Two good friends have supplied me with the material for a note which I dedicate, with kind wishes, to a third.

Michael Ballance inaugurated the epigraphical harvest of our journey in 1954 with the discovery of two remarkable inscriptions at Emircik near Beyce Sultan (territory of Eumeneia). One of these served to clinch an argument in Anatolian Studies, V, 1955, p. 38. The second is no. 1 below.

A few days later Habip Zebir Ağa, itinerant tinker of Sandıklı, called at the excavation headquarters to remind me of an earlier encounter which I had forgotten. He had visited Synnada in the exercise of his craft in 1930 while the American Society's expedition was working there, and I had taught him how to copy Greek inscriptions and urged him to make copies of any monuments he might find in the course of his work in central Phrygia. He brought with him a bundle of copies he had made during the intervening years, mainly from Synnada, the Pentapolis and the Eumeneticus Campus. A number of these copies are of known monuments and show that, for one ignorant of Latin and Greek, he is a careful and reliable copyist. One of his copies is no. 2 below.

Professor Garstang, Whose excavations and geographical studies have so notably increased sources of information about, and our knowledge of, eastern Cilicia in early times, will have watched with interest, and perhaps with amusement, the way in which, in modern studies of texts, locations proposed for Ursu have jumped about over a considerable area, in which physical features might be expected to restrict the possibilities. As the story of Ursu in the second millennium ends just before that of Qizzuwadana begins, so far as our present information goes, it may not be inappropriate to dedicate a brief account of the development of evidence about, and the changes of opinion concerning, the situation of the city and the land to the friend who has often discussed Qizzuwadana with me during the last thirty years; the course taken is not without its lessons for criticism, which should be a form of intellectual discipline.

The reason for believing that Ursu was a city in the mountainous region Ibla was an inscription of GU.DE.A, that for identifying Ibla with part of the Amanus was based on texts concerning Naram-Sin. The argument seemed simple and logical enough for Peter Jensen to identify Ursu with Arsuz, by which, probably, he understood no more than a location on the coastal strip west of the Bailan Pass.

The state of Commagene, a hilly country of the upper Euphrates, bounded to the southeast by the river and to the northwest by high mountain ranges, was known earlier to the Assyrians by its name in the unhellenized form of Kummuh. It appears in their records as one of the Late Hittite states which resisted their westward expansion and were ultimately annexed by them. Due to its position as the Euphrates state between Meliddu (Malatya) and Carchemish, it must naturally have occupied an important position in any anti-Assyrian coalition. The Assyrians, however, seem to have been shy of launching a frontal assault upon it, preferring no doubt the easier terrain and river-crossings to the south, where at Carchemish the Euphrates emerges from the hills into the plain.

Assyrian records have left us the names of four kings of the land, Qatazilu ( = Shalmaneser III, years 1 and 2), Kundašpi ( = Shalmaneser III, year 6), Kuštašpi ( = Tiglath-pileser III, years 3, 6, 8, 14), and Mutallu ( = Sargon II, years 10 and 14). Of these, only one, Mutallu, is indisputably Hittite, while another is possibly so (Qatazilu; see below, p. 78 f.). The other two have a distinctly Iranian look about them, and are usually accepted as such.

The medieval fortress and church of Taşkun Kale were partially excavated in 1970 and 1971. No excavations took place in 1972, as the Aşvan Project's endeavours were concentrated elsewhere.

Earlier reports in this journal (AS XXI (1971), 6–8, and XXII (1972), 14–15) concentrated on the architectural finds. This article consists of a more detailed account of the site and the remains, followed by some thoughts on Taşkun Kale's historical significance. It is an interim report in traditional style. A full and systematic use of the data gathered by Wagstaff, Payne, Hillman, etc., must await the completion of their studies.

The Site (Figs. 1 and 2)

Taşkun Kale lies about 4 km. SSE of the village of Aşvan on the edge of a rolling plain (“undulating upland basin” – Wagstaff p. 210). Eastwards it over looks a small valley at a point where the valley sides fall steeply to rushy flats, through which a perennial stream, the Kuru Çay, flows north towards the Murat.

