Kinet Höyük (Classical Issos) a harbor town in Southeast Cilicia during the Persian and Hellenistic Periods

Abstract

Excavations conducted from 1992–2012 at Kinet Höyük, a coastal site in southeast Cilicia, have revealed important remains of the Persian and Hellenistic periods. The site has long been identified as Classical Issos, near where Alexander the Great and Darius III fought in 333 BC. The Persian settlement consists of three architectural levels, and the Hellenistic town of two, altogether spanning the mid-sixth to the mid-first centuries BC. The last of the ancient settlements was founded in ca. 175 BC, perhaps as part of the revitalization of Cilician towns under Antiochus IV. Persian and Hellenistic findings come mostly from the mound proper, but soundings to the west, north, and east of the mound have demonstrated the existence of a lower town.