The site of Tell esh Sheikh was excavated in 1947 and 1948 as part of the British project at Alalakh-Tell Atchana in the Amuq plain. It is located two miles west of Tell Tayinat, which adjoins Alalakh, with the mound of Tabara al Akrad one and a half miles east. Other sites on the eastern edge of the plain include Çatal Höyük and Judeidah. Woolley discusses Tell esh Sheikh in the reports of excavations at Alalakh. The seals are described most fully by Buchanan, based on information and sketches supplied to him by the excavators. The present study reflects research done in the Antakya Museum and references to its inventory books. As stated by Buchanan, the seals are distributed over seven levels at the site and include a number of gables made of bone. Further information regarding archaeological context is lacking, according to David French, who is reviewing documentation and finds for the forthcoming publication of the Tell esh Sheikh excavation.

An investigation of seals and sealings at such sites as Norşuntepe and Değirmentepe in eastern Anatolia, and Tepe Gawra in northern Mesopotamia, has provided close parallels for materials, shapes, motifs and styles found in the Tell esh Sheikh seal corpus. Such associations in part confirm results of pottery analysis but also raise questions about the correlation of pottery and seal chronology, and about relations between sites on the Cilician plain and regions closer to the resource-rich areas in the northeast. A review of findings follows below.

The second season of excavations at Büyüktepe Höyük, a collaborative project between the University of Melbourne and Erzurum Museum, took place between 5 June and 10 August. We are very much indebted to Mesut Güngör, Acting Director of the Museum, and his staff, in particular Hilmi Özkorucuklu, assistant at the museum and representative of the Ministry of Culture, for their cooperation. Thanks are once again due to the authorities in Demirözü for facilitating our work.

An outline of objectives appeared in the last preliminary report. In order to determine the nature and extent of occupation at the site for all major periods, the excavation strategy for 1991 was as follows (Fig. 1):

1. To investigate by means of broad, horizontal exposures the western flank of the site on the basis of the promising results obtained from last year's sondage in R35a.

2. To enlarge the exposure of the circular structure on the summit of the site first identified in 1990.

3. To examine the saddle between the two hills of Büyüktepe.

Caria south of the Maeander (Büyük Menderes) river has fascinated travellers since antiquity. Mountainous in character and moderately populated today, the region served as a political and cultural frontier between the Greek mainland and the more ancient centres of civilization in the Near East. After a century of exploration, a wealth of data now illuminates the historic past of ancient Caria (von Diest 1909, Ramsay 1890, Paton and Meyers 1896, Winter 1887, Chamonard 1895, Fowler 1906, Hicks, 1892, Humann and Dörpfeld 1893, Miller 1916, Paton 1900, and Weber, 1904). Although informative, such scholarship has also had a negative impact. All too often, the view taken in the published literature is that previously identified sites offer little additional information. Scholars have tended to accept this view and the “authoritative research” of others without further examination of the region or its rich physical remains.

Probably the best-known, and certainly the most individual, of the monuments of the Classical period from Lycia (in south-west Anatolia) are the pillar tombs. At least 33 are known, and perhaps as many as 43, ranging in date from the mid-sixth century B.C. to the mid-fourth. It seems likely that these were the tombs of local ruling dynasts, who are known chiefly from the numismatic record, a supposition supported by the small number of pillars in comparison with all other types of tomb in Lycia, the ornate sculpture on the finest specimens, their rough chronological coincidence with the coin-issuing of dynasts in the country, and finally, the fact that the one example that can be almost positively attributed belongs to one of these dynasts (this will be discussed later). Each tomb was probably erected during the owner's lifetime, since inscriptional evidence from tombs of lesser figures certainly indicates that these were prepared during the owner's lifetime. At most of the cities in Lycia knowledge of the local dynasts is not sufficient to allow an attempt at any sort of attribution of these tombs to individuals, at least not without a great deal of work on the monuments and coinage, but at Xanthos, chief city of Lycia, knowledge of the dynasty is perhaps enough to allow some speculation.

Much has been written about the city of Ura in southern Anatolia, which was important in both the Bronze and the Iron Ages. Nevertheless, no fully satisfactory location for Ura has yet been proposed.

