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©The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project
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Tavium |
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For site maps and drawings please click on the picture...  |
For photographs please click on the photo...  |
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Type:
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Mound |
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Altitude:
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m |
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Region:
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Central Anatolia |
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Province:
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Yozgat |
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District:
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Merkez |
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Village:
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Büyüknefes |
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Investigation Method:
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Survey |
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Period:
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| Location: The area where two adjacent hills called Büyükkale and Küçükkale are located and its surrounding area in the Büyüknefes Village of Yozgat are known as the ancient city of Tavium [Belke-Restle 1984:229-231]. |
| Geography and Environment: |
| History: |
| Research and Excavation: The first systematic survey at Büyükkale was conducted by K. Bittel in 1939. Surveys have been conduced since 1997 by a team under the direction of K. Strobel. |
| Stratigraphy: Surveys revealed that the distribution area of the city extends from the Kaleözü River to the west until the Nefesçay River to the east, including the high plateau on the northern section, the Büyükkale and Küçükkale mounds to the south. Thus, it covers an area of ca. 1.5 km [Gerber 2005: pic. 4]. The city is surrounded by many necropoleis and at least 9 tumuli. Iron Age material were found during the surveys conducted at Büyükkale and Küçükkale. Büyükkale rests on a rocky hill. The southern section is entirely rocky. The northern section contains a cultural deposit of 25 m in height. The western section is very steep, and the rain waters caused erosion of abundant number of ceramics from this section over time, exposing some walls. This section plays an important role in understanding stratigraphy of the mound. The section here yielded Iron Age material and a limited number of Hittite material within the 6 m thick cultural deposit under a level of the Roman and later period sherds. |
| Small Finds: Pottery: As a result of erosion, majority of sherds ran down to the skirts of the mound. The Iron Age material are more intense on the eastern slope. The material which can be dated to the Early Iron Age are very rare. A few red paint decorated sherds may have belonged to this period. The Middle Iron Age is represented by a small of number of specimens. The brown painted girland decorated sherds previously seen at Bogazköy-Büyükkaya are represented in large numbers [Gerber 2005: pic. 7,8]. Paint decorated white slipped ware, many polychrome sherds and grey sherds previously known from Bogazköy II level were collected in the late phase of the Middle Iron Age [Gerber 2005: pic. 9]. Well burnished grey sherds represent the characteristic Late Iron Age pottery. They are abundant in number [Gerber 2005: pic. 10]. Bright paint decorated white slipped ware or the polychrome paint decorated ware typical to that period were not seen yet. |
| Remains: |
| Interpretation and Dating: |
