Light
Millennium Presented...
Cadir Hoyük has something for everyone...
Dr. Samuel PALEY, Professor
of Classics, the University at
Buffalo, SUNY, presenting
"Çadir Hoyük
- A Multi-Layered Ancient City:
The Alishar Regional Project Excavation
Çadir Hoyük,"
entitled lecture at the Turkish
House on Feb. 16, 2006 in NYC.
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For
Media Release of the lecture>
(Lightmillennium.org) On February 16, 2006, Thursday at
7:00 PM, The Light Millennium presented
a lecture entitled "ÇADIR HOYÜK - A MULTI-LAYERED
ANCIENT CITY: The Alishar Regional Project Excavation at Cadir Hoyuk."
The lecture* was delivered by Dr. Samuel M. PALEY, Professor of
Classics, at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. The presentation took place
at Turkish House in New York City. The night was sponsored by the Turkish
Consulate of New York.
The founding president of Light Millennium, Bircan Unver, opened
with a description of the goals of Light Millennium and then introduced
the speaker. Dr. Paley is Professor of Classics, at the State University
of New York at Buffalo. His specialty is Ancient Near Eastern studies,
his responsibility in his department. He received his degrees from
Columbia University in Art History and Archaeology, and in Semitic Languages,
graduating with distinction in 1974. Dr. Paley has excavated in
Cyprus and Israel, where he directed a 13-year long project for the State
University of New York, at a site that documented international trade among
the Egyptians, Canaanites and Phoenicians. The final publications of
that excavation are expected beginning in 2008. He began working in
Turkey in 1993, first at Alishar, and then at Cadir. Dr. Paley joined the
Cadir Hoyuk excavation because of his interest in the Assyrian presence
in Turkey in the early Middle Bronze period, from the 20th to 18th
centuries BC, and Cadir may sometime reward his persistence.
Bircan ÜNVER, founding
president of the Light Millennium and
producer of the lecture, made the opening
remarks of the evening.
Dr. Paley gave detailed information about the Alishar Regional
Project along with many photographs and maps illustrating the excavation.
He explained that this project has the responsibility to excavate
the site of Cadir Hoyuk, in the province of Yozgat, southeast of the town of
Sorgun in the Kanak Su river basin.
In 1993, the Turkish Department
of Monuments and Museums gave a permit for regional survey in a 400-km2 (20
X 40 km) area surrounding the famous site of Alishar Hoyuk. The Project
began to revisit sites in the region and surveyed for additional sites.
Twenty-nine sites were relocated by the Alishar Regional Project,
including Cadir Hoyuk.
When it was discovered that many of these archaeological sites,
including Cadir Hoyuk, were threatened by a reservoir that was rising behind
a newly-constructed dam near the village of Gelingullu, a permit
was issued for the excavations at Cadir Hoyuk. After several seasons (1994-1998) of test excavations and surveying the immediate area around Cadir,
the test trenches were expanded into a full-scale excavation (1998-present).
Dr. Paley explained that Cadir Hoyuk is significant because it
exhibits a sequence of superimposed remains similar to that of the famous
site of Alishar Hoyuk, the largest in the area. There are significant Chalcolithic (4th -early 3rd millennium BC) and Early Bronze deposits (3rd millennium
BC), which can be reached quickly since they are near the surface on
the southern slopes of the mound, while Middle Bronze (Assyrian Merchant
Colony and Old Hittite, 20th - 17th centuries BC) remains are easily
reached on the mound's eastern slopes. Above these, and nearer to the
summit, are Late Bronze (Hittite Empire, 14th and 13th centuries
BC) and, on the summit, Iron Age (12th-8th centuries BC) and Byzantine (6th
to 11th centuries AD) remains. More
Byzantine remains were located on the
Hoyuk's eastern terrace.
He emphasized that the excavations at Çadir Höyük
are helping to understand the regional chronology of the archaeology of central
Anatolia. The project is examining environmental and economic changes through
time and relating these to wider changes in power and population in
central Anatolia. As a result of Çadir's long sequences (ca. 4500
BC - 1100 AD) the excavation staff has the opportunity to look for significant
patterns, especially the relationship between environment and sociopolitical
events that are impossible to see in the life of short-term sites. Çadir
is an ideal site on which to integrate information from soils, vegetation,
pollen cores, dendrochronology, bones, seeds, paleo-environments,
and site distribution into a broader understanding of settlement. This data
will provide scholars with an independent database with which to compare
other sites in Anatolia and the Near East.
