Sirkeli Höyük

The Sirkeli Höyük at Ceyhan (Pyramos) is one of the largest Bronze and Iron Age settlement mounds in Cilicia, an ancient cultural landscape located in the southern part of present-day Turkey, between Anatolia, Syria, and Cyprus. Since 2006, archaeological research conducted by the universities of Bern, Tübingen, and Çanakkale has been taking place here, revealing an extensive urban landscape divided into citadel, upper, lower, and outer city. The research objectives of the project include urban studies, chronology, and the interregional cultural contacts that emerge from the finds at this exemplary site for Cilicia. In addition to conventional excavations, techniques such as remote sensing, geophysical prospecting, and detailed surveys are employed in the research. The richly and colorfully illustrated book provides a preliminary summary of the work done so far, presenting the findings and artifacts while also interpreting them in light of overarching questions. Among other things, a comprehensive ceramic typology based on a stratigraphic sequence from a Cilician site is presented for the first time since the 1950s. The author group represents the interdisciplinary approach of the research.