©The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project

Göllüdag

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Göllüdağ
Type:
 Fortress
Altitude:
 m
Region:
 Central Anatolia
Province:
 Nigde
District:
 Merkez
Village:
 Kömürcü
Investigation Method:
 Excavation
Period:

     

Location: It is situated on Göllüdag near the Kömürcük Village of the Gölcük Subdistrict, 70 km far from Nigde. It is accessed via a steep road from the Kömürcü Village.
Geography and Environment: Göllüdag is encircled by the Büyük Göllü Hill to the south, Koyuncu Ridge and Sarikaya to the east, Laleli Plateau to the north, and Meydan Plateau to the west. It measures 1700 m in east-west direction, 100 m in north-south direction, and there is a krater lake in the western section. The lake became smaller after being filled with debris conveyed by the rainfall and melting snow waters. It is hard to access as it is surrounded on all four directions with high and steep slopes. The eastern section, which is below the walls, is even steeper. This section with high rocks contains rock graves from the Byzantine Period overlooking the plain [Arik 1969:pic.2]. There are obsidian ores on the mountain on which the Göllüdag settlement is located and on the neighbouring mountains. It has been well-preserved due to being not easily accessible.
History:
Research and Excavation: In 1933 when a pair of lion sculptures made of a monolith rock was exposed due to flooding, a one- season campaign was initiated in 1934 by the Ministry of Education under the direction of R.O. Arik. The excavations were suspended due to inaccessibility until 1968. They were resumed in 1968-69 under the direciton of Burhan Tezcan. Topographical and electromagnetic researches took place around the building remains previously unearthed under the direction of W. Schirmer between 1992-94.
Stratigraphy: No sherds that point out to the second half of the 1st Millennium BC were found on the surface during the excavations. Only a single-layer with two phases dating to the first half of the 1st Millennium BC was excavated. Thus, it is believed that the site had not been re-occupied after it was destroyed and demolished.
Small Finds: Architecture: The fortress covering an area of 1700x1000 m is enclosed by a 3 squarekilometer long wall. The most dense urbanization inside the walls is observed on the plain in the center. The buildings were arranged according to a regular street planning in grill order, the building which is 112x228 m is particularly different. It is assumed that this rectangular one was a palatial building. Some of the buildings inside the fortress are megaron type of structures. Buildings were also constructed on the rocks to the north and south of the lake. A road that starts at the west city gate extends through the buildings, to the south of the lake and towards the center of the city. Based on remains there were also buildings encircling the lake. There is a rocky slope on the east side of the lake and there are many large cut stone blocks on this slope. In addition to the excavations the aerial photography and the electromagnetic researches point out at an authentic architecture. There are grill planned avenues between buildings, which can easily be noticed looking at the buildings built in the environs [Schirmer 1996:res.1-7]. The extramural buildings extend on the slope between the ridges of Sarikaya and Koyuncu. Walls: The stone walls encircling the settlement, was built on the natural hills of the mountain. They compose an ellyptical shape [Tezcan 1969res.3]. The walls are 3 km long as the crow flies in east-west direction, and 1 km in north-south direction. The settlement is accessed through the four gates facing different directions,-north, east, south and west, on the walls. The walls were also collapsed as were all other buildings inside the settlement, and the walls which were preserved to a maximum height of 2m, are underneath this debris. Palace structure: The palace was constructed at the center which is the highest point intramurally. It is a rectangular planned building lying in north-south direction (112x228 m) [Schirmer 1996,res.2]. Extramural walls are thicker than the intramural ones (1.85-1.60 m). There is a monumental gate on the shorter south wall in the center that is 14.50 m wide [Tezcan 1969:plan 2,res.6; Tezcan 1992:lev.3]. The gate was decorated outside with lions on both sides, and with sphinx reliefs inside. There are two column pedestals with lion reliefs on their surfaces between the two lions that face each other. Some of the protective reliefs were left incomplete. There is a 3.90x3.90 m tower that projects east of the entrance gate on the south wall. The outside surface of the tower was also built laying worked, large stones, and the center section filled with stones and soil was built in caisson technique. The monumental gate leads into a courtyard that measures 17.50x8.00 m (courtyard#1). Two separate floors were identified at the courtyard that lie