1. LOCATION
Kerkenes Dağ (fig. 1) is in the lice of Sorgun, Yozgat Ii (see map). The site is situated on the low mountain (c. 1 ,500m.)
just to the south of the main highway. It dominates both the major east-west route followed by the modem main road
and the northern end of the Cappadocia plain. It is some 30km east of Yozgat and 25 km west of Alishar Hoyuk.
PARTICIPANTS
The survey took place between the 1st of August and 30th of September 1993. The team comprised Geoffrey
Summers (director), Francoise Summers (architect), Richard Bayliss (surveyor), Tugrui çakar (photographer), Yigit
Adam, Ayça Akin, Ebru Aksoy and Omur Harmanşah (METU students of architecture), Cem Berkmen, Yasemin
Iiseven and Nahide Aydin (Biikent students of archaeology), Buket Can (Hacitepe University student), Lewis
Somers, Sean Moore and Meliha Doğan (GEOSCAN). We are extremely grateful to the Vaii of Yozgat Mr Ertu~rui
Ersoy, the Sorgun Kaymakan Mr F. Necmi Kurt and the Muhtar of ~ahmuratli Koy Mr Osman Muratdagi, for much
hospitality, help and advice. The staff of the Yozgat Museum, and especially Mr Musa Ozcan the Director and Mr
Yusuf Demirci the Assistant, provided both encouragement and practical help at every stage; to them our deep
thanks. The villagers of ~ahmuratli Koy greeted us with the usual hospitality for which Anatolia is justly famous.
The 1993 season was sponsored by the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. Funding was provided by the
Leverhuime Trust with contributions from the BIAA and the British Academy. We have been most fortunate to
receive help from many other quarters including the British Ambassador Mr John Goulden and the Management
Section of the Embassy, Mr Semih Kiri~co~iu and his staff (Sokkia-Seza Ltd. for data processing) and METU Dept.
of Architecture (photographic assistance and technical advice).
Amongst the academic colleagues who have provided advice and support we would mention Drs Dominique Collon
and John Curtis (British Museum), Mr Warren Eastwood (Swansea University), Prof. Ayhan Erler (METU), Dr
David French (BIAA), Prof. David Hawkins (SOAS), Prof. Tahsin OzgUc (Ankara), Dr Tony Wilkinson (Chicago)
and Prof. Henry T. Wright (Michigan). During the season we were pleased to welcome a number of visitors,
especially Dr Peter Neve and his team from Bogaz Kale, Dr Ron Gorney and his team from Alishar and Prof. Wulf
Schirmer and his team from Göllu Dag.
We owe two special debts of gratitude: firstly to the staff of the Genel MudUrlUgU in Ankara, especially Prof. Dr
Engm Ozgen, Mr Osman Ozbek and Mr Levent Vadar; secondly to our representative Mr Kazim Mertek, from the
Konya Museum, without whose enthusiastic involvement we would have achieved far less and at greater cost.
Finally, we would like to thank another British contribution, the Kapadokya Robinson Lodge Balloon Team for
3
providing a superb flight over the site, the results of which are apparent in this report.
