مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - The 2012-2013 Excavations at Kerkenes and Evaluations of the Settlement

Abstract :

The site on Kerkenes Mountain near Sorgun, Yozgat is supposedly a well-documented site, but almost anything about the site is still discussable, because of insufficient excavations. Our team had the op-portunity to work in 2012 and 2013 on the site and the results of our works and some suggestions about the site’s history and function are the topics of this paper. We could excavate 100 m long part of fortification wall and part of a building block. The results of the excavations and site arrangements made the site more accessible and understandable. Kerkenes was the biggest and crowded site for its period in Anatolia and the strategic position of site together with the fortification and occupation arrangements is best explained with the military character of the site. Therefore, it seems suggestible that Kerkenes was a military foundation of Lydian Kingdom together with Akalan in Samsun and Göllüdağ in Niğde. It served as a stronghold for the Lydian Army during their expansion period and especially wars against Cimmerians in the VIIth century and after the peace with Medes functioned as a border site functioned mainly for commercial activities together with Akalan and Göllüdağ till Persian wars. The differences in the building designs which cover almost all the enclosed area and the finds from different cultures, which are mostly Phrygian, were because the Lydian army was combined by all the nations under Lydian rule. After the fall of Lydia this destroyed site which was too big for any local community in the region and useless for Persian Empire, was not occupied again. Because, the site was actually a Lydian garrison in the region called as Pteria (wing, border line?) by Hero-todus should never had a civil population and a name. This must be the reason for being unknown to the an-cient writers and not being mentioned in any documents or inscriptions in the history