©The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project

Kinet Höyük

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Kinet Höyük
Type:
 Mound
Altitude:
 m
Region:
 Mediterranean
Province:
 Hatay
District:
 Dörtyol
Village:
 Yesil
Investigation Method:
 Excavation
Period:

     

Location: The site lies in the village of Yesil to the northwest of Dörtyol; 30 km north of Iskenderun. It is located on the eastern shore of Iskenderun Gulf; 500 m from the sea.
Geography and Environment: Deliçay Stream flows to the south of it. It extends in an area of 3.3 ha and it is 26 m in height.
History:
Research and Excavation: The first archaeological excavations were started in 1992 by Hatay Museum. The settlement is being excavated under the directorship of M.H. Gates from Bilkent University; Department of Archaeology and History of Art since 1993. The Medieval researches have been carried out by S.N. Redford from the University of Georgetown; USA. Goals and results of 2007 campaign (fig1): The long standing questions in need of answers involved Bronze Age constructions on the mound's west slope. One was the date of massive walling from the deepest part of the west slope's stratigraphic sounding (1994 OP.C.). At the time it was proposed as a casemate fortification for an Early Bronze Age settlement, but exposure and associated finds were limited. The 2007 season completed a five-year goal to open ca. 100 square meters adjacent to it (OP. M), and connect the walling to datable occupational levels. Its identity is now confirmed as the western enclosure of an EB II residential district. Higher up the west slope, a second persistent question concerned a large building, constructed when Hittite material culture was introduced to Kinet in Late Bronze I. The building's broad foundations and layout recalled Hittite architecture but the segment recovered in 1999 OP. J/L, was too small to make claims regarding derivation and purpose. This season the building's plan was doubled (OP. E/H) and its resemblance to an official building strengthened. Finally this building and its Late Bronze successors seemed to occupy higher ground on the mound's west end, like a citadel above the rest of the settlement. To determine whether this impression was valid a trench on Kinet's southwest rim (OP. U) was taken down to reach Late Bronze levels. Results were inconclusive but produced a fresh look at the Iron Age sequence, and showed that transformations at specific moments in the Late and Middle Iron Ages affected the entire site. It takes place in the registered archaeological sites list prepared by Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Stratigraphy: It is reported that the mound was inhabited from the Late Neolithic to the Middle Age. During 2003 season three EBA trenches (M; M2; M3) of Kinet VI were also excavated. Two of these end-to-end placed trenches (m; M3) corresponded adequately and dated to EBA III. But the northern trench M2 is separated by a terrace wall and dated to EBA-MBA transition.
Small Finds: Trench M yielded four distinct EBA III phases of tamped earth surfaces and fireplaces; hearths; benches and in earliest phase a large sunken jar sealed with a flat stone cover. Also finds are loomweights and unfired potstands. M3 provided the housing element to which these courtyards may be linked. This is a rectangular room formed by stone foundatitons with a hearth on one side and two compartments on the other. There are buff tankards and large plates among the finds. The second level yielded a complete Syrian bottle and a sturdy bronze toggle pin. Trench M2; which seperates from the other two trenches by a terrace wall consists of three distinct architectural levels. The earliest one is probably dated to EBA-MBA transition. Involved two or three adjoining kiln installations whose firing chambers were lined with stones; and attached to them two workrooms were uncovered. One contained large jars and blocks of lime; and the other one; which is partly paved with flagstone yielded a sunken jar; its mouth at floor level and sealed with sherds. There is an original "path" or a gap surrounded by houses; dating to the beginning of EBA III found inside the trench M on the lower western slope during the 2005 excavations. 6 large containers were found in the basin of the building that was revealed at this location. It may be assumed that they were meant for the exterior use. It is probable that it contained two rooms although the walls did not continue nor the ceiling height was enough. This large building belongs to an earlier phase; than the 2 architectural phases in the trench M3. It consists of four rooms which do not possess an entrance from the pit. The southernmost room has steps; and floor covering. The main room wall is the best example to the wall system [Gates 2007: 686-688]. EBA/Kinet Phase VI, Lower West Slope: Kinet's Early Bronze harbor town has been investigated since 2003 near the current base of the mound's west slope, where an accessible third millenium sequence was identified in the excavation's initial seasons by step sounding OP. C. It's lowest reaches '94 OP. C, had uncovered a small portion of two massive superposed walls built of slab-sized mudbricks with occasional stone reinforcements, and arranged in what resembled a casemate layout. These walls were oriented N-S at the mound's edge, and invited identification as enclosures for an EB fortress or fortifieed settlement. The eventual discovery of EB deposits deeply buried under the modern surface in fields stretching from the foot of the mound to its northwest and north (soundings '01 V-A, '02 Z4) showed that '94 C's massive walls were elevated above its contemporary surroundings and protected an EB citadel. OP. M, at the end of 2005, was entirely filled by the last version of an EB 2 fortification system oriented N-S and ca. 4.3 m wide. It included traces of rebüilding or repair phases, both shallow in preservation, piecemeal in their construction and damaged by erosion and pits. The repairs reinforced a square tower confirmed by clearing its initial plan