The aim of completing excavations at the Cappadocia Gate in 2010 (Fig. 91) was thwarted by two unexpected discoveries. The first, in the 11m wide rear passage, was the edge of the stone pavement butting against the base of a massive timber structure which incorporated a pair of large wooden doors. The second was a victim of the fire and collapse in the Gate Court which will require very careful recording and lifting in 2011.
     At the front of the gate complete exposure of a portion of the glacis at the junction of the East Tower and the city wall was fully achieved with significant new results.

     Excavation of the Gate Court
     In May, it was possible to excavate a strip parallel to the northeastern wall of the Gate Court so as to determine the depth of the remaining deposit (Fig. 92). The larger stones that had collapsed from the walls of the Gate Court onto the floor (Fig. 93) were carefully articulated to facilitate the recovery of what might have been crushed on the floor during the destruction
     Excavation of the Gate Court was resumed at the end of September and the aim was to complete removal of the remaining fill. The operation was made difficult by the very large size of some of the stones together with the way those first to fall had deeply embedded themselves in the silt (Fig. 94). Stones were piled up by hand at the north end of the trench from whence they were lifted by means of a mechanical digger, either hoisted individually or manually placed into the digger bucket. In this way it was possible to avoid taking any heavy equipment onto the pavement. Much of the stone was utilised in the restoration work with the remainder being piled up for future use in restoration or the construction of protective walling.
     In as far as was practicable, when excavation was resumed in September (Fig. 95), stone collapse was removed across the entire area in such a way as to leave in place only the lowermost stones. This procedure was followed in order to record the location of sandstone blocks fallen from the top of the Middle Tower, to ensure that any installations that might have been set up in the court would be recognised even if they had been badly damaged by the fire and collapse and, finally, so that the bottommost stones of the collapse could be carefully removed with as little disturbance as possible to what might lie in the initial destruction immediately beneath (Figs 96 and 97).
     Clearance began in the innermost, southeastern corner and proceeded to the northwest limit of the trench. As excavation progressed around the Middle Tower it was necessary to move back the leaning upper courses before removing the fill that was supporting the wall (Fig. 98). The exposed portion of the wall was carefully photographed and recorded before the stones were moved. The stability of the wall was compromised by the gap left where a wooden horizontal beam burnt out during the destructive fire (Fig. 99).
     The entire Gate Court fill was cleared to the layer of large stones that had collapsed onto the floor. Granite boulders were then carefully removed but blocks of sandstone were left in position and recorded (Fig. 100). A single course of yellowish sandstone was found to have fallen from the corners of the Middle Tower. Burning indicates that the sandstone blocks rested on timbers. Neither the size of the blocks nor tool marks and surface finishes provided any indication of the way these stones were assembled. The stone pavement extended to a slightly curved edge running from the north corner of the Middle Tower to the south corner of the North Tower (Fig. 101). The destruction layer itself amounted to no more than a very thin scatter of burnt matter impressed into the silty surface below when the walling fell. Towards the northern extremity of the excavated area there were fewer large stones and little or no accumulation of silt.
     Heavy rain at the very end of the season brought down the northwest wall face of the Middle Tower, while the south corner of the North Tower and the north corner of the Middle Tower had both partially collapsed in the previous winter. Emergency repairs to the top of the wall connecting the Middle and East Towers as well as the face stones of the Middle Tower itself were abandoned in the face of torrential rain that bedevilled the last few days of the autumn excavation campaign.

Trench TR13
     All work in the Gate Court was conducted within trench TR13, which was extended northwestwards, past the rear of the stepped base on which the stele stood, by approximately 1m in order to reveal the northern limit of the stone pavement (Fig. 102). The pavement terminates at the foundation for a substantial, burnt, timber edifice in which a pair of wooden doors would have been housed (Fig. 103).
     Recording of all excavated wall faces by rectified digital photography with control points (Fig. 104) was completed but rain and wall collapse precluded total recording of the stone paving, not least because a portion of the pavement became obscured by wall collapse. Any attempt to remove the newly fallen stone without first consolidating the loose rubble core of the wall above would have been injudicious.
     Crushed and poorly preserved human remains in the Gate Court were partially consolidated and then covered with a protective layer of soil because a combination of weather conditions and concern about the stability of other tall walling did not permit the very slow and careful cleaning required (Fig. 105).

