Sirkeli Höyük Project

This thesis investigates the nature of the Hellenistic settlements in Smooth Cilicia from the perspective of five multi-period sites that give clear, stratified evidence for architecture and other aspects of material culture. Before the 1990s, such a study would have been impossible. The only excavation project in the region that could have contributed evidence was Tarsus. Otherwise, the Hellenistic period was known only from textual records and some surveys. Now, thanks to excavations at Soli- Pompeiopolis, Sirkeli Höyük, Tatarlı Höyük, and Kinet Höyük, in addition to those at Tarsus, sufficient data for examining the nature of Hellenistic settlements is available. This thesis first examines historical events and geographical features that might have effects on settlements. The main focus, however, is the architecture, its development through the Hellenistic centuries, and the ceramics and other cultural material recovered from stratified deposits. The data used in this study mainly comes from the excavation reports, which are either detailed, as for Tarsus, or, as for the recent excavation projects, short and preliminary. This thesis concludes that the Hellenistic period in the multi-period settlements of Smooth Cilicia was characterized by small towns with simple buildings in contrast with those yielding monumental and impressive structures in Greece, Western Anatolia, or Egypt. Occupation at these sites, except at Tarsus-Gözlükule, had been continuous from the previous Persian period. In the Roman era, most of these settlements were abandoned, to be reestablished at new locations nearby with monumental and impressive structures.

The region known as “Cilicia” in antiquity, a very fertile land located at the interface between Syria, Cyprus, and Anatolia, has a long history from prehistoric ages through the medieval period. This doctoral dissertation aims to understand how the settlements developed and changed in Cilicia from the Achaemenid-Persian control through the beginning of Roman Era. Until recently, these periods were rarely the primary focus of archaeological studies in Cilicia. Researchers working in the multi-period sites were usually motivated to learn more about the earlier periods. Consequently, the Achaemenid-Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods were either ignored or not studied thoroughly. Thanks to recent excavations and new discoveries in Cilicia (such as Sirkeli, Kinet, Tarsus, Tatarlı, Soli-Pompeiopolis), it has now become possible to examine these periods. By focusing mainly on the multi-period settlements like mounds -in which changes and developments are better observed in a stratified context-, this project investigates urbanism and the nature of the Cilician settlements during the above-mentioned time span in a multi-disciplinary, holistic perspective. Taking up a regional approach, this study makes use of various theoretical concepts including Christaller’s “Central Place theory” (1933) as well as Burghardt’s “Gateway Communities” (1971) with the recent modifications in order to determine the settlement patterns and the effects of geographical features and political events. With the help of ancient texts, all kinds of archaeological information (architecture, ceramics, single finds) will be analyzed thoroughly in order to see the changes in the material culture. The stratification of the settlements will be studied to clarify the chronological problems in dating artifacts.

An der eisenzeitlichen Stadtmauer des kilikischen Fundortes Sirkeli Höyük wurden im Sommer 2015 Spuren gefunden, die auf eine Belagerung des Ortes in der Eisenzeit hindeuten könnten. Historische Quellen erlauben es sogar, diesen Befund mit aller Vorsicht mit der in den Inschriften Salmanassars III. (858-824 v. Chr.) für das Jahr 839 v. Chr. belegten Belagerung Kisuatnis , welches wahrscheinlich mit dem Sirkeli Höyük zu identifizieren ist, in Verbindung zu bringen.