on top of each other. Both floors are very sturdy and hard, made by compressing technique. The second floor is 10-15 cm below the first one. Looking at the cinder and carbonized remains it is assumed it had gone through an important fire disaster. The narrow east and west edges of the courtyard provide aceess to each of the rooms on those sides [Tezcan 1969:res.7]. The east room (room #2) is 12x3.25 m and its walls were preserved to a maximum height of 2 m [Tezcan 1969:res. 8]. The northwest gate was decorated by a lion sculpture. The crossing under the gate was paved with stones. The room floor was made of compressed soil. The west room (room#3) is 13x7.50 m. The gate is in the center facing east. The lion sculpture fragments inside the room point out that this room's gate was also decorated with lion sculptures. The gate width is 1.50 m, the gate threshold was paved with stones, the floor is lower compared to the threshold level. The floor was made of compressed soil and it had gone through a major fire disaster. There is a kilne towards the center. The courtyard #5 is accessed by taking the north gate decorated with sphinx reliefs in the courtyard#1. The sphinx gate is at the center. The gate width is 6 m and the gate sides facing south were covered with flat rectangular stones that function as pedestals [Tezcan 1969:res.11]. Sphinx reliefs were observed on the pedestals on both sides of the gate. The sphinxes were depicted looking inside the gate and to each other, and were worked as high reliefs. The stone foundations revealed near the south courtyard side [Tezcan 1969:res.12] suggest there was a portico on this side. Room #4 north of room #3 opens to this courtyard. The floor of this room is covered with carbonized remains and cinder as well. It had also gone through a major fire disaster. An 80 cm deep pit 80 cm in diameter covered with a flat lid supported with small stones was identified underneath the floor. The pit, assumed to be a cremation burial contained fossilized and rotten adobe, burnt wood, and a few pieces of burnt bones. There is another courtyard that lies north-south west of courtyard 5. The west side of this courtyard composes the palace's outer western edge. There is an orthostat structure (structure#6) on the same axis as the sphinx gate and north of courtyard #5 [Tezcan 1969:plan.3,res.13]. The rectangular building is 12.20x7.75 m. It is accessible through the southeast door and the 1.40x1.00x0.25-0.45 m red andesite orthostats cover all four walls of the room. The orthostats were bound together through the "L" shaped cavities on their sides placed in opposing directions to each other. The front surfaces were worked but no reliefs or an y decorations were made. The building was architecturally completed but fine craftsmanship was apparently left undone. Rooms 8 and 9 are east and room 7 is in the west of the Orthostat building. Room 7 is 10.50x7.70 m. It has two rooms that face south. A kilne was found in the center of the floor. The doors of adjacent rooms 8 and 9 is near the west side and opens south. The dimensions of room 8 are 6.50x 6.25 m. Room #9 is somewhat smaller. Room #8 connects to room #9 through another door in the northeast corner [Tezcan 1992:lev.3]. It is assumed that all unearthed rooms were built with a flat roof atop. The up to 2 m high preserved walls on all were built with stone blocks. No remains pertaining to a window was found on the preserved sections. The hearths inside the rooms in the center or at a spot near the center remind 8th century BC Gordion megarons and their hearth systems. All rooms' walls were plastered inside and out with a thick plaster. Due to the great fire disaster these have been through, the color of these walls became redish. The white plaster was only found in room #2. Two levels of the floor were found both inside rooms and the courtyards. The floor at the bottom went through a major fire disaster. The household goods were either looted or smuggled. Therefore the none of the finds are intact. Building Complex at Excavation Area II: There are two megarons in the south of the palace north of the south city gate which consists of two adjacent megarons sharing one common wall in between [Tezcan 1992:lev.2]. Both megarons contain doors on their shorter east walls which open to the street. Two wall remains and the north stone pavement unearthed inside megaron # 1 belong to the upper building level. A second stone pavement was found deeper underground in front of the long south wall. It was built using neatly worked stones. This floor pavement and the stone pedestal found at the same level belong to the initial construction phase of the building. Although the thick stone wall structure was reused after repair it had lost its importance afterwards, its plan was modified using the floor pavement and walls. Three stone pedestals alongside the long south edge inside megaron # 2. These belong to the wooden pillars supporting the roof. There is another structure group on a