This book presents the structures and stratigraphy of the  important Iron Age sequence at Tille Höyuek, a mound at a crossing  of the Euphrates in eastern Turkey.  The site, which was  excavated between 1979 and 1990 by the British Institute of  Archaeology at Ankara, revealed ten major structural levels of  the Iron Age, spanning the period from the 11th century to the  6th-4th centuries BC, as well as earlier and later remains, and  the wide exposure of architecture provides a sequence of  intelligible and impressive building plans.  

 

After the initial discussion of the background and methodology of  their excavation, the successive levels are carefully described  and fully illustrated.  The earliest Iron Age occupation, simple  buildings among the ruins of the Late Bronze Age, was followed by  a major settlement of the Middle Iron Age, when the Neo-Hittite  kingdom of Kummuh was at its height.  Most impressive  architecturally are a large palatial building centred on a  courtyard paved with a pebble mosaic, which was probably built  after the Assyrian annexation of Kummuh in 708 BC and continued  in use through the seventh, and the excellently preserved Level X  with many distinctively Persian architectural features (built in  the latter half of the 6th or the early 5th century and probably  lasting for a substantial time).  

 

The structures and stratigraphy are also important as the context  for the first rigorously established ceramic sequence in this  part of Turkey, which will be presented, together with the other  materials and artefacts, in the companion to this volume (already  complete in draft).  Lying on the fringes of the Mesopotamian  world, and with contacts with North Syria, North Mesopotamia, and  the Levant rather than with Anatolia or the Mediterranean, Tille  casts vivid new light on the cultural and political history of  the region in the Iron Age.