Anatolia Antiqua XVI (2008). p. 53-76

Geoffrey D. SUMMERS and Françoise SUMMERS

A PRELIMINARY INTERPRETATION OF REMOTE SENSING AND SELECTIVE EXCAVATION AT THE PALATIAL COMPLEX, KERKENES

Kerkenes Dag in Central Anatolia1 was the chosen location for the foundation of an exception¬ ally large Iron Age Capital around, it is thought, the start of the sixth century B.C.2 This interim report focuses on the results of a remote sensing survey of what we have termed the Palatial Complex (Fig. 1 ), an interpretation based on the size and location of the enclosed urban block and the massiveness of Structure A, together with its supporting stone glacis, as well as the grandeur of the Audience Hall, the Ashlar Building and the Monumental Entrance. Completion of the resistivity survey of

the Palatial Complex and its urban environs in the spring of 2007 provided a detailed image which has permitted the new interpretations offered here3.

Remote sensing methods used at Kerkenes include satellite imagery (Fig. 2 and 3), high alti¬ tude aerial photography for mapping4 (Fig. 4), pho¬ tography from a manned hot air balloon and with a tethered blimp, total station survey of visible fea¬ tures, differential GPS survey, geophysical survey with both a fluxgate gradiometer and a resistivity meter, and verification on the ground (Fig. 5 to 14).

Fig. 1 : A 3D scene of the Palatial Complex and its environs generated from differential GPS survey data processed in ArcView. The Palatial Complex, well defined by its enclosure wall, eastern glacis and Monumental Entrance, sits on the southern ridge bounded by the street linking the Cappadocia Gate in the southeastern defences to the Gozbaba Gate on the southwestern side.