The noise of the works ended last week, under the blazing sun of the Anatolian summer.
After a successful excavation campaign in 2021, the Franco-Turkish mission of Porsuk - Zeyve Höyük is packing up and putting away its shovels, with the feeling of a job accomplished.
At the foot of the Taurus Mountains, which deploy a formidable line of rugged mountains on the horizon, archaeologists have been working since 2016 to excavate, study and preserve the remains of a citadel.
Perhaps known as Dunna or Tunna, the fortress is neither Ottoman nor even Byzantine, but much older.
Hittite.
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The location of this strong point, erected around 1650 BC. AD at 1300 meters above sea level, was not chosen at random. The hilly country that stretches around Porsuk is located at a strategic crossing point, close to a road leading to the Gates of Cilicia. The parade is one of the privileged access routes through the formidable natural wall of the Taurus which guards the southern entrance to the Anatolian plateau and Cappadocia from the Cilician coast and northern Syria. The point was therefore crucial to the Hittites, Anatolian people of the 2nd millennium BC. J.-C, known for his opposition to the Egyptians of the New Kingdom. It remains so today, since a contemporary Turkish road still crosses the Cilician Gates,over the ancient route no doubt taken by Alexander the Great on his way to the battle of Issus.
Untangle a tangle of ancient fortifications
More than 3,500 years old for their oldest parts, the walls uncovered during numerous excavations, carried out by the University of Strasbourg and that of Lyon between 1969 and 2015, now need to be protected from bad weather and of the action of time.
This is particularly the case of the Hittite postern sector, which concentrated the efforts of the team of the last excavation campaign.
With the support of the CRATerre laboratory of the National School of Architecture of Grenoble, a - reversible - protection of the remains began to be installed on site, around the Hittite mud bricks, but also around the later fortifications dated from the Iron Age and Neo-Hittite Kingdoms.
All these structures form a formidable source of knowledge on the defensive architecture and construction techniques of the 2nd and 1st millennia before our era for the scientists engaged on the spot.
"We sought to understand the superimposition of the structures of the Iron Age fortification on that of the Bronze Age, to understand the defense system and the construction methods
," says excavation director Claire Barat.
Above all, we discovered interior plaster on the walls, which is extremely rare for the Iron Age, here under Phrygian influence and dated from the middle of the 7th century to the 6th century BC.
J.-C .. "
In Anatolia, French archaeologists at the bedside of a Hittite fortress
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Archaeologist and historian at Hauts-de-France Polytechnic University (Valenciennes), Claire Barat has been leading the Porsuk - Zeyve Höyük excavation since 2016, in partnership with the Niğde Museum and Hacı Bektaş Veli University in Nevşehir. If the researcher enjoys the absence, in Porsuk, of the superb and generous stone lions that can be found in the Hittite capital of Hattusa, she is full of praise for the fascinating architectural stacking in land that can be found on its site.
Built after the first period of monumental occupation of Porsuk, Neo-Hittite developments of the Iron Age were also erected following the fire of the original citadel under the Old Hittite Kingdom, between 1500 and 1200 av. J.-C .. They also follow a second better documented destruction: that of the destructive incursion of the Assyrian king Salmanazar III in 832 av. Built partly in brick and gypsum stone, this “new” fortress leaning against the first enclosure is today one of the most important Hittite sites for its vestiges of earthen architecture. Archaeological mine, the whole remains fragile, however, hence the conservation work carried out in parallel with the excavation.
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Search and restore the past
To preserve this multi-thousand-year-old heritage, adobe formwork has been under construction in recent years using modern bricks made near the site by workers from Porsuk.
"We involve the local populations, this is something very important in our approach
," explains Claire Barat.
The workers are very familiar with raw earth, they have kept a real living memory of the techniques of manufacturing this earthen heritage, even if there are construction habits that come from concrete. "
The formwork put in place around the Hittite citadel during the mission hugs the exhumed elevations, a portion of which reaches up to 8 meters high.
What gives an idea of the respectable proportions of this fortress of 4 hectares.
“This will protect the original bricks and allow visitors to understand what the fortifications of the Hittite era looked like
,
”
says Claire Barat.
The entire structure is reversible and can be replaced in the future, if necessary.
"We do not destroy anything, we preserve and we show
,
"
sums up the archaeologist.
This long-term work is set to continue next year.
Read alsoAn archaeologist buried in the heart of the Hittite city she was studying
Another aspect of the Franco-Turkish excavations in Porsuk, researchers this year unearthed an entire section of a sector of Roman housing. In full
Pax Romana
, the military function of the fortified point declined. For want of being located on the most threatened margins of the empire, the fortress turned into a small secondary agglomeration. An abundance of pottery remains from this occupation in Roman times, notably sigillata,
pithoi
- large storage jars - or even a domestic oven. Painted plasters, white and red, were also identified this summer.
“Unfortunately for us, these are not plasters of the same quality as in
Pompeii
, but this proves that there was a certain level of comfort, with a concern for decoration, and that we were trying to live “à la romaine”, ”
says Claire Barat with enthusiasm.
Carried out, according to the excavation director, in a spirit of good understanding, transparency and education with the local inhabitants and tourists - many in this coming season of Adana to enjoy the freshness of the mountain - the Franco-Turkish mission of Porsuk - Zeyve Höyük should give birth, in the village itself and within a few years, to an interpretation center. This will present in particular the ancient construction techniques and the know-how of mud brick in connection with the discoveries made in Porsuk, the remains of which have earned it a classification as a major archaeological site in Turkey. However, the mediation work did not wait for the erection of the future center.
“Each year at the end of the campaign, I give a conference in Turkish to present the results of our excavation to the villagers
,
”
explains Claire Barat. As the very etymology of archeology - the ancient discourse - reminds us, the science of the past is as much a study as it is a transmission, and researchers are both discoverers and smugglers.