Investigations on building techniques of the defensive walls in Kinik Hoyuk excavation (Turkey)

The paper presents part of a research about the walls at Kınık Höyük, a multidisciplinary activity carried out by researchers from universities of Italy, USA and Turkey. Kınık Höyük is a mound in Southern Cappadocia, in which traces of a site inhabited for about 4000 years were found. The portion of the city walls in the northern part of the mound is quite important: it is characterized by a 5 m thick dry masonry and a well preserved mud plastering. Soon after the exposure to weathering, holes appeared in the plaster due to mud powdering; holes are arranged in horizontal rows at a regular distance (45 cm), inside of them fragments of wooden poles were found up to a depth of 70 cm. The preliminary dating of the walls (archaeological stratigraphy and radiocarbon analysis on some fragments of poles) attributed them to the Late Bronze Age (XV-XII century BCE). At that time Kınık region was under the hegemony of Hittite empire, that in XIV century BCE codified rules (building techniques, materials and dimensions) for building fortifications in subjugated towns. Archaeological remains of Hittite cities support the existence of common building techniques for defensive walls, but Kınık walls seem to have different features. The paper will investigate construction techniques in order to validate historical knowledge with the support of architectural surveys, analyses of mineralogical compositions and provenience of building materials, and comparison with coeval cases.