The terrain is uneven. North and south of the site tributary wadis break the valley sides. The highest point is the kale proper, a flat topped höyük formed of occupational débris, below which there may well be a natural eminence which attracted the first settlers.

The 1962 Cambridge Expedition to South-East Turkey spent five weeks in Cilicia studying the castles of Tumlu, Gökvelioğlu, and Yılan. No member of the expedition had any previous experience of this work and this report is therefore confined to facts: descriptions, measurements, plans and photographs. It is hoped that this material may help others, more experienced than ourselves, to make wider generalisations and perhaps to write the architectural history of the buildings.

The castles probably date from the period of the Armenian occupation of Cilicia (1080–1375) during which time numerous castles were constructed and existing Byzantine foundations were strengthened. The castles were frequently built upon precipitous mountain sites and conformed with the sinuosities of the rock, thus making the best of the natural strength of the site. The kingdom of Lesser Armenia was centred chiefly on the Cilician plain and surrounding mountains (Fig. 1).

The bronze belt handle shown in Plate LXIV was acquired by the British Museum in 1962 and illustrated by Dr. Barnett in BMQ XXVII, Pl. 31g. I am indebted to him for the photographs used here and for permission to study the piece and present this account of it. It belongs to a class of objects which has been discussed by the writer in Anatolia VI (1961) 179 ff. They are fibula-like attachments to metal belts of a distinctive type which was apparently invented in Phrygia, but copied in Ionia where examples dating from the early seventh century to the sixth are known from Chios, Samos, Smyrna and Ephesus. Unfortunately the Phrygian series is not as yet as well known as the Greek.

The highlands of Eastern Anatolia cannot have seemed to be a particularly attractive or accessible area to the Assyrians. The E. Taurus—the range of mountains separating the plain of Upper Mesopotamia from the highlands to the north—was rarely breached by the Assyrians: in the Middle-Assyrian period, Tiglath-pileser I claims that he went to the Nairi lands (then around Lake Van) three times; Shalmaneser III penetrated E. Anatolia through the E. Taurus in his 3rd, 7th and 15th palûs, and from N.W. Iran in his accession year and 30th and 31st palûs. Thereafter, the region lay in the hands of the Urartians and, except for the raid on Ṭurušpa carried out by Tiglath-pileser III pursuing the remnants of the army of Sarduri II after the defeat of the anti-Assyrian coalition in Kummuh in 743, was never penetrated by the Assyrian army again.

Shalmaneser's campaign of 856 began with the completion of the conquest of the Aramaean state of Bit-Adini, lying on the Euphrates to the south of Carchemish. After leaving Bit-Adini, Shalmaneser made his way to Bit-Zamani, the Diyarbakır area, and thence began his long campaign through Eastern Anatolia to Western Iran and back to Assyria.

Until recently, few excavations had been undertaken in the upper Tigris region. Çayönü was the only site from the Pottery Neolithic period that had been thoroughly investigated. Since 1998, excavations have taken place at a number of sites within the area due to be flooded by the construction of the Ilısu dam. One of these sites, Hakemi Use, is the only settlement from the Hassuna and Samarran periods that has been excavated in this region. A large group of Syro-Cilician sherds, showing close relations to both regions in the sixth millennium BC, was found.

A Neolithic structure was rebuilt three times at Çukuriçi Höyük, on the central Anatolian Aegean coast, despite its unfavourable location on unsettled fill. We draw upon this seemingly incongruous case to make inference about the siting of buildings in Neolithic times. Through detailed cross-comparison with other sequences of vertically superimposed buildings in Anatolia and the Aegean region, we retrace the contours of a Neolithic practice aimed at maintaining occupation in one place. Over time, building continuity transformed into a strategy by some households to claim authority over a place and appropriate it for their own benefit. With regard to the location of Neolithic buildings, we conclude that choices about location dominated over practical considerations. Once a commitment to place was made, there was no turning back, even when this meant living in an unstable house that needed to be rebuilt repeatedly.