     The Gate Construction
     Wall faces are not coursed, but levelling at given intervals was necessary for the insertion of horizontal timbers (Fig. 106). Stones were rudely shaped to some extent by the use of hammers but there was no dressing of faces. This observation also holds true for the glacis, apart from those stones immediately flanking the front passage where oblique light reveals hammering or pecking of the large basal facing stones. Wall and glacis faces were heavily chinked. Restoration masons in 2010 demonstrated how easily skilled artisans could quickly shape stones to fit particular spaces using only simple, heavy, hammers.
     The horizontal timbers set into the faces of all walls were approximately 1m apart. Beam slots measured between 25 and 30 centimetres in depth with differences in the number and size of chinking stones indicating variation in the size of beams. The level of timbers in adjacent walls surrounding the Gate Court does not always coincide (Fig. 107). The stretch of wall running along the court's northeastern side has timbers inclined so as to follow roughly the sloping ground (Fig. 91). The purpose of these horizontal beams was to give stability to the wall faces in the event of a single stone becoming dislodged. Cross timbers have not been found in the body of any walling.
     Timbers appear to have been rounded tree trunks chinked into position with small stones in the same way as the face stones (Fig. 108). Larger logs may have been split. Charcoal analysis shows that both oak and black pine were used together with some juniper.
     The stone rubble fill of both the walls and the glacis was very loose, possessing every appearance of having been tipped in at random. Very large stones appear high up in preserved wall cores. The size of stones in the collapse proves that there was no diminution in the size of stones, nor in the proportion of large stones, incorporated into the upper portions of walls. Wall faces within the gate were covered with two coats of mud plaster that were preserved in places where there was moisture in the lower portion of the collapse and also in sparse patches where plaster had been burnt. It is assumed that this plaster covered the full height of the walling and that much of it had washed down to form the thick silty layer in the eastern sector of the court before the burning (Fig. 109). Once exposed the plaster dried rapidly and then crumbled or just fell away from wall faces.

     Surfaces Inside the Gate Court and Front Passage
     In the lower portion of the front passage there were places on the northeastern side where bedrock stood proud of the burnt surface. Otherwise nothing is known of the original surfaces which lie under the extent of stone pavement that has been uncovered. The paved area extended from the southwestern side of the Middle Tower to the corner formed by the back of the stepped base on which the stele stood along the transverse timber structure. Edging stones forming the lower limit were much larger than the rest, as was the case in the earlier phase of the pavement in the Monumental Entrance of the Palatial Complex, doubtless selected to diminish any possible dislodgement in this most vulnerable position. The eastern edge was noticeably curved. On the northwest side of the passage, the original paving was extended, incorporating a stone-sided drain which was stone-capped along its upper course. Lower down in the front passage patches of paving occurred between upstanding bedrock, together with a central spine of roughly rectangular stones that may have provided a dry pedestrian footway. Elsewhere in this area there were small cobbles and gravel.
     In the centre of the passage, a little way down from the line of the inner edge of the Middle Tower, was a circular emplacement resembling a shallow post setting. The base stone had been pecked smooth and there were small stones which appeared to have been packing. There were, however, no equivalent settings at the passage sides that could have been evidence of gates. Additionally, the small size of the setting precludes a structural function. Thus the true purpose of this feature remains enigmatic. Almost the whole of this lower portion of the passage was levelled up with very stiff clay and eroded granite that was presumably quarried for the purpose of providing a more level surface, perhaps one that offered more secure footing when icy. These stone surfaces below the hard clay were not revealed when trench TR12 was first excavated because digging was halted at the fragile burnt surface that represented the destruction of the city.
     When the paving was first laid the edging was proud of the earlier surface. The nature of this first surface across the southeastern sector of the Gate Court will not be understood until final clearance is conducted in 2011, although glimpses suggest that it was comprised of trampled and redeposited subsoil.

