CLEARANCE OF PUBLIC STRUCTURES
Glacis of the South-East Tower
of the Cappadocia Gate.
One further element of the 1999 summer season consisted
of the clearance of fallen stones from the vicinity of the "Cappadocia Gate" and
from the tall eastern façade of a palatial complex (Figs 12,
13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18). Plans of the
cleared structures were drawn and, wherever appropriate, sections through the stone debris
and traces of burning in front of the various glacis were recorded. Scale drawings of the
face of the façades were made and three-dimensions survey was conducted with an EDM. A
complete photographic record was made: black and white negatives, colour slides and
digital colour images. In addition, two technicians from the Department of Architecture at
ODTÜ made a total record by means of stereo photography. Final drawings and graphic
images will be produced in the autumn.
The Cappadocia Gate
In the area of the Cappadocia Gate clearance started on July 7th and ended on July 26th
(Figs 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16). Thanks to the assistance of the Sorgun Belediye and
Dedefakali Belediye it proved possible to use two separate kepçe to move the fallen stone
rubble to suitable locations well away from the surviving walls. (Eventually these
locations may serve a flat parking areas suitable for the use of tourist buses outside the
line of the city defences.)
To the west of the Gate the clearance revealed a continuous stone glacis face that
enveloped the S.W. Tower of the Gate, a short (8 m) E-W stretch of wall, a long (24 m)
N-S- stretch of wall, and exposed the north end of a protruding buttress (Buttress 1). To
our surprise, the tall exposed glacis face of the two adjoining stretches of wall proved
to have survived up to 5 to 6 m in height with an inclination of 60º. In places the
glacis face appears to have survived to within a course or two of its original height.To
the east of the Gate the glacis on the south face of the S.E. Tower was followed for a
distance of at least 6 m. Here the glacis reached a maximum height of 4 m with a
relatively steep inclination of c. 80º.
As far as the construction of these various stretches of glacis are concerned, they appear
to have been erected on a natural bed of red gritty clay which may well have been levelled
to form an even base. The facing stones of the glacis are unusually large (up to 1.5 m in
height), but they are nevertheless skilfully arranged in a kind of cyclopean stonework.
There are no separate true courses, and the facing stones retain a rubble core. Dry stone
construction was used throughout and the interstices between the neatly fitted large
stones are finely chinked with small to medium sized stones. It is also evident that the
lowest facing stones were partly propped up at the required sloping angle by a series of
smaller stones. At some stage further layers of gritty red clay were used to hide such
supporting stones from view before the whole external area was covered by a whitish clay
surface. At the topmost level it can be assumed that the glacis face would have extended
for at least one more meter where it would have met the vertical face of the now missing
superstructure.
One notable surprise was the huge amount of stone that had fallen from the top of the
walls in the vicinity of the Cappadocia Gate. This almost certainly confirms that an upper
stone wall must have once existed above the sloping glacis and hence completed the city's
defensive system. Burning is also attested at several locations, not least near the
exposed north face of Buttress 1. Here overhanging timber structures are likely to have
burnt and fallen during the conflagration that destroyed the Iron Age city.
Preliminary clearing within the Gate itself indicates that each of the Cappadocia Gate's
flanking glacis extended the limits of the gate passage. The passage has only been begun
to be examined, but it is clear that the entrance was 2.20 m in width.
While a number of sherds of Iron Age date were found on a grey surface in a test pit near
the west wall of the Gate, fragments of Byzantine pottery were also recovered at almost
the same depth. A late secondary use of this gate in Byzantine times is also confirmed by
other evidence. That is to say that part of the top of the east wall of the passage
appears to have been reopened in the Byzantine period. At the time of the reopening at
least two distinctive soft sandstone blocks were introduce near the present top of the
wall. Each bears a series of etched designs, those on the upper block possibly
representing a church and a number of adjacent tombstones.
The 'Palace Complex Façade'
Clearance of the façade on the east side of the "Palace Complex" also
progressed well, thus, although the original surface at the base of the stone glacis was
only reached at certain selected points, it is clear that the glacis originally stood to a
height of at least 4 m (Figs 12, 17 and 18). Burning was
again in evidence and small areas of exposed external surface yielded sherds of Iron Age
date. The one registered find was a small, perforated and polished stone object of Iron
Age date.
Future work will be needed to establish the position of the main entrance to the Palace
Complex, even if it can now be stated that it did not lie in the deep central niche of the
glacis façade on the east side.
Conservation
As stated above, the rubble cleared from in front of the glacis was always stockpiled in
the tidiest manner possible at a substantial distance from the monuments, so as not to
detract in any way from their visual impact, and selected fallen face stones from the
glacis were carefully set aside for future restoration. Next, the stability of individual
facing stones in situ was examined; and in almost all cases was found to be admirable.
Nevertheless, as a sensible conservation measure, we added extra stone chinking wherever
this appeared to be advisable.
Following the
clearance down to the original surfaces at the base of the glacis in the vicinity of the
Cappadocia Gate and the "Palace Complex" façade, it was decided that the
ancient surfaces ought to receive careful protection. Accordingly, several tractor-loads
of sand, earth and pebbles were spread over the original surfaces to a uniform depth of 15
cm. For drainage purposes at the Cappadocia Gate, a top layer of sand was then used to cap
the whole protective covering.
The entrance to the
passage of the Cappadocia Gate, which it expected we will be able to clear completely and
consolidate over the next two seasons, was lined with polythene sheeting on which a layer
of earth and sand was placed. Added to this was a sufficient quantity of stone rubble to
protect the exposed walls of the passage from damage until further work can resume next
season.
A terrace wall
exposed at the southern extremity of the "Palace Complex" façade was protected
from potential collapse, that might be caused by the build up of rain water behind it, by
the construction of a new retaining wall against the exposed face. This seen as a
temporary solution pending further elucidation of the architecture.
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