CLEARANCE OF PUBLIC STRUCTURES

A new initiative in 1999 was the clearance of fallen stones from the vicinity of the Cappadocia Gate and from the tall eastern façade of a palatial complex.

The Cappadocia Gate
This impressive city gate was chosen for partial clearance because of its proximity to the exceptional complexes in the southern area of the city and because it is the only gate with a well preserved side chamber. The gate, flanked by a double tower on the south-east and an opposed single tower on the north-west, provides new evidence concerning the nature of the defences at Kerkenes and has revealed a monument that has great visual impact (Figs 10-14). To the west of the Gate the clearance revealed a stone glacis face that covers the South-West Tower of the Gate, apart from adding to the monumental appearance of a short (8m) east-west stretch of wall, a longer (24m) north-south stretch of wall, and the excavated portion of a protruding buttress. To our surprise, the tall exposed glacis face of the two adjoining stretches of wall proved to have survived up to 4m 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 South-East Tower was followed for a distance of at least 6m. Here the surviving glacis reached a maximum height of 4m with a relatively steep inclination of c. 80º.

These various stretches of glacis 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 1.5m 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. 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 on the exposed north face of the Buttress. Here overhanging timber structures are likely to have burnt and fallen during the conflagration that destroyed the Iron Age city (Figs 12-13). The upper, vertical, stone wall appears to have been deliberately pushed over shortly after the destructive fire, thereby covering much of the glacis and preserving the traces of burning (Fig.14).

Preliminary clearing within the Gate itself indicates that each of the flanking glacis extended the limits of the gate passage. The entrance to the passage was 6.20m in width.

Byzantine reuse is confirmed by distinctive soft sandstone blocks that were inserted when the east wall of the passage was repaired. Each bears a series of etched designs, those on the upper block possibly representing a church and 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 4m and burning was again in evidence (Fig. 15).

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.

Recording
Detailed drawings were made of the glacis faces (Fig. 16) and METU Architectural Photogrammetry Center Project Coordinator, Emre Madran, also arranged for complete stereographic documentation of the exposed stonework (Fig. 17). Scale drawings were made from the stereo photographs in METU.

Conservation
Heavy machinery was employed to move the fallen stone rubble well away from the surviving walls so as to enhance their visual impact. Selected fallen face stones were carefully set aside for future restoration. Extra stone chinking was added to the glacis wherever this was advisable and the ancient ground surface at the base of the glacis was itself protected by layers of earth and pebbles capped by a layer of sand.

Figure 10:
The Cappadocia Gate and adjacent defences. The gate passage is behind the tree.

Figure 11:
Clearing the defences on day one.

Figure 12:
Buttress, with burning stains, and part of the glacis.

Figure 13:
Glacis of the South-East Tower of the gate with burning stains.

Figure 14:
East side of the gate passage, tower and rubble from the destroyed upper wall.

Figure 16:
Drawing the stone glacis.

Figure 17:
Taking stereographic photographs of the Cappadocia Gate.