of this article, and include the suggestion that Nero should be credited with the genesis of this frontier, not Vespasian, as usually indicated in the modern literature.

The pottery discussed here was collected by C. A. Burney during his survey in 1956 and in 1965. We would like to express our thanks to Charles Burney for valuable discussion and for encouraging publication of the material. We have also profited from discussion with Drs. Ayşe Gürsan-Salzman, Mitchell Rothman, and A. G. Sagona. The opinions expressed are, however, our own. Richard Bayliss prepared the illustrations.

The material from Tepeköy has not previously been published. Some of the other sherds appear in Russell's study (1980) and this has been indicated in the catalogue. All the sherds are stored in the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, each clearly marked.