The primary text for locating Ura is the Neriglissar Chronicle. This records:

“Appuašu, king of Pirindu mustered his [large] army and set out to plunder and sack Syria (ebir nāri). Neriglissar mustered his army and marched to Ḫume to oppose him. In anticipation of him (i.e. Neriglissar) (lāmišu), Appuašu placed the army and cavalry which he had assembled in a mountain valley in ambush. (When) Neriglissar reached them he inflicted a defeat upon them (and) conquered the large army. He captured his army and numerous horses. He pursued Appuašu for a distance of fifteen double-hours (bēru) through difficult mountains, where men must walk in single file, as far as Ura° his royal city. When(?) he reached it, he seized Ura° and sacked it. When he had marched for a distance of six double hours through rough mountains and difficult passes from Ura° to Kirši—his forefathers' royal city—he captured Kirši, the mighty city, his royal city. He burnt its walls, its palace and its people. Pitusu, a mountain in the midst of the ocean, and six-thousand combat troops stationed therein, he captured by means of ships. He destroyed its city and captured its people. In that same year he started fires from the pass of Sallune to the border of Lydia.”

This survey was planned with the help of the Human Environment Department of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Fieldwork was carried out with the help of: Bayan Asuman Güngör, the government representative (from Türk İslam Müzesi, Yeşil-Bursa). We also welcomed two visitors from Ege Üniversitesi, Edebiyat Fakültesi: Mr. Kirami Ölgen (geomorphologist and research assistant of Prof, İlhan Kayan, Coğrafya Bölümü) and Dr. Halime Hüryılmaz, (archaeologist, Klasik Arkeoloji Anabilim Dalı), who came to Altınova and provided invaluable expertise. We were also greatly assisted throughout by the advice and involvement of Prof, İlhan Kayan himself before, during and after the coring. Initial analysis of the core samples was carried out at their laboratory at Ege by Prof. Kayan and Mr. Ölgen. The latter also sampled the cores and prepared the chart of the bore-hole findings. Finance was again generously provided by the BIAA and the CRF of London University. Fieldwork took place between 30th October and 8th November 1991.

The aim of the survey was to study the geomorphological evolution of the Madra Çay delta and to learn more about the palaeo-environmental history of a mound located on the delta, as part of a study of prehistoric coastal settlement on the Aegean coast of Turkey. Adaptation to the environment is regarded as one of the four functional criteria of cultural systems and we wanted to find out which of the various different phases in the changing environment of the delta had attracted human occupation.

During 1991 large-scale excavations at Sagalassos continued for their second season from 13 July until 5 September. The work was directed by Professor Marc Waelkens (Dept. of Archaeology, Catholic University of Leuven). A total of 42 scientists from various countries (Belgium, Turkey, Great Britain, Germany and Portugal) as well as 25 local workmen (supervised by Mr. Ali Toprak) carried out the work. The team included 20 archaeologists, 4 illustrators (supervised by G. Evsever and R. Kotsch), 4 architect-restorers (directed by Prof. R. Lemaire and Dr. K. Van Balen), 3 cartographers (directed by Prof. F Depuydt), 2 geologists (directed by Prof. W. Viaene), 2 geomorphologists (Prof. J. De Ploey and Prof. E. Paulissen), 1 archaeozoologist (Dr. W. Van Neer), 1 anthropologist (Dr. Chr. Charlier), 2 restorers for the small finds (directed by Miss K. Norman) and 1 photographer (P. Stuyven). The Turkish Antiquities Department was represented by Muhammet Alkan from the Sivas Museum, whom we thank for his help. Financial support came from the Research Council of the Catholic University of Leuven, the Belgian Fund for Collective Fundamental Research (F.K.F.O.), the Belgian Programme on Interuniversity Poles of Attraction (I.U.A.P. no 28), the National Bank of Belgium, the ASLK/CGER Bank, the tour operator ORION, the car rental company Interleasing, the restoration company E. G. Verstraete & Vanhecke N. V., Agfa-Gevaert films and the association “Friends of Sagalassos”.

The theatre of Sagalassos lies to the north-east of the city, high up the mountain. It is undoubtedly one of the best preserved monuments on the site (Pl. XXV (a)), although some parts of it have collapsed as a result of successive earthquakes. The southwestern part of the cavea, which was built on artificial substructures, and the free-standing stage building are particularly badly damaged, but even there the blocks still lie scattered in the vicinity and very few pieces are missing. Despite this, opinion concerning the reconstruction of the scaenae frons, and even some details of the cavea, differs widely (see below).

During the 1991 season at Sagalassos we started a study of the building and its decoration. Even though this has not been completed, some results have already arisen, which I would like to discuss in this article. A close examination of the fallen blocks of the stage building, gave clear indications for the reconstruction of the scaenae frons. Their decoration supplies clues for the dating of the monument. New study of the theatre façade allows a one-stage reconstruction, as proposed originally by G. Niemann in Ch. Lanckoronski's work concerning the cities of Pisidia and not the two storeys, proposed by D. de Bernardi Ferrero, and a date in the last quarter of the second century A.D.