Dr. PALEY and the attendence
of the lecture.
He also stated that they have already accumulated a great deal
of data from the Byzantine and Chalcolithic periods. The next stage of their work
will allow them to add data from the Second Millennium occupation
of Çadir Höyük to the overall study and reveal a broader local
context through which we can understand the contributions of religion and cult
to the developing social and political history of the Hittites. Çadir
Höyük is a site that is not only rich in material remains, but one that promises,
by virtue of its function and relationship to the Hittite capital,
to provide an abundance of information related to how the Hittites maintained
themselves internally, as well as how they managed the external
world around them. In spite of all the excitement about excavating an
important Hittite site, however, it must be kept in mind that the Second
Millennium materials represents only one layer of the multi-tiered investigation
taking place at Çadir and that the data from this segment
of the project will feed into the wider long-term program of study that is intended
to address the interaction of man with his environment and how this
relationship affected the rise and fall of empires across this
region. It is the only site under excavation in the area that is producing
the sorts of materials capable of contributing data to answer these questions.
In their coming season, during the summer of 2006, which will be
their 11th field season, they plan to expose more of the Byzantine occupation
on the terrace and the summit of the höyük, expose more
of the Iron Age remains, the Hittite city wall and the Old Hittite houses, and
complete the excavation of the bell-shaped storage pit discovered in the
last days of the excavation in 2005.
The possibility that this site can be identified with the ancient
Hittite city of Zippalanda, one of the great religious centers of the Hittite
Empire and the location of the temple of the Storm God of Zippalanda,
contributes to the importance of this excavation.
The 2005 season was an extremely successful one. Their continued work at this multi-period site will be able to add to the growing data
about a number of periods of central Anatolian history. He mentioned that
the site has something for everyone.
Dr. PALEY, during the
Q&A session
After the presentation, a Q&A session took place. Dr. Paley
answered the audience's questions. He explained that this region is very significant
because people have been living there for at least 6500 years.
It is a very special location since it was originally founded on a hill
which made it possible for communities living here to see people coming, friends
or enemies. Also there is water nearby, both from the Egri Oz Su and
a spring. The land is suitable for agriculture and therefore it has
always been a good place people could live and prosper.
The presentation gave a unique opportunity from first hand to all
interested academicians, students, (many from Columbia University),
professionals and donors to the excavation who attended the event.
The attendees of the lecture became familiar with the insights derived
from an excavation of multi-layered civilizations and its importance to
archeology and our understanding of ancient civilization. (Light Millennium, February 2006, NYC.)
Left to right: Akif KIREÇÇI,
Barbara PALEY, Dr. Samuel PALEY, Bircan
ÜNVER &
Figen BINGÜL posed for the Light
Millennium after the lecture.
*The above summary of Dr. Paley's lecture relies on his text and
notes gleaned from excavation summaries and reports provided to The Light
Millenniium, Inc. for the purpose of presenting this material to
the general public.
For More Information:
Çadir Höyük - The 2005
Excavation Season
The Hittite City of Zippalanda:
Religion, Social Complexity, and State
Development in Hittite Anatolia
http://www.lightmillennium.org/2005_16th/spaley_cadirhoyuk_p1.html
http://www.lightmillennium.org/2005_16th/spaley_cadirhoyuk_p2.html
&
Çok katmanli antik bir sehir: Çadir Höyük
(In Turkish)
http://www.isikbinyili.org/docView.php?d=article&id=19
* * * * *
For
Media Release of the lecture>
Special Thanks to:
Omer ONHON, Turkish Consul General of New York City
Murat OMEROGLU, Vice Consul, Turkish Consulate of New York City
Ceyhun ERCIYES, Vice Consul, Turkish Consulate of New York City
Hasan OZDEMIR, Director of Turkish House, New York City
Meltem ONHON, Acting Head of the Office of Turkish Culture &
Tourism, New York City
Volunteers for the event:
Baris Unver: Videography
Humeyra Kocak & Ilyas Hokkaci: Photography
Figen Bingül: Media Release
About The Light Millennium:
http://www.lightmillennium.org/about%20lm/list.html
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Introduced in August 1999 on the Web, and established in January 2000, it
was founded by Bircan Ünver on July 17, 2001 as a Public Interest Multi-Media Global Platform
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For its Publishing Policy,
see:
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Contact:
Bircan Ünver, Producer of the event
E-mail: contact@lightmillennium.org
http://www.lightmillennium.org
http://www.isikbinyili.org
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