William Moir Calder's extraordinary volume of work is witnessed through his many publications. However, a vast resource has remained substantially untapped, namely the archives of his photographs, squeezes, maps, letters and notebooks held at the University of Aberdeen. Using the little-addressed site of ancient Colossae as the focus, Calder's notes provide interesting insights into the way he operated as a surface archaeologist in Asia Minor and yield some previously unpublished materials important for building our knowledge of ancient Colossae. In the course of investigating Calder's legacy, some new discoveries related to Colossae are also noted.

Gritille is the modern name for a mound lying on the right bank of the Euphrates River in southeast Turkey. Four years of excavation by a team led by Professor Richard S. Ellis of Bryn Mawr College concentrated on uncovering two main occupation levels bracketing the site's long sequence, the Neolithic and the Medieval. This article will focus on the last three seasons of excavation on top of the mound.

The mound of Gritille lies 10 km. upstream from Samsat (Greek Samosata, Arabic Sumaisāṭ), a major halting point on the medieval road from North Syria through Urfa (Greek Edessa, Arabic ar-Ruhā) to Malatya (Greek Melitene) and central eastern Anatolia. It was at Samsat that the crossing of the Euphrates was attempted. Samsat was also a stop for East–West traffic from Diyarbakır (Āmid) to Birecik (Bīra) and beyond, but the road through Nisibin (Nusaybin) and Harran (or Urfa) to Birecik seems to have been heavily travelled in the late Middle Islamic period (Fig. 1).

The following article has to be conceived as one of my responses to a long standing and enigmatic question-mark which I have been carrying incessantly in mind since my first acquaintance with cuneiform writing and archaeology: Are there interactive implications between archaeological record and textual context in Hittite Anatolia at all? One might promptly and spontaneously expect that as a principle there must have been close relations between both sorts of data, since, first of all, they are mental and material products of the same people. Why are, then, the results gained from comparisons of archaeological and philological material disappearingly feeble considering that Hittitology is in a very lucky position in being supplied abundantly by both sorts of material? The temporary results gained from the comparative studies by other scholars as well as by myself were often disappointingly meagre. This is one of the reasons why I have frequently pointed out in a pessimistic way inconsistencies between archaeological objects and information supplied by the written sources in Hittite culture.

1993 was the second season of the five-year survey which it is planned will record five castles from the area of the Büyük and Küçük Menderes in western Turkey. Work at the site of Yılanlı kalesi was carried out between 20th March and 28th April. The team members were Dr. Mark Whittow (Director), Hugh Barnes (Surveyor), Katrina Batchelor, Kevin Chesters, Michael Harrington and Penelope Tunbridge. We are extremely grateful to the Department of Antiquities for granting us a permit to carry out this survey, to the Director and staff of the museum at Ödemiş. for their friendly help and encouragement, and to our Department representative, Ahmet Bayram Üner from the Türk İslam Eserleri Müzesi in Bursa, whose contribution to the success of this project can hardly be overestimated. Our warmest thanks too to the muhtar and villagers of Yılanlı köyü, above all to Nihat and Güller Girgin and family, for whose generosity and kindness we are extremely indebted.

The focus of this article is the recently published, near-duplicate ARSUZ inscriptions carved on two stelae found near İskenderun in southeastern Turkey and dating to the later tenth century BC. Particular attention is given to the historical section of these inscriptions, and its reference to a land called Hiyawa (Assyrian Que) in eastern Cilicia, previously attested in only one other Iron Age inscription, the Luwian-Phoenician bilingual found at Çineköy near Adana. The article discusses what new information can be deduced about Hiyawa, including its relationship with the land of Adana(wa) in eastern Cilicia, the implications to be drawn from the findspot of the stelae and the much-debated question of whether the references to Hiyawa reflect Greek settlement in southeastern Anatolia during the Early Iron Age. Fresh attention is also given to the two Akkadian texts from the archives of Late Bronze Age Ugarit which refer to a group called the Hiyawa-men, who were located at that time (late 13th to early 12th century) in Lukka in southwestern Anatolia. The controversial identification of this group with Ahhiyawans/Mycenaean Greeks is re-examined within the broader context of a comprehensive reconsideration of the Ahhiyawa-Hiyawa equation and the role played by ‘Hiyawans’ and the land of Hiyawa in the affairs of the eastern Mediterranean world from the end of the Bronze Age through the succeeding Iron Age.