Of the roughly 160 inscriptions currently held in the Archaeological Museum at Burdur, only a fraction has been published hitherto. The following articles have published monuments from the Museum:

1. G. E. Bean, “Sculptured and inscribed stones at Burdur”, Belleten 18 (1954) 469–88 (Turkish version: 489–510); inscribed stones: nos. 3–5, 8, 9, 13, 14, 17–22 (SEG 14.797–809), of which nos. 8, 13, 19–22 seem no longer to be located in the Museum or the adjacent garden (it should be mentioned that Bean wrote before the Museum was formally established).

2. Id., “Notes and inscriptions from Pisidia, I”, AS 9 (1959) 67–117; inscriptions from Burdur: nos. 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 4–9, 21, 87 (SEG 19.734–42, 753, 819), of which nos. 4 (at the Lycée in 1959) and 6 (at Aşkış in 1959) have not been located.

3. Id., “Notes and inscriptions from Pisidia, II”, AS 10 (I960) 43–82, no. 135 (SEG 19.802). A photograph of this monument is included in the present article as Pl. XXXII (b); see further, pp. 126, 127, 131–32 below.

4. S. Mitchell, “Requisitioned transport in the Roman Empire: a new inscription from Pisidia”, JRS 66 (1976) 106–31 (AE [1976] 653; SEG 26.1392); redated to early under Tiberius by E. A. Judge, “The regional kanon for requisitioned transport”, in G. H. R. Horsley, New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity, I. A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri published in 1976 (North Ryde, 1981) 36–45 no. 9 (SEG 31.1286); the date accepted with further refinement by Mitchell in Chiron 16 (1986) 25–27 (SEG 36.1208).

Beginning in the early sixth century a large-scale rebuilding programme was undertaken by the Phrygians on the City Mound at Gordion, probably with the approval of their overlords, the Lydians. This renewed activity was no doubt one factor in the appearance at this time of several new imported fine wares at Gordion. These supplement the small number of imports finding their way to Gordion during the seventh century. One large group consists of Lydian pottery belonging to several fabrics including black-on-red, bichrome, marbled ware, and black-on-buff. Detailed study of this pottery has yet to be carried out. Work here will depend heavily on the study and classification of pottery from excavations at Sardis. Another, smaller body of imported pottery came from the cities of Greece. Study of this material, mainly from Corinth, Athens, and East Greece, is being conducted by K. DeVries and is now well advanced. A third small body of pottery, originating from areas to the west and south of Gordion, is presented here. The different wares of this group are very poorly known from other West Anatolian sites, so that the Gordion material adds considerably to our understanding of each of them.

About 1 km. north of the village of Yaraşlı on a natural hill that forms an extension of Karaca Daǧ, is a large and impressively defended site locally called Çevre Kale (Fig. 1). Pottery from the surface is Imperial Hittite and Phrygian in date. There is later material, Hellenistic to Byzantine, beneath and adjacent to the village. Yaraşlı is a large well watered village in the Kulu district (ilce) of Konya province (il). The map reference is 59-Ie on the 1:200,000 sheet for Katrancı (Harita Genel Müdürlüǧü 1945).

The aims of the project were to produce a photographic record of the site from the air, using a helium filled blimp and remote controlled camera, from which plans could be drawn and relationships between the various elements of the site determined. Air photographs revealed outlines of buildings that could not be seen on the ground (Pls XLI–XLV(a)). An overall plan has been drawn (Fig. 3). In some cases it has been possible to draw stone for stone plans (Fig. 5 and Pl. XLIV(b), Fig. 6 and Pl. XLV(a)). The results are much superior to those that could have been achieved by traditional cadastral survey and were obtained in a short time. During the course of the day photographs can be taken in varying light so that changes in shadow highlight different features.

This was the fourth season of excavation at Amorium in east Phrygia, and the team worked for four weeks, from 28th July 1991. Archaeological aims this year comprised the continued excavation of the Byzantine Church in the Lower Town, and more detailed study of the small finds, notably the pottery, glass, and inscriptions. Additional aims included the establishment of an official excavation-house (which is necessary by Turkish Law) in the village of Hisarköy, and the construction of a permanent storage depot there. The village of Hisarköy now consists of only about twenty mud-brick houses and two stone buildings, i.e., the cami and the school (which closed in summer 1991). This village was said to have been created in 1892, with about 32 houses, and its recent decline is linked particularly with the attraction felt by the inhabitants to the nearby town of Emirdaǧ. The local harvest takes place in July, releasing a large body of manpower for our excavation's needs in late July and August, as the villagers' families (who work in Eskişehir, Afyon and further afield) come home for their “vacation”. The declining local population does, however, mean that it is easier to find accommodation for the excavation team.