The 2013-2015 excavation seasons at Uşaklı Höyük (Central Turkey)

The paper provides a summary of the principal results obtained during the first three seasons of excavations at Uşaklı Höyük, a multi-period site located along the southern bank of the Egri Öz Dere, not far from the city of Yozgat, on the Central Anatolian Plateau. The results of a five year survey (2008-2012) gave substantial evidence of a lengthy occupation of the site, from the Early Bronze Age to the Ottoman period, with faint traces of a Late Chalcolithic phase. Within this range a significant occupation dates to the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. Excavations carried out between 2013 and 2015 exposed significant evidence dating to the Late Bronze and Iron Ages both on the high mound and the large, extended terrace. The impressive architecture in granitic boulders exposed in Area A and the fragments of cuneiform tablets found on the slopes of the mound suggest the importance of the settlement at the time of the Hittite rule over the region. The Iron Age period is also characterised by intensive building activity centred on the höyük. Here, in Area C a complex retaining structure consisting of a large stone glacis, walls and earthen fillings has been exposed.