Last season, in the
step trench on the east side of the
Höyük, the foundations of
two buildings were discovered, and a
collection of Old Hittite pottery was
strewn across the surface outside one
of the building's entrance.
This season we were able to excavate part of the inside of one
of the buildings - we discovered that
there were two very large walls in the
way dating to later periods on top of
this building's remains which could
not be removed until we enlarge the
excavation area to the west and give
them a context.
But the excavation of the part
of the building that could be reached
revealed several strata of mud brick
construction and earthen floors superimposed
one upon the other. There were at least
3 phases of occupation inside the walls
of this building.
We do not know the original purpose of the building as yet because
not enough of it was excavated, but
we do know that the space was reused
at some stage as a domestic area since
the pottery included storage jars and
cooking pots, and there were animal
bone and other finds: in one phase,
an oven built of mud brick was set against
one of the mud brick walls that crossed
the original built space.
The fire stones that once were
used as cooking surfaces were discovered
at the mouth of the oven, in a thick
level of ash sweepings; and, in the
oven, were the sherds of at least two
cooking pots.
The pottery from this building
in all its phases can be dated to the
early part of the Old Hittite period
-- that is, from the late 17th
to early 16th centuries BC.
An Old Hittite stamp seal was discovered in the destruction debris
of one of the strata. Many examples
of pottery from the Old Hittite period
enriched our collection from last season
and will be reconstructed for shapes
and to identify use. A steatite bead
in the shape of a bull, and many storage
and garbage pits were discovered last
season, so this year's work has greatly
enlarged our data set for analysis.
Opening to the Storage
Pit in the Step Trench
Below this building were discovered the remains of another building
- mud brick walls and a floor of beaten
earth in the middle of which was the
opening to a deep pit.
The pit, which could only be
excavated to a depth of 60 cm before
we ran out of time, seems to have been
bell-shaped, that is a narrow opening
which expands outwards in all directions.
This is the second such pit we
have discovered at Çadir: the
other was found in the area excavated
on the south western slope of the hill.
Such pits can be up to 2 or 3
meters or more deep and as wide at the
bottom. They are known from other Hittite sites in Anatolia.
In only a few days of excavation, we discovered a bone inlay, a
pin, two grinding stones and pottery
that can be dated late in the Assyrian
Merchant Colony period (18th
Centuries BC) or the very early Old
Hittite (ca. 1600 BC).
In a part of the step trench farther up the hill, building remains
were not so clear, but the situation
here, including the pottery sherds,
suggest a large scale disturbance of
earlier materials by building plans
undertaken during the later Hittite
Empire period (1400-1200 BC). Pottery sherds collected were predominately
Hittite. However, the quantity of Early
Bronze II and II pottery sherds (3000-2000
BC) present appears to increase with
depth. This suggests that there was
a large scale EB III and EB II presence
at Çadir Höyük which
was followed by a deep disturbance of
these levels during the Hittite Empire
period.
EB III and EB II sherds were
discovered next to a thick fortification
wall at the bottom of the step trench
in 1994 and similar sherds are a feature
of the debris in every later level on
the site. Finds in the upper part of
the step trench included pins, spindle
whorls, animal bone and shell fragments.
It is possible that the artifacts and the pottery finds are part
of a fill of the mid-section of a large
Hittite period wall (perhaps a city
wall) that may be indicated by an exposed
line of very large rocks. The area was further disturbed in the
Late Iron Age (500-300 BC) since sherds
of that period are mixed in construction
fill with the sherds that date to the
Early Bronze and Hittite periods.
The South Trench
On the south side of the höyük, another unit revealed
more evidence of the long sequence of
Iron Age occupation at Çadir
Höyük, also attested in another
step trench on the southern slope of
the mound and in the deep sounding on
the terrace east of the mound, excavated
in 2003.
Here there are thick layers of
Middle Iron Age occupation (ca. 1000-500
BC) at the edge of the mound, including
multiple phases of work areas and streets.
By the end of the season, we had probably
reached the Early Iron Age (1200-1000
BC), with a corpus of pottery otherwise
unknown or unfamiliar outside this site. Excavation in this area next season will
provide crucial information about the
nature of earlier Iron Age occupation
including what is called the Central
Anatolian "Dark Age."
Byzantine Terrace
Building
On the south side of the höyük, another unit revealed
more evidence of the long sequence of
Iron Age occupation at Çadir
Höyük, also attested in another
step trench on the southern slope of
the mound and in the deep sounding on
the terrace east of the mound, excavated
in 2003.
