INTRODUCTION

Exploration at the Iron Age capital on the Kerkenes Dağ always produces the unexpected! In 2004 excavation in the monumental entrance to the Palace Complex (Figs 4 and 10), which along with the rest of the city was burnt when the city was destroyed in the mid 6th century BC, revealed pits dug by looters in the Byzantine period. Distribute

d throughout the fill of one such pit was a unique sandstone statue (Figs 1 and 2) that would seem to have been hurled in from above. The remaining fill of this pit, scheduled for removal in 2005, hopefully contains missing fragments which will resolve the questions of gender and pose. Another fragment of sculpture appears to depict part of the mane of a life-sized lion (Fig. 3).

In a new initiative, Associate Director Scott Branting excavated three test trenches across streets in pursuit of evidence to test his transportation model of the city, as reported on pages 10-11. Laboratory results of compression tests are promising.

At the expedition base in Şahmuratlı village accommodation has been extended through the donation of a large prefabricated building comprising four large rooms, while construction of a straw-bale building as part of the Kerkenes Eco-Center project (pp. 12-13), has drawn much local interest and media coverage.

As a result of an initiative by the Provincial Governor, Mr. Gökhan Sözer, the Directorate of Rural Services has improved and asphalted the road from the village to the site (Fig. 5), with the result that cars and coaches can now cruise up to the eastern stretches of city wall.