Recent discoveries (2015-2016) at Cadir Hoyuk on the north central plateau

Abstract

The Cadir Höyük mound is located in the Yozgat Province, approximately 16 km from the modern town of Sorgun. The site has been under excavation by members of the present team since 1994, following an intensive surface survey in 1993. The earliest documented occupation of the mound dates to 5200 cal. BC; the site was abandoned at some point in the 12th-13th centuries CE. Since 2012 the Cadir team has investigated virtually every period represented on the site, from the Late Chalcolithic through the Byzantine periods. The 2015 and 2016 seasons of work, the focus of the present article, continued this trend of complete coverage, with particular focus on the prehistoric (Late Chalcolithic) and Byzantine occupation. The second and first millennia BCE were also investigated, and an overview of some of these results are offered here. The last two seasons have been particularly helpful in allowing us to carefully phase the Late Chalcolithic town, which has manifested into an "upper" and "lower" component. The settlement phases demonstrate a changing strategy of town planning over the course of the fourth millennium. These two seasons have also yielded substantial results in our Byzantine occupation, allowing a better understanding of the architecture associated with the defensive wall that rings the mound summit, and insight into the occupation of the site in the centuries spanning the early second millennium CE.