The burial customs practised at Neolithic Çatalhöyük have raised a substantial amount of interest, due to factors such as a tradition of intramural inhumation, elaborate grave goods including organic remains in an excellent state of preservation, and a posited link to scenes in wall paintings supposedly showing vultures pecking at humanoid figures. In consequence, numerous publications have discussed the burial practices of the site, and the systematic study of the burial data is one of the aims of the present excavation project at the site. Given the attention the burials of Çatalhöyük have received, it is surprising that almost no hard data have been published on the hundreds of burials excavated in the 1960s. In this paper a systematic inventory of the 1960s burial data and their drawbacks will be presented. The data for this study were obtained from the notes made by Dr Angel and Dr Ferembach, the two physical anthropologists who analysed the skeletons excavated by Mellaart and his team. The inventory presented in this paper will allow us to study the burial practices at Çatalhöyük in a more systematic manner, and will provide an interesting background for the evaluation of the data forthcoming from the new excavation project at Çatalhöyük.

Eleven samples comprising an estimated 39,000 plant remains were analysed from a burnt destruction level at the pottery Neolithic site of Höyücek, southwest Turkey (radiocarbon dated 7550–7350 uncalibrated bp, 6400–6100 calibrated BC). Large stores of emmer (Triticum dicoccum), free threshing wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum), lentils (Lens culinaris), bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia) and chickpea (Cicer arietinum) were identified and these plants were interpreted as crops. The low levels of weeds and crop processing by-products suggest most of the samples were remains of stores of human food. Two samples in which wild components (for example, Triticum boeticum, Medicago, Aegilops) dominated were interpreted as crop processing by-products, presumably stored for fodder. The presence of these stores in a structure interpreted as having a religious function shows that domestic activities also took place there. Comparison with other Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites of west central Turkey demonstrates a good correspondence in the range of crops. The poor representation of barley at Höyücek doubtless reflects the small number of samples from the site.

In the initial survey of the upper Tigris river valley the authors of the survey report concluded that ‘either this portion of the Tigris basin was bypassed entirely by Middle Bronze Age development attested to elsewhere or, more likely, it is characterised by a thus far unreported and unrecognised assemblage’ (Algaze et al. 1991: 183). Recent research by members of the Upper Tigris Archaeological Research Project (UTARP) at the site of Kenan Tepe confirms the latter hypothesis, that the early second millennium in this area is marked by a regionally distinct material culture assemblage that is influenced by ceramic traditions in upper Mesopotamia and other material culture traditions in Anatolia. This article outlines our initial assessment of these data including an analysis of the ceramic corpus, architecture, archaeobotany, small finds and carbon-14, and places these data in a regional context. We conclude by speculating that the inhabitants of Kenan Tepe may have participated in interaction spheres that linked the upper Tigris river region to greater Mesopotamia and Anatolia.

Was late Troy VI a large Anatolian palatial city, a hub for trade, a commercial metropolis or even the centre of a Bronze Age federation of cities (hanse), as the present excavator of Hisarlik, M. Korfmann, has claimed in numerous publications? Several German archaeologists and historians have maintained the opposite and declared Korfmann's view of Troy as unfounded and a fiction. In a recent article in Anatolian Studies (2002: 75–109) D.F. Easton, J.D. Hawkins, and A.G. and E.S. Sherratt state that they share the opinion of the excavator. In reality, they do not defend the above mentioned views, but offer a more restrained description of the role of Troy VI in the Late Bronze Age. Their arguments, though, can be shown to be untenable due to insufficient evidence. Thus, a thorough criticism of Korfmann's statements remains fully justified.

The analysis of eight samples of carbonised plant material from the Patnos area (Aǧri), an important site of the Urartian period in eastern Turkey is presented. Bread/macaroni wheat (Triticum aestivum L./T. durum Desf.) and domesticated emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum Schübl.) are the main crop plants. Hulled barley (Hordeum L.) is less abundantly represented. Pulse seeds, bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia (L.) Willd.), lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) and Latyhrus L.-type were found in smaller numbers. A few wild seeds were also recorded.

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?

The site of Pednelissus in Pisidia, southern Turkey, was first visited by an Italian expedition in 1914. Fieldwork was resumed by a joint project of L. Vandeput (University of Cologne) and H. Bandt (University of Bamberg) in 2001. This article presents the results of the first epigraphical campaign in 2002, which led to the revision of 21 texts as well as the discovery of five new inscriptions. The majority of these texts are building and honorary inscriptions, and, with one possibly Hellenistic exception, they date from Roman imperial times (first to early third centuries).

An inscription from a private collection in Fethiye tells part of a court case concerning the illegal sale of land to ‘foreigners’, who are identified as Lycians. It is argued that the land belonged to Rhodes' mainland possessions bordering on Lycia, and some of the individuals named in the inscription may be identified with members of a prominent second century AD Rhodian family. Possible locations for the land at Daidala or on the island of Meis/Castellorizo are discussed.

This article presents several new inscriptions discovered during the survey of the Pisidian city at Melli directed by Dr Lutgarde Vandeput, and revisions to already published texts. These include several imperial statue bases from the city agora, four texts honouring city patrons, who include a provincial governor and a senior Roman equestrian official from the nearby Pisidian city of Selge, dedications and epitaphs. The most significant discovery is the first identified Greek copy of a votive text to ‘the gods and goddesses’, set up according to the interpretation of a Clarian oracle, which was already known from nine Latin versions. The inscription is associated with a cult room in a domestic building, and may be connected with the worship of theos hypsistos.

Two pollen sequences from the Classical city of Sagalassos (Pisidia, southwest Turkey) show that the hills just north of the city were forested during the main occupation period of the city (late Hellenistic to early Byzantine). They demonstrate that there was a mixed needle-leaved forest of Pinus, Cedrus libani and Abies cilicica. The platform on which the city sat was already deforested, as is indicated by the presence of pollen from various light demanding herbs. Furthermore, there is evidence that grapevines (Vitis) were cultivated, indicating that much of the land below the city was already exploited for agricultural purposes. Walnut trees were also cultivated near the city. It is probable that suburban farmsteads were present close to the city. The pollen sequences show that man-made deposits from high altitudes may contain important information on the former natural and cultural vegetation of mountain sites in Anatolia. Archaeologists and palynologists should draw more attention to these pollen rich man-made contexts.

The Life of Saint Theodore of Sykeon gives a detailed picture of village life in later Roman Galatia, on the eve of the Persian and Arab invasions. Though known to be located near the intersection of a Roman highway and a river, the site of Sykeon remained unidentified in modern times. Earlier inability to locate it was attributable to mistakes made by 19th century historical geographers of Anatolia, but even after their errors were corrected by David French, the site could not be found. In September 1995 the writer and Peter Brown of Princeton University discovered a terraced slope, strewn with late Roman pottery, at Kiliseler near the village of Tahirler, south of Beypazarı. The site, and its geology, conform to the known characteristics of Sykeon, including its distance from neighbouring towns, and provide suitable settings for many of the events in the career of Saint Theodore, thus raising the hope that archaeology may now be able to supplement information available from the saint's Life.