     The Fire and Collapse
     Before the fire, as mentioned earlier, a considerable depth of silt had accumulated over the greater portion of the Gate Court and, to a lesser extent, the front passage. When the gate walls collapsed during the fire this silt was wet, as it was when first uncovered even at the end of a dry summer. The heavy stones partially buried themselves as they thumped onto the surface. The silty surface and, towards the northern end, the stone pavement itself were covered with a thin scatter of charcoal flecks and burnt mud from the walls. There were no artifacts on the surface at the time of the destruction. Black stains on the northeastern section of the pavement indicate that a part of the timber structure fell here and continued to burn. A large iron strip being held in position by large dome-headed nails, perhaps to the doors, was recovered in the rubble.

     Victims of the Destruction
     When the city was put to the torch the gate was also set alight and collapsed while it burnt. It was established in 2009 that the walling fell in one single event as the timbers burnt, and that the still burning fallen timbers, as well as those still embedded in the standing portions of wall faces buried by the collapse, smouldered to ash. Two victims have been found. One, uncovered in 2009, was a middle-aged woman killed while fleeing down the front passage. The second, yet to be fully excavated, was crushed and contorted beneath burning beams and large stones. Neither had possessions or adornments.
     The crushed and partially burnt individual was found at the end of the 2010 excavation campaign in the Gate Court (Fig. 110). Excavation was slow and tedious (Figs 111, 112 and 113). It seems that the person was killed instantly when the walls fell, first falling on his/her knees and then twisting sideways, although these details will need to be confirmed when excavation is completed in 2011. The bones, and especially the skull, are poorly preserved, firstly because of the way in which many of them broke when the body was unevenly squashed into the wet silt and, secondly, because of the acidic nature of the granitic soil. On the final day of excavation, in appalling weather conditions, exposed bones were consolidated, linen sheets laid over the area and a protective covering of earth laid on top.
     It will, nevertheless, be possible to recover a considerable amount of detail. These human remains are to be studied by Yılmaz Erdal at Hacettepe University. It is not impossible that yet more victims await discovery closer to the southeast corner of the court, but this is not thought very likely because much of the very thin burnt surface has been exposed in this area. If there are further human remains they will be even less well preserved than the bones of this individual.

     Further Clearance of the Stone Glacis at the Base of the East Tower
     Work at the junction of the East Tower and the City Wall, begun in 2009, was completed this year in conjunction with the first stage in a program of restoration of the glacis (Figs 114 and 115). Clarification of outstanding issues and new results were attained because the inner corner of the glacis was found to have collapsed as far down as the basal course (Figs 116 and 117). This circumstance permitted examination of both the northeast face of the East Tower wall and the outer face of the City Wall to within a couple of courses of the base (Figs 118 and 119). Clearance of rubble tumble and fill, which was primarily conducted to examine the present stability of the gate structure, revealed details of construction techniques, building material, fill and collapse. Additionally, a small amount of pottery and animal bone associated with the construction was recovered. Rubble was not removed to the very base of the vertical wall because of concerns over safety, but sufficient was removed to make it certain that the wall faces did continue downwards, an observation that was verified by inspection of the face stones in large voids within the rubble where it had been roughly heaped against wall faces.

Results of Glacis Clearance at the Base of the East Tower

The results may be conveniently listed as follows.

1. The City Wall was butted against the East Tower from the base of the walling to the top.
   
2. The built stone faces of the both the Tower and the City Wall were constructed from the ground level and not, as had been seen for instance in the massive construction and glacis at the Palatial Complex, begun within the stone rubble some way above the original ground surface. In this respect it is noted that in the front passage of the gateway the walls and glacis were built directly on hard subsoil and patches of outcropping bedrock.
   
3. Horizontal timber beams were incorporated into all wall faces at regular, approximately one-metre, intervals from the base of the walls. Thus the lower beams were hidden behind the glacis. However, the levels of the positions of the beams in adjoining wall faces do not coincide.
   
4. The basal course of glacis stones were pitched at the desired inclination by means of small setting stones that projected slightly from the front of the glacis. In part these stones were set into a foundation trench. The continuation of the foundation trench and/or setting stones provided a clear indication that the glacis was of one single build from the Tower across to the City Wall.
   