Here there are thick layers of
Middle Iron Age occupation (ca. 1000-500
BC) at the edge of the mound, including
multiple phases of work areas and streets.
By the end of the season, we had probably
reached the Early Iron Age (1200-1000
BC), with a corpus of pottery otherwise
unknown or unfamiliar outside this site. Excavation in this area next season will
provide crucial information about the
nature of earlier Iron Age occupation
including what is called the Central
Anatolian "Dark Age."
In an excavation unit on the northern
slope of the höyük, we began
the season with the intent of cleaning
up the robber pits and a test excavation
from an earlier season to see if there
might be a monumental Hittite gate there.
What we discovered was that what seems
to be a wall built in the Hittite Empire
period was reused in the Middle Iron
age, perhaps for other purposes.
The reuse is evidenced by an
added pavement, the construction of
rooms against what should likely be
the Hittite wall of a gateway, and the
negative evidence of massive stone robbing
just where the superstructure of a gate
might have been. Fallen mud brick, slag, and a lot of ash
in the rooms suggests an industrial
area which used the "Hittite gate"
area and rebuilt it to suite new purposes.
Çadir Höyük has extensive Byzantine period remains.
In previous seasons we opened
about a fraction of the summit of the
mound where a large building, perhaps
a fortification, with several layers
of occupation and rebuilding were uncovered.
Hundreds of animal bones were
discovered from what appear to be farm
animals of the local villagers collected
in the building at the time of the Seljuk
conquest of central Anatolia - the last
period of occupation documented at the
site.
Cross
used as a Talisman
Coins, crosses used as talismans, a lock decorated with an image
of the virgin on one side and a fantastic
animal on the other and fragments of
metal vessels were also discovered.
Iron
Cross
The dates of the occupations stretched from at least the 8th
century AD to the 10th century
AD. This season we completed the plan of what had been excavated
in previous seasons and reopened a test
area on the terrace east of the mound.
A comparison of the finds in
the terrace excavation and the summit
excavation is not completed yet, but
finds in the terrace, specifically redware
pottery with roulette and stamped decoration,
has expanded our knowledge of the length
of time the Byzantine settlements of
Çadir's environs lasted. We can now push the dates of the earliest,
recognizable Byzantine occupation back
to the 6th century AD.
It is likely that the well-preserved
stone foundations of the building on
the terrace were those of a large farm
house, whether private or communal is
not as yet known. Large storage vessels and deep rubbish
or storage pits were discovered in the
building's courtyard. All over the Middle East, in the early
Byzantine period, because of the relative
safety of the times, small individual
farmsteads and small, un-walled farming
villages fill the landscapes.
Bulla
of Samuel Alusianos, Obverse and Reverse
These discoveries add to our history
of the site in the Byzantine period.
Last season a rare, lead sealing
was found in the building on the summit
of the höyük, which Marica
Cassis identified as belonging to
Samuel Alusianos, who was a general
under Romanus IV Diogenes (1068-1971),
second husband of the Empress Eudocia
Macrembolitissa, who had also been
married to Romanus' predecessor Constantine
the X. Romanus was himself originally
a Cappadocian general.
Romanus was the emperor who
was taken prisoner by the Seljuk sultan
of Persia, Alp Arslan, at Manzikert,
then ransomed, deposed and blinded
by his step son, who became Michael
VII.
He died in 1072.
Samuel was married to Eudocia's sister and
was commissioned by the emperor to drive
the Turkish armies from Byzantine lands.
The seal suggests that the Empire was
still known, if not active, in our area
around the time of Manzikert. The fortifications
were strengthened in this phase, which
could be expected considering the dangers
of the time. The fortification wall on the southern
side and the storage building were also
repaired at least once - the fortification
wall with a thickly-mortared revetment
at the corner of the fortification wall
- the repair perhaps done after an earthquake. A substantial portion of the fortification
wall on the east side of the mound was planned this past season.
In our coming season we 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, complete the excavation of the
bell-shaped storage pit. Our 2005 season
was an extremely successful one. Our 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. The site has something for everyone.
Our team, composed of experts
specializing in the Byzantine, Iron
Age, Hittite, Early Bronze Age, and
Chalcolithic periods, attests to this.
Staff and Students,
Çadir Höyük 2005
- . -
(Contributions from the site summaries
of Dr. Jennifer Ross, Dr. Bruce Verhaaren,
Dr. Samuel Paley, Ms. Monica Kassis
and Ms. Gail Thompson were used for
this report.)
For
Page I>
E-published by B. Ünver
by November 20, 2005
