Researches at Uşaklı Höyük (Central Anatolian Plateau)

Uşaklı Höyük is located along the southern bank of the Egri Öz Dere not far from the city of Yozgat, on an undulating plain defined to the south by the Kerkenes Dağ. The site consists of a high mound and a large extended terrace with a low, slightly sloping base: the entire extension of the settlement is about 10 ha, while the central mound covers an area of 2 ha. Evidence on the settlement pattern over a long duration and detailed information on the occupational sequence at the main site of the valley, have been collected in the first campaigns, between 2008 and 2011. The survey gives evidence of a sparse occupation of the area from the Chalcolithic BC to the medieval period, with an increase of settled sites during the Late Roman/Byzantine period. In the course of the 2nd millennium BC, occupation might have been concentrated only in the site of Uşaklı while in the surrounding land it might have been of a rather ephemeral and sparse nature. Having accomplished the first phase of surface research using intensive surveying techniques (geomagnetic and geoelectric prospections; surface collecting) that highlighted the presence for large buildings and city walls, from 2012 we began a program of more invasive investigation of the site with focused operations of scraping on the steep slope of the high mound and stratigraphic excavations on the lower terrace and on the high mound. The intensive techniques adopted in the archaeological survey of Uşaklı Höyük allowed us to correlate the distribution of artifacts with the large structures detected under the surface by the geophysical prospection and locate both areas to be examined in details and excavation trenches according to the period to be investigated. The fact that most of the Late Bronze Age and even earlier materials dating to the Middle Bronze Age period, were found on the outskirts of the terrace can substantiate the hypothesis of a significant settlement consisting of a lower town and an acropolis already during this older phase. The impressive architecture exposed in Area A in the course of the 2013 campaign and the fragments of cuneiform tablets found in recent years suggest the importance of the settlement at the end of 2nd millennium BC, at the time of the Hittite rule over the region. This article will provide a summary of principal researches undertaken on the field and the main results achieved during the seven seasons of archaeological work.