5. Details of how the glacis was constructed were revealed. The portion of the glacis against the southeast face of the East Tower was found to contain a temporary termination and to have been constructed in two stages. This can be seen in Figure 118 where the top of first stage was marked by a large transverse stone that extended from the glacis face back almost as far as the tower wall. The second stage, immediately above the transverse stone is noticeably different in character. The uppermost few centimetres, above the stones with black mineral staining, are recent. Around the inner corner the portion of glacis against the City Wall had a similar but much less regular temporary end. The corner space thus created appears to have been used for rubbish and perhaps for food preparation (Fig. 119) before the corner was eventually filled in.
   
6. The inner corner of the glacis, described above, was found to have slipped and collapsed to the basal stone, as indeed it had done on the outer, eastern, corner of the tower. In some places along the exposed section of the glacis, and particularly around the front of the East Tower, the tops of some stones in the glacis had been pushed outwards by the weight of the structure behind. It seems highly likely that at both the inner and outer corners one or more of the lower stones had slipped in this way and that the top was pushed so far forward that entire portions of the glacis slid downwards. The nearly vertical temporary ends in the glacis core were a very major factor in this collapse. Other contributory factors were doubtless subsidence into the permanently wet subsoil on which this section of the defences was founded and the soft rubbish and silt layers below the stone rubble glacis fill in the corner. Whether earthquake damage might also have been a contributory factor is tantalizingly unknown.
   

• The collapse of the glacis was not the result of attack as is demonstrated by the full extent to which the vertical wall faces of both the East Tower and the City Wall are preserved.
  
• The collapse of the inner corner took place before or during the burning of the city, as is shown by the burning of timbers in the northeast face of the East Tower as well as by the amount of burnt debris that was removed from against the wall faces.
  
• It is probable that the glacis was further reduced, particularly where exposed in front of the City Wall, by later exploitation of the collapsed corner to create over the wall the path for grazing animals that was in use until 2010.
  
• In the inner corner the lower part of the glacis fill, behind the face stones, contained water-laid silty material and black, burnt material, seen in Figure 119, which yielded a small quantity of pottery and some animal bones. It is likely that this deposit within the otherwise sterile and very loose rubble fill behind glacis face stones represents a small accumulation in a sheltered corner of refuse and perhaps food preparation connected with sustenance for the builders of these fortifications.
  
• It now seems certain that the stone face of the glacis and all of the wall faces were covered with a minimum of one coat of clean mud plaster. This possibility, first mooted by David Stronach in 2000, was treated with scepticism because it was thought that mud plaster would quickly wash off the glacis face, as it does indeed appear to have done.
  
• The layer of clean clay in front of the glacis that can be seen to have lapped up over the setting stones, which were employed to set the first row of face stones at the desired inclination, is almost certainly mud plaster washed from the glacis and wall faces. Two thick coats of mud plaster have been found in situ in the gate passage as well as in much of the chamber, where it is only preserved on the lower facing stones or in small areas where it has burnt. None survives on the glacis face except perhaps in the inner corner of the East Tower and City Wall. Such plaster would have covered horizontal timbers in the wall face and helped to keep chinking stones in place. The smooth surface of the plaster would also have made the glacis face itself much harder for an attacker to scale.
  
• The possible use of mud plaster has implications for our understanding of the visual impact that the city defences might have made from afar. The walls would not have been gleaming granite but light-coloured mud plaster which would have stood out in full sunlight.
  

