A First Season of Excavations at the Urartian Citadel of Kayalıdere

Abstract

For some years the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara has intended, when circumstances permitted, to undertake excavations at a fortified site chosen from among the many situated within the region occupied by the kingdom of Urartu in the ninth, eighth and seventh centuries B.C. It was hoped that it would be possible to choose and to excavate an Urartian citadel in the area which may, in general terms, be described as the homeland of Urartu. Archaeological surveys had earlier been carried out in the districts near to and immediately bordering the shores of Lake Van. These were followed in 1964 by a survey of the region included within the Turkish administrative province ( vilayet ) of Muş. As a result of this survey, out of a total of some twenty-five sites of interest, one site was chosen as the most promising for excavations.