New Insights on the 1st Millennium BCE Occupation of the Citadel at Niğde Kınık Höyük. Excavations 2022-2024 in Sectors A2 and Ed

Excavations at Nigde-Kinik Hoyuk (N-KH, Turkey) have reached this year the 14th campaign. During the 2022-2024 campaign several activities of excavations and restoration have taken place at the site and in the Nig.de Museum. Starting in 2022 Dr. Marina Pucci (University of Florence) has become the new director of the archaeological project and she started an extensive investigation of the site's lower town (Pucci et al. 2023). In the new setting, Dr. Lorenzo d'Alfonso (University of Pavia and New York University) leads the investigations of the pre-Hellenistic occupation of the citadel, and Dr. Burak Yolacan (Dokuz Eylul University Izmir) the extensive excavations of its Hellenistic and Roman occupation.Excavations of the pre-Hellenistic occupation of the mound in the campaigns 2022-2024 concentrated on Operation A, on the northern side of the mound, and on Operation C, on its southern slope. Activities on Operation C have been already partially reported (Pucci et al. 2023, pp. 85-90) and will be addressed elsewhere. This report will focus on the excavations activities operated in Sector A2, as well as the 2024 deep sounding in Operation E (Sounding Ed), in an area along the southern limit of Sector A2 (Fig. 1) (1).