The contents of 118 inhumation burials (seventh to 12th century AD) excavated at Hacımusalar Höyük (ancient Choma) were studied in order to reconstruct the Byzantine population. Overall, the sample is similar to that of other Byzantine populations: burial customs appear typical of contemporary practices, children are overrepresented, males and females are represented roughly equally and heights fall within the average range calculated for Byzantine individuals in the eastern Mediterranean. Individuals from Hacımusalar experienced incidences of skeletal trauma, infections, degenerative joint disease, anaemia, dental diseases, spina bifida occulta and cancer. The dataset presented here is one of the most comprehensive of any Byzantine population in Anatolia and should advance our understanding of the region during this crucial time period.

The interesting bronze “belt” or decorated strip in Urartian style which was discovered at Gushchi near Lake Urmia in 1905, and which has twice been illustrated in Anatolian Studies, is generally known only from the photograph of one small fragment which was first published in an obscure Armenian journal in 1912 and has since been successively reproduced by B. A. Kuftin in 1944, G. M. A. Hanfmann in 1956, and R. D. Barnett in 1963. At least four other fragments, however, of the same object are known to exist. One is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and three have recently been received in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford (Plate I, a). These still do not make up the whole object, but they enable its original dimensions to be calculated with some assurance and the character of its ornament to be described exactly.

This article presents a newly discovered cuneiform text from the site of Üçtepe in Diyarbakır province in southeastern Turkey. The text bears a previously unknown inscription of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser I. While incomplete, it never-theless gives the most extensive lists of the conquests of Shalmaneser I yet known, including a number of previously unattested toponyms. This is in itself an important contribution to the historical documentation of the Middle Assyrian period. Furthermore, the fact that the text was written to record Shalmaneser’s rebuilding of the city wall of Sinamu allows us to propose that Üçtepe is to be identified with the site of ancient Šinamu, known to have been an important centre from the late third millennium BC and subsequently a regional capital in the provincial system of the Middle Assyrian empire. This is a significant advance on our previous understanding of the historical geography of the region. These issues are discussed in the context of the Middle Assyrian occupation of the Upper Tigris and the results of the archaeological exploration of recent decades.

Four-wheeled wagons, which can be considered as one of the major breakthroughs of man's technological evolution and range over a considerable period of time, seem to appear as pictographic signs on inscribed clay tablets from Uruk in southern Mesopotamia during the fourth millennium B.C. These simple vehicles which are depicted with a roofed superstructure were probably drawn by a pair of bovids the existence of which is attested in the ancient Near East both by literary sources and osteologically. The evidence for four-wheeled wagons, this time without a roof, becomes extensive in the following millennium as represented on the “Standard of Ur”, the “Vulture Stele”, specimens of vase painting, sealing and seals, terracotta and metal wagon models and actual wagon remains. In the beginning of the third millennium B.C. they are depicted in military contexts, hence the name “battle cars”, whereas there is no evidence for a similar use towards the end of the period and following millennia. It seems that they were relegated to cult use in the later third millennium B.C. and continued to the early second millennium B.C.

Alfred Biliotti, British vice-consul at Trebizond, spent nine days at Satala in 1874. He is well known as an enquiring and meticulous observer. The account of his visit, in a consular paper in the British Museum, remains by far the best description of the legionary fortress, and holds several items of particular interest.

Biliotti was able to record at leisure structural remains in an altogether better state of preservation than is true today. His 18 ft walls, with traces of ashlar facing, are now reduced to rubble cores visible, except at the north-east and south-east angles, only in eroded sections (Figs. 1, 2). Of the square projecting towers there is now barely a trace. The supposed look-out towers reported on the surrounding mountain tops are known from no other source.

His are the only excavations on record in Armenia Minor, and at any point on the limes itself between Trapezus and the rescue work north of the Keban dam.

His account is a valuable source for social conditions in the villages during the late Ottoman period. The way of life at Satala depended on techniques that can have changed little since Roman times, and survived virtually unaltered until the introduction of tractors in the later 1960s.