Cities and Politics of Ecology in the Hittite Borderlands: the Fortress and Urban Settlement of Karaköy Kale Tepesi
April 14, 2026 @ 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Sponsored by: Archaeological Institute of America
AIA Society: Central Florida (Orlando)
Lecturer: Ömür Harmansah
Since 2010, the Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Project has surveyed the southwestern borderlands of the Hittite Empire in the districts of Ilgın and Kadınhanı of Konya Province in Turkey. This is a regional landscape history project that investigates the politics of water and politics of ecology during the Bronze and Iron Ages, especially at the time of the Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze age. During the survey, Karaköy Kale Tepesi (Ilgın) was identified as a well-preserved Late Bronze Age fortress with a substantial lower town overlooking the narrows of the Bulasan River Valley, connecting the Ilgın and Atlantı plains. Its fortress is constructed of monumental ashlar blocks right above a copious spring; its water management system and the monumental structures surrounding the fortress present a new urban form for understanding Hittite regional centers. The team also documented the Hittite marl quarry of Yıldıztepe on a ridge connected by a saddle to the Kale Tepesi outcrop and only 1.2 km south-southeast of the fortress and the adjacent settlement of Bağlar Mevkii, which allowed the dating the construction of the fortress to 16th or early 15th century BCE. The proximity of this urban settlement to the Köylütolu Earthen Dam (known to have been built by the Hittite Great King Tudhaliya IV based on its Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription), confirmed that this is a key urban site for the entire region during the Late Bronze Age. In this paper, we report on the results of fieldwork carried out at Karaköy Kale Tepesi, using non-invasive methods of urban survey and landscape archaeology during the 2021 and 2025 seasons.
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship Time TBA
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