Archaeological Survey in Northern Tyanis

Since 2006 the University of Pavia conducts a survey in Southern Cappadocia (Turkey). The area under research includes the southern sides of the Hasandağı and the Melendizdağları, and the plain alongside these mountains. This plain was known in classical times as Tyanitis, from the name of the most important city of the region, classical Tyana. This old city had a long history, since it corresponds to pre-classical Neo-Hittite Tuwana, and Hittite Tuwanuwa. Although the region is known from the epigraphic sources to have been occupied already from the Old Hittite period (16th century BC), and prehistoric presence on the plain is well known, archaeologists have worked here only sporadically. The region was included in the surveys made by Mellaart and Meriggi between the end of the ’50s and the beginning of the ’60s, but in both cases they devoted only little attention to it. A more detailed survey has been leaded by J. Todd, who nonetheless published only the data concerning the most relevant Neolithic sites. With the first two campaigns of our survey some 30 archaeological sites have been registered, only 6 of which were known from previous investigations. Because of its dimension and material, Kınık Höyük has been chosen as pilot-site of the region; here surface finds date from the Islamic back to the EB Age.
The main issue of the mission concerns the Hittite and Neo-Hittite periods, and the second part of this contribution aims to gather the evidence from the region dealing with those periods.