terrace immediately north of the megaron. Six rooms of this building group were unearthed. All have common walls [Tezcan 1992:lev.2] and the walls are plastered inside. The room #3 is narrow and long. The rooms 3, 5, 6, 7 open towards north. The door of room # 4 could not be found. The door of room #8 is in east direction. Room #7 was interconnected with 8. There are two hearths inside rooms 5 and 8. Burn marks are visible on room floors. It is assumed that this structure group was serving as a kitchen. Pottery: No vessels were found intact during excavations. The sherds that were unearthed are classified under two groups; either painted or monochromatic. Also unearthed were; the monumental gate inside the palace building, krater fragments decorated with antelope motifs in silhouette technique, and geometric figures made with black paint on white coating on the floors of rooms 2 and 3 [Tezcan 1969:res. 22-25; Tezcan 1992:res.1-7, 17]; large monochromatic pithoi near the corners of room # 3; painted vessel sherds decorated with animal figures and geometric motifs on the bottom floor inside courtyard 1; grey, black coated and burnished vessels and vessels painted over white coating inside courtyard 5 [Tezcan 1992:res.27]; black coated, burnished sherds on the floor of structure 6 [Tezcan 1969:res.35-36]; a fruit stand and a dish both decorated with parallel lines, painted krater sherds, side spouted jar sherd, grey coated, trefoil mouthed jug sherd, and black coated burnished sherds inside room 7 [Tezcan 1992:res.18,20,24,26,29]; burnished sherds with black coating, burnished sherds with grey coating, meander motif decorated sherd, inside rooms 8 and 9; paint decorated sherds with band and geometric motifs inside the megaron 1, at the building complex in excavation field II [Tezcan 1992:res.8-9,21-22,25,28], krater sherds with silhouette technique antelope figures and concentric circles; and finally large pithoi sherds inside the building group on the terrace. The animal figures and geometric motifs were applied on large kraters. Almost all were made with black, brown paint over white coating. On some specimens decorations continue almost until under the waist line. On some even the inside of the mouth is decorated. Motifs of meander, tree, braided, concentric circles, checkers board and beams between neck and rim constitute the majority among the decorations. Both the animal motifs decorated and the geometric motifs decorated sherds were also encountered in the environs, particularly at Alisar, Bogazköy, Konya Alaettintepe and Kültepe. Stone: 6 grinding stones, one dibek and a stone trough were found inside the megaron of building complex 1 at excavation field II; also dibek stones and grinding stones were found inside the structure group on the terrace. Metal: An iron knife was found inside the room 3; 6 almost similar spearheads were found inside room 7 [Tezcan 1992:res.32]; two iron nails and a ring were found inside rooms 8 and 9 [Tezcan 1992:res.33] Sculpture/Relief: Including the ones brought to Kayseri Museum in 1933 and 1934 two double-headed lions worked as high-reliefs at Göllüdag [Tezcan 1969:res.14-16], two lion sculptures [Tezcan 1969:res.17-18], two sphinxes [Tezcan 1969:res.19] and two column pedestals [Tezcan 1969:res.20-21] which makes a total of eight plastic artifacts were found. Besides these two lion head fragments were found; one in the south of the lion gate, broken and missing, and the other that belongs to the south city gate. The ones that belong to double headed lions were made of white andesite, the others were made of a grey stone. Tablet: Phrygian grafitti were identified on two sides of a stone which has no relation to the architecture [Tezcan 1992:res.37-38].
Remains:
Interpretation and Dating: Due to the short-term excavations the questions pertaining to the old name of the city, the ethnicity of the people who lived here, its relations to the contemporary Phrygian, Urartu, and Assyrian settlements, to which beylik it was related to, by whom it was destroyed could not be answered. These can not be answered unless the excavations resume. Still, the settlement is assumed to belong to the fortress of Tyana which was a Late Hittite kingdom [Özgüç 1971:74 ve dip not 130]. The sphinx and lion reliefs found at the settlement, are similar to reliefs found at Late Hittite Kingdoms of Zincirli and Sakçagözü. Based on similar finds the double-headed lion reliefs were dated to the second half 8th century BC [Tezcan 1992:9 ve dip not 32]. Paint decorated sherds compose the majority of the pottery finds and were evaluated among the Early Phrygian and Transition Style group (750-725 BC) by B. Tezcan, according to ware groups defined by E. Akurgal [Akurgal 1955:129] [Tezcan 1992:7-8]. The fortress was abandoned after a major fire disaster. According to B. Tezcan Kimmerians were responsible for this destruction. The settlement has lost its importance after mid 6th century BC.


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