Excavations at Uşaklı Höyük. Recent Results. Chapter Six.

The paper presents the results of the excavations and studies undertaken from 2017 to 2020 by the team of the Uşaklı Höyük Archaeological Project. Uşaklı Höyük is a multi-period site, with evidence of permanent settlement dating from the late 3rd millennium BC onwards. The main period of occupation dates to the 2nd millennium when the site hosted an important Hittite settlement. Excavations of both the lower town in Area A and halfway down the southern slope of the citadel in Area D revealed the presence of imposing buildings made of large granite blocks, which must have been two of the principal public buildings of the town during the Hittite phase, evidencing the greatest urban development of the site. The impressive architecture in granitic boulders exposed in Areas A and D, together with the fragments of cuneiform tablets found on the slopes of the mound, suggest the importance of the settlement at the time of the Hittite rule. The importance of both buildings within the ancient city, underlined also by dimensions and position, will be analyzed in relation to the shape of other Hittite settlement of the region. Within this comparative framework, anomalies in the geomagnetic plot of the eastern slope will be considered as possible traces of a defensive city wall and integrated with the remarks of early travelers that visited the site at the beginning of 20th century about the remains of a gate. In Area A the massive groundwork of the large Building II shows a complex layout with different units. The plan of the portion exposed so far has an irregular and asymmetrical profile with some units protruding from the main body of the structure and includes rooms of different sizes. The unit with the four parallel long rooms in the northwestern part of the building finds comparisons in the storage rooms of Hittite public architecture. The masonry technique is rough, with dry walling (2.00-2.80m thick on average but in one case till 3.60m) and the filling made of stones. The boulders are rough-hewn except one case that shows a characteristic bending similar to typical blocks found in Hittite buildings. Between the 2017 and 2019 campaigns, the eastern and northern sectors of the building have been explored. Here a wall 3.60m wide, oriented WNW-ESE, projects out from the main alignment of the other walls previously dug and delimits what is most likely a wing of the building extending eastward. The walls of this sector are partially preserved and have been dismantled in the past. The wall, composed of small and medium-sized stones and with only few large boulders, on its eastern edge lies on a outcrop of natural soil. North of this wide wall, in the open courtyard delimited to the west by the main body of the building, portions of a cobbled stone pavement have been found, with a very interesting arrangement of small stones in triangular patterns based on colours (whitish, blackish or bluish and reddish). According to the evidence at hand the pavement has to be connected with the main phase of use of Building II and dates to the Late Bronze Age period, resembling the earlier mosaic floors of this kind made by small stones of different colours documented in Anatolia and probably in the whole Near East. In the last three years Area D was at the centre of a digging program focused on the understanding of the change in settlement organization between the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age. A long sequence has been exposed on top of the remains of the Building III, dating to the Late Bronze Age, that served as physical basement for the later building programs on the citadel. As for the Building III concerns, a new room has been individuated and part of the wall delimiting the south side that show a segmented profile, receding towards the north probably for adapting to the shape of the natural hill. The room, individuated at the eastern limit of the Area D, shows clear traces of heavy fire affected all the walls and floor and the well-preserved remains of lower part of a burned log, with the diameter of 50 cm, that originally supported the roof, in a posthole at the centre of the melted floor. Preliminary results of dendrochronology and radiocarbon determination will be presented in the paper. On top of the burned remains of this eastern room of Building III a long sequence of layer characterised by open-air floors, pits, and small walls running east-west follow one another and individuate the occupation dating to the Iron Age, characterised by evidence connected with daily activities and small productive installations. The paper will include also the recent results on the pottery analysis, providing an updated view of the repertoire in relation to the stratigraphic sequence. The long sequence of occupation brought to light at Uşaklı Höyük provided a rich set of pottery lots which are being investigated against the background of central Anatolian cultural horizons. Red-slip handmade ware, evidence of Early Bronze Age occupation at the site, has been recovered in relatively large amount in secondary contexts of deposition in all excavated areas. Second millennium BC pottery is among the largest set: the material assemblages from Area A Building II and Area D Building III foundation levels provide piece of evidence for investigating either the building processes and their setting in the Hittite sequence; Late Bronze Age ceramics found out of context from the Area C burnt layers provide important insight for the reconstruction of the end of Building II life sequence. Uşaklı Höyük Late Bronze Age ceramic production confirms a rather massified, maximised and substantially intensive production, making large use of the fast wheel, but handmade building techniques are also documented in the production of large, coarse plates. On production and use of large, coarse Hittite plates, in fact, is specifically focused an experimental archaeology research program. Laboratory analysis being conducted on different classes of Late Bronze Age ‘luxury’ – like Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware and some Gold Wash Ware variants – and common ware potteries are giving insights relating possible local versus imported sets of ceramics. Regarding the period of transition between the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age, although clear primary contexts of occupation were not preserved at the site, the integration of different sets of evidence supplies the basis for a preliminary assessment. The elaboration of a fine-grained chronology for the end of Late Bronze Age occupational layers at the site as well as for Iron Age archaeological sequence is in progress, integrating evidence from stratigraphy, pottery analysis and 14C samples. In particular, the presence of a set of potsherds showing close similarities with Early Iron Age North Central Anatolian ceramic assemblages attests that the site was also occupied during the early phases of the Iron Age