Defences

Study of the defensive system has been completed. The major addition to our understanding of the seven gates and they in which they might have functioned is the realisation that passages are indeed surprisingly wide, most being around 8 m. It seems that, as at contemporaneous Lydian Sardis and earlier Phrygian Gordion, the defensive superstructure was not carried over the gate passages. Defenders atop the wall would thus have had to descend and reascend the wall in getting from one side of a gate to another. At Kerkenes, where the topography beyond the gates often involves steep descent, it is possible that these wide gate passages facilitated the rapid deployment and retreat of mounted troops.

In the system of Kerkenes defences a number of influences might be detected. The possibilities suggested below have great significance in reaching an understanding of the cultural dynamics of the western portion of the Median Empire. The Kale appears to have formed a steep and barren peak that, whether or not it was walled, performed the role of a citadel as a place of last resort once defences were breached. This, according to A.W. Lawrence, is a Greek concept, (although it might also be seen at Lydian Sardis). The butting of towers and buttresses against the face of the curtain wall, rather than bonding them in, is also western, as might be the gates discussed above. There is little if anything in the system of defences at Kerkenes that seems to fit into a Near Eastern tradition as seen, for instance, in Urartu, Assyria or the Neo-Hittite cites south of the Anatolian Plateau. One site that does offer some parallel is the Neo-Hittite centre on the Göllü Dag (near Nigde on the Central Anatolian Plateau), but the parallel is probably very superficial since the function of the Göllü Dag site is very different to that of Kerkenes. The apparent western influences in the defences at Kerkenes are in sharp contrast to the architectural forms within the city which have clear Iranian antecedents. What is to be made of this surprising western influence in the defences at Kerkenes? An attractive possibility is that the incoming imperial power, having no great urban tradition of its own, employed an architect from the West to design a defensive city that, after all, needed to defend itself against tactics employed by the states of Anatolia (Lydia, Cilicia and whatever lay to the north). If this speculative suggestion has merit it, could be seen in the light of the later, Achaemenid, use of non-Iranian expertise and Alexander's employment of an Ionian architect to design the defences of Alexandria.

 
Urban Dynamics

Urban Zones
In 1998 much progress was made in the definition of urban zones at the northern end of the city. At the time of the catastrophic fire there were large urban blocks, each with a columned hall, along the inside of the city wall and separated from it by a street. On the two parallel ridges south of these prestigious blocks the urban units are smaller and the structures within them different in both character and function. The shallow valleys have been found to contain a number of previously unrecognised and substantial reservoirs, indicating substantially more management and control of water resources than hitherto realised. Further analysis of the pattern of urban zoning is a major goal of the next few months.

Chronological Development
At the foundation of the city the line of the city wall and the position of the seven gates were decided and the interior was centrally apportioned. Military considerations might have of greater importance in the initial planning than previously suggested. From the 1998 season it has become apparent the northern tip of the city contained an open lozenge shaped space associated with a special structural complex that differs in plan from the blocks with columned halls on either side. The earlier contention that there was an unfinished military road around the inside of the city defences remains the only plausible way in which the defences could have been intended to function. Thus, at the northern tip of the city there seems to have been a public, probably military complex, hardly a surprising conclusion, but one lacking proof of function.

The large blocks inside the city wall at the north end, apart from that at the tip, each contain a columned hall oriented in the same direction, and other structures of similar character. Test excavations in Area B (1996 and 1998, TT 15, TT 20, TT 21) have apparently confirmed that the urban block wall was the primary construction. It is most plausible that the columned hall was also a primary structure. Thereafter the blocks were filled with buildings during the brief life of the city. The apparently haphazard positions of the lesser buildings within the blocks under discussion was dictated by topography, level areas being used first, later buildings requiring substantial infilling and terracing. Chronological indicators include spatial patterning, building techniques and materials and perhaps building forms (discussed in a separate section below).

The areas initially enclosed by the urban blocks were above the wet marshy areas in the broad shallow valleys. As the reservoirs were constructed, water channels built and muddy areas paved with stone there was an encroachment into the previously open areas, and perhaps on the military road inside the city wall.

Building Typology
A typology of buildings is slowly emerging. There are a number of apparently unique structures or building complexes which include each unit within the public zone to the south and the large complex at the northern tip of the city. Some building types, however, occur repeatedly, the most obvious being columned halls, two-roomed structures, small square structures (perhaps containing ovens) and long narrow buildings divided into small chambers. Some building types are associated with compounds or yards, most notably the two-roomed structures.

Other broad streets connect the city gates and also provide access between urban blocks to the street around the wall. It is not yet known if these streets were paved, some were certainly levelled and have retaining walls or perhaps even steps. Narrower streets and alleys were certainly stepped where the terrain was very steep (such as the slopes below the Kale surveyed in 1997).
The street plan that is emerging at the northern end of the city, however, appears to show that communication and circulation within the city was restricted in such a way that the zone of elite urban blocks with columned halls (if our interpretation is correct) are isolated from traffic to and from the gates. In other words, we appear to see an urban zone that was only provided with circuitous access to even the closest of the city gates. It seems probable that this restriction of circulation was not part of the original urban plan but came about as open space between urban blocks was built over, and might thus represent a deliberate trend towards exclusiveness and privacy. All of the above is, of course, highly speculative and may need to be revised in the light of further geophysical survey.

Major Areas of Investigation
1. The military or defensive dynamics of the original urban foundation need further elucidation. Two essential areas of future research are: (i) a greater understanding of communication and deployment of defending forces within the city and (ii) a better understanding of the line chosen for the defences and the positions of the gates in relation to potential attack and responses to attack by sorties. The first of these areas of research will be approached, in the first instance, through further geomagnetic and GPS mapping; the second through GIS analysis of the defensive circuit in relation to topography and approaches to the city.
2. Changes to the urban infrastructure that took place over the 2-3 generations of city's life. Abandonment of the defences, apparently before completion, was presumably linked to a change in the primary function of the city from that of an imperial military base (from which the Medes fought the Lydians and perhaps others) to an imperial city that administered rule over subject peoples within internationally agreed borders. The "horizontal stratigraphy" being revealed by geomagnetic mapping will document these developments.
3. Full identification of the urban zones, determination of differences in status and functions of zones and interaction between zones. Completion of the mapping is clearly the first stage. Determination of function will doubtless require further test excavations. To date, for instance, we do not know the specific function of any of the building types that have been identified, nor do we even have candidates for major religious elements within the city confines, nor for industrial areas and workshops.
4. Detailed geomagnetic and GPS mapping of the southern zone of public buildings.