and by discovery of a doorway on its north side. It appears that an opening (gateway) through the fortress wall was located just beyond it in the space excavated in 1993 at the top of sounding OP. C's lowest step (step 7). Repairs and eventual blocking of the gateway were carried out in a mixed stone and brick technique reminiscent of the '94 casemates. None of this walling was built on stone foundations, in contrast to the structural tradition that appeared in EB 3 Kinet and would persist until its final (medieval) occupation. Removal of the tower and associated features showed that they were erected on a solid brick base, its width of ca. 5 m suggesting it to be a platform or terrace rather than walling. Because it rose only three courses high (0.30 m) and a burnt deposit sealed its entire upper surface it was constructed independently of the tower and involved an earlier effort for defense or leveling. The southeast end of the platform was strengthened by a narrow buttress perhaps the jamb for a doorway. The platform bricks like those of the tower phase were irregular in size, the largest of them shaped like long slabs. They were packed with sherds, bones and other trash, as though the material to make them was supplied by (or cut out from) nearby middens and settlement debris. The toughness of the platform material may also indicate that the bricks were laid down before they dried, to bind and consolidate into a more resistant mass. A similar bricklaying technique was noted for the lower casemates in '94 C. In summary the west side of the mound preserves as the earlier of its two last enclosures a broad brick platform that eventually fell out of use and was razed or worn down to an even height. After an interval marked by a burnt surface and an accumulation of burnt debris a new enclosure was built. It included a tower protecting this citadel's seaside gate and lasted through two stages further before it was abandoned. Both constructions can be assigned to EB 2 by ceramic finds from deposits lying against their inner (eastern) faces, and from pit fills cut into both versions and underneath the platform. Pottery generally conforms with Amuq H (Plain Simple Ware Cups and Brittle Orange wares), but includes burnished red-slipped bowls of western Anatolian type that are missing from this period at Tarsus. In EB 3 the enclosures were replaced by a roadway and housing when the settlement shifted towards the west or expanded overall. That the fortification extended south into OP. M3 was demonstrated this season by cleaning out more of the deep MB 1 pit (82) in that trench's northeast corner. Otherwise finds in M3 involved earlier versions for its long sequence of large-scale buildings, their walls rebuilt directly above their predecessors. Two more were excavated in 2006, bringing the total number of separate but identical building levels to five. The latest in the series excavated in 2004 and 2005 was preserved only as plastered floors with sunken jars, its wall foundations robbed out by subsequent builders; but the layout of its rooms was the same as in the four earlier versions, whose foundations were still visible. OP. M3's buildings in 2006 again consisted of four rectangular rooms or areas, without trace of doorways between them. The northern room of version 2 was furnished with a large hearth lined with cobbles; fire installations in all later versions of this room show that it always housed a kitchen area, perhaps unroofed. There is little to identify the other rooms and whether they were covered or open-air, but fine plaster was applied to all wall faces. Preservation remained shallow, but sufficient to announce a change in masonry technique at this early stage. Version 2's walls included sunken foundations consisting of a single layer of river stones; brickwork began at floor level. All subsequent versions had two or three standing stone courses to support their mudbrick structures. Version 3 provides a useful illustration of how interstices and irregularities in the stonework were plugged with mud to create a smooth wall face, and then thickly plastered to conceal the foundation coourses entirely. Version 1 the earliest reached in 2006, has yet to be excavated to foundation level; it may be missing stone foundations altogether, as is the case for the late EB 2 level above the ruined brick platform in M. Terracing on this east slope was again suggested by stonework against the south end of M3's east balk (63 and earlier). These two early buildings in M3 may correspond in M to the intermediary phase between the demise of the fortifications and the modest residential district declaring the start of Kinet's EB3. It began in M with pits, stone-lined features and brick walling, cut into and built on top of the last enclosure wall's ruins. M3's Level 1 building would be contemporary. The second stag of M's intermediary phase introduced the practice of setting walls onto stone foundations. This corresponds to M3's Level 2, with its sunken stone foundation course. Ceramic finds from its thin deposits and mixed fills also suggest a late EB2 date. How M's constructions related to their contemporaries remains unexplained however [Gates 2008: 281-284]. Early Bronze Age/Kinet Phase VI, Lower West Slope: Room contexts in M and M3 were cleaned out before the buildings were vacated and rooms had very few identifying features. A small ceramic repertoire, from fills, nonetheless provided a consistent EBII (Mid-third Millenium BC) attribution to the levels and the fortifications asseociated with them. Fine cream colored cups, chaff-tempered bowls with a glossy red slip, and red gritty coarse wares were typical. The occasional Transcaucasian sherd attests top outside contacts. Lithics were rare - as in all periods at Kinet - but did include a Canaanite blade with remarkable sickle sheen. Another curiosity was the impression of a disk-shaped item (diam=12.5 cm) on a burnt brick, from the central court in OP.M's phase 13 [Gates 2009: 352-355].
Remains:
Interpretation and Dating:


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