     The Cappadocia Gate in the Iron Age
     The Cappadocia Gate is the only one of the seven city gates at Kerkenes to have been provided with an internal chamber (Figs 120 and 121). In plan the final form of the gate, when it was destroyed by fire along with the rest of the city, comprised five towers, three at the front and two at the rear. The new plan supersedes all earlier plans because it has been drawn, in as far as was possible, at ground level. Generally the discrete elements of the gate structure are poorly aligned with one another, ninety-degree angles are rare and then only approximate. The road leading up to the gate from the rolling fields below (Fig. 122) might in part explain why the entrance passage was on a different alignment to the rest of the gate structure.
     Sections drawn after the 2009 excavations have been updated to include the lower part of the walls uncovered in 2010 (Figs 123 and 124).
     The two towers on the southwestern side are conjoined by a stretch of wall that forms the southwest side of the entrance passage. A similar wall links the East and North Towers while the Middle Tower is joined to the East Tower by a wide stretch of wall creating a recess on the glacis side in such a way as to appear like a double tower as the gate is approached from outside the city.
     Orientations of the various phases of paving, as well as the course of the drain align with neither the front passage nor with the Gate Court and rear passage (Fig. 120). A large rectangular Gate Court with recesses along the northeastern and southeastern sides occupies the internal area of the gate. No supports for upright posts were found, negating an earlier suggestion that the recesses may have been roofed.
     The rear of the gate is formed by an eleven-metre-wide passage between the West and North Towers. A pair of large wooden doors located towards the front of this rear passage was housed in a large timber structure. The width of these doors is indicated by projecting pavers on the southeast side as well as by (as yet unexcavated) burnt-out door posts. The rear passage has yet to be investigated by excavation beyond the end of the paving and the edge of the foundation for the gated timber structure, but it is possible that the scheme replicates that at the Monumental Entrance to the Palatial Complex, in which case there would be a second massive timber structure with double-leaved doors towards the back of the rear passage. In any event, the existence of a timber structure would resolve the longstanding problem of how defenders of the gate could have crossed from one side to the other.
     Immediately to the right of the doors stood a stepped monument crowned by a semiiconic idol that backed against the wooden structure (Figs 121 and 123). In the same position to the left of the doors, excavation revealed the southwestern face of yet another stone structure. This latter feature awaits further elucidation in 2011.
     An aniconic granite stele was set into the secondary paving against the northwest corner of the Middle Tower immediately adjacent to the passage with what appears to be a semicircular pit behind it seen in Figure 125 after removal of the stele. Collapse of the tower corner in the winter of 2010 dislodged this stele which was removed to the safety of the Stone Conservation Workshop at the Kerkenes House.
     It is worth repeating here that the final phase of the Cappadocia Gate has obvious parallels with the Monumental Entrance to the Palatial Complex. Similarities include the massive timber structure in which a pair of great wooden doors were set, the insertion of stone paving on an alignment that was not that of pre-existing gate structures and, lastly, the installation of semi-iconic and aniconic idols of Phrygian type. It is tempting to interpret these embellishments as reflections of changes which might have included an increasing sense of security in which visual impact and cult practices grew in importance at the expense of concerns over defence.
     Outside the gate a structure, perhaps an animal pen, was erected in front of the East Tower and there is evidence that parts of the glacis were possibly in a state of disrepair. In any event the mud plaster skin had largely washed off before the destructive fire. Earlier phases might have offered a somewhat different perspective but to investigate those would necessitate removal of the paving, which is not to be contemplated.

The Gate as a Defensive Structure
     It should be stressed that there is no evidence whatsoever that the Cappadocia Gate was sacked and burnt during the hostile capture of the city. Such meagre evidence as has been recovered is not inconsistent with the idea that that the city fell without resistance and was burnt as a deliberate act of savagery only at the time of abandonment. While it is not impossible that future work might demonstrate that other parts of the city were indeed attacked, no evidence of battle has been found at the Cappadocia Gate. Compare the lack of evidence for arrowheads or other weapons, slaughtered defenders, siege mounds and so forth with clear evidence of capture of the Küçük Höyük at Gordion, the destruction at Sardis or of slaughter in the Halzi Gate at Nineveh.
     At the time when the city was founded, on a virgin site, strong emphasis was placed on defence, as witnessed by the line followed by the circuit of the walls atop topographic divides followed in order to make the best possible use of the natural advantages of the elevated location. The small number of gates, with only a single entrance piercing the long western side, is perhaps another reflection of the desire to reduce to a minimum the number of weak points in the seven kilometres of defences. In addition, the massiveness of the stone wall strengthened with towers and buttresses is indicative of power as well as of bombast. It is thus surprising that the only way in which the Cappadocia Gate could be closed against hostile attack appears to have been the construction of a monumental structure of flammable wood across the eleven-metre-wide rear passage.
     On the other hand, the design of the gate was purposeful. Defence, initially, would have been the prime concern of the military architect. At six metres the unroofed front passage was sufficiently wide to admit wheeled traffic as well as pack animals. Once inside the large open court any attacking force would have found itself barred from entry into the city by the gated structure close to the front of the rear passage. Defenders on the surrounding towers and walls and, doubtless above the wooden doors, would have been able to rain down deadly fire. Such tactical advantage must have been thought sufficient to outweigh the weaknesses inherent in the wide timber structure which housed the doors. If the system at the Monumental Entrance to the Palatial Complex is an accurate guide, a second construction with an equally impressive set of doors might be expected at the back of the rear passage, something that will need to be investigated in 2011.

