Preliminary report on the 2018 excavation season at Uşaklı Höyük (Yozgat)

In 2018 the eleventh season of work was carried out at Uşaklı Höyük, in the North-Central Anatolian plateau. Uşaklı is located 20 km east of Yozgat, in a small valley bordered by hills of different altitude and crossed by two small streams, the larger of which is the Eğri Öz Dere that runs west to east. The site is ten hectares, of ovoid shape and can be seen from all the surrounding heights and from the bottom of the eastern part of the valley, over a relatively long distance. The 2018 excavations in Area D produced meaningful evidence of the earliest phases of the Iron Age and the change of settlement at the turn of 1st millennium BC; in Area A other portions of the large Building II have been exposed, adding other details to reconstruct its layout. The way the settlement changed after the fall of the Hittite state remains still obscure but some elements suggest that at least in this part of the site a new form of occupation arose.