The Gate as a Public Space
     In a secondary phase a large part of the Gate Court was provided with a gently inclined stone pavement. Paving was extended into the upper portion of the rear passage and against the southwestern side of the passage where there was also a stone-lined and partially stonecapped drain. This paving was not, however, extended over to the northeastern side of the front passage nor east of the line between the inner corners of the Middle and North Towers.
Thus the road-like linearity of the paving is clear. While paving was extended to the base of the stepped base to the stele, this additional paving, and perhaps also the stepped monument, were not part of the initial scheme.
     In general, streets at Kerkenes were not paved, although a patch of paving was found along the edge of the eroding major street on the north side of the Palatial Complex, presumably intended for light pedestrian traffic in inclement conditions. At the Monumental Entrance stone paving was found to have been laid in each of the major phases, originally leading up into the area behind the glacis, then remodelled and extended to the Audience Hall and finally expanded to form a paved court between and in front of the monumental platforms that flanked the entrance. It seems reasonable to think that in each of these phases at the Palatial Complex stone paving was intended for pedestrian use rather than for animals or wheeled vehicles. This is firstly because stone paving is not kind to hooves and, secondly, because there was no trace of ruts. Additionally, the areas of paving were clearly related to unique public functions. Elsewhere, for example in front of the large hall in the northern sector of the city and around the "megarons" near the centre of the lower city, paving appears to have been for pedestrian use inside walled urban blocks.
     Given the general parallels between the Cappadocia Gate and the eastern end of the Palatial Complex it seems not unreasonable to ask if the paving in the Cappadocia Gate might also have been intended for gatherings rather than to facilitate the passage of traffic. Parallels include the double towers and glacis, pavements, monumental timber structures across broad passages containing double doors and the presence of cultic stone idols. The answer, however, would seem to be no because had the Gate Court been intended for significant public gathering it would surely have been paved in its entirety.
     One further argument may be adduced against the possibility that the Gate Court was intended for gatherings. Much of the pavement, and indeed the eastern half of the Gate Court in general, was found to be buried beneath a thick, very clean deposit comprising lenses of silty clay. Much if not all of this deposit appears to have been mud plaster that washed off the wall faces. There was no indication in this clean and uniform accumulation that numbers of people had frequently gathered and tramped around in this area. The conclusion that the paving was intended to facilitate traffic passing through the gate is further supported by the evident pattern of wear seen on the pavers.

The Gate as a Cultic Space
     Arguments that the primary purpose of the gate was defence and that the paving was intended for passing traffic rather than for public gatherings were set out above. These conclusions have important implications for the understanding of the significance of cultic installations within the gate as well as ways in which they might have been used. Two installations were found within the court, a built stepped monument crowned by a semi-iconic idol by the corner of the North Tower and immediately to the right of the doors, and a completely aniconic granite stele set into the pavement by the corner of the Middle Tower and adjacent to the front passage. The stepped monument was set up before the extension to the pavement was laid whilst the aniconic stele, possibly with a small pit behind it, was set into the pavement. The base of this stele together with the packing stones that held it in position were covered by the thick (>10cm) accumulation of clean clayey silt mentioned above.
Additionally, graffiti cut into two sandstone blocks at the southeast corner of the glacis and the passage show similar semi-iconic and aniconic stele along with other Phrygian symbols.
     No evidence suggests that collective cultic practices were enacted in the gate. Rather, the palimpsest of graffiti, the hand-polished top of the granite stele, accumulation of clean silt and the complete lack of artifacts of any kind are not indicative of collective ritual enactment. Rather, the evidence is suggestive of cultic activity by individuals.