The purpose of this interim report is to give a description of the major architectural features of the site, the evidence for their dating, and a brief account of the artifactual remains from them. This work is necessarily incomplete: only the major excavated levels are distinguished and illustrated; a detailed division of the Medieval levels into subsidiary phases has not been attempted here; and before a complete and definitive account of the artifactual remains, especially the pottery, can be given, further work must be done on the material. This may throw new light on the problems of dating.

Fig. 1 shows the area excavated, with the exception of the step trenches dug down the north side of the mound, which are of no direct relevance to the architecture of the later periods considered here, and the trenches on the west side of the mound, dug ad hoc to investigate the later Medieval structures. These are shown in Figs. 11 and 12. The continuous thin lines in Fig. 1 indicate the internal sections which were drawn from the topsoil to the point where excavation was halted but which were later removed.

This short note is here presented as an illustration not only of the material which will be published in the final volumes but also of the aims and methods of the R.E.C.A.M. work.

Four inscriptions form the core of this article. Two are from the area of Ladik (now renamed Halicı), the ancient Laodiceia Combusta; both are unpublished. The remaining two are from Sinop, the ancient Sinope; one has been published previously, the other is a new, unpublished fragment of a known inscription. The full text of these two Sinop documents can now be significantly revised. Of the two Ladik inscriptions, one was seen in the course of my researches on the milestones of Asia Minor (CIL XVII fasc. 5); the other came to light amongst the papers left to the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara by Professor W. M. Calder.

I am grateful to the Ministry of Culture, General-Directorate of Antiquities and Museums for permission to publish this material.

In 1967, a fifth season of excavation was completed at Alahan. Work, which began on 5th July and continued until 29th August, was carried out by a labour force of twenty-five workmen, of whom Ahmet Kaya, Aslan Şahin and Süleyman Uysal have not missed a season since the first exploratory sounding made on the site of the Basilica in 1955. Apart from the Director and Mrs. Gough, the members of the staff were Messrs. G. Bakker, P. Pratt and R. Wylie, architects; Mrs. Bakker and Miss M. McGregor, inventory and conservation; Messrs. A. Ray and L. Thomas, site supervisors; Misses H. Cash and M. MacDonald, and Mr. P. Percival-Price, field-assistants. Bayan Nihal Dönmez represented the Ministry of Education, and to her the expedition is grateful for practical help on many occasions. Our thanks are also due to the Institute's Council of Management, to the Russell Trust and to a private subscriber in Ankara for the funds which made the season a success.

Apart from the archaeological results, the year 1967 provided two further reasons for special gratification. As a recognition of Alahan's status as a major site in exceptionally beautiful surroundings (Pl. LVI), a good road has now been built up the mountain slope under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism.

KUB XIV 17, which belongs to the Detailed Annals for Mursili's 7th year, records a rebellion against Hittite rule in this year by the people of the Nuhassi lands. In view of the loss of the entire first column of the tablet and the very fragmentary nature of the first few lines of the second column, the events leading up to the rebellion are far from clear.

In considering what these events may have been, I would like to begin with the restorations and translation which Goetze proposes for lines 1–6 of the second column:

In 2019, excavation in the Yalnızlar neighbourhood of Sinop, Turkey, revealed a small number of architectural remains, two stone-paved floors and two lavishly decorated pebble-mosaic floors. Both the architectural remains and the pebble-mosaic floors are rare finds in Sinop, even more so given that the floors were found largely intact within their architectural settings. These elements appear to have constituted a portion of a once-grand house of the mid-fourth century BC. This article focuses on the pebble-mosaic floors, which will be analysed in two parts. The first introduces the floors and considers their construction techniques and decorative programmes. Analogies form an essential part of the analysis in order to contextualise both pavements within the corpus of Greek pebble-mosaic floors. A holistic evaluation of the architectural remains and the mosaics follows, in order to consider the setting and use of the floors. In the second part of the article, the sociocultural context of the mosaics is addressed. The analysis considers the meaning and symbolism of their decorations, as well as the place they once occupied within the lives of their owners. Ultimately, the position of the examples from Sinope within the wider sphere of mid-fourth-century BC Greek pebble-mosaic floors will be considered, along with the significance of such lavishly decorated floors in Sinope at this time.

The Museum of Yalvaç contains a large and important collection of Greek and Latin inscriptions, mostly from the adjacent colony of Pisidian Antioch, but including a number from other sites in the region. Among the latter is an important text from the reign of Trajan, which has claimed some attention in the scholarly literature although it has never been fully published. Since it presents some points of difficulty, and contains matters of interest which have not hitherto been discussed, it seems worthwhile to do so now.

The inscription was found at the village of Fele, now called Yassıbel, south of the town of Şarkıkaraağaç in what was once the Cillanian plain, and was brought to the museum in 1966. It is carved on a large rectangular block of yellow/white limestone; Ht. 0·62; width 2·31; depth 0·20. The text is engraved inside an elongated tabula ansata, and the letters measure 0·11 (1. 1), 0·07 (1. 2), 0·06 (1. 3), 0·055 (1. 4), 0·05 (1. 5). The stone has been broken into three pieces but is complete, and except at one point in 1. 4 there is no doubt about the reading. The museum inventory number is A.445.

During 1993 the excavations at Sagalassos continued for their fourth season from 3 July until 19 August. From 21 until 28 August a survey was carried out in the district immediately south and south-east of the excavation site. The work was directed by Professor Marc Waelkens (Dept. of Archaeology, Catholic University of Leuven). A total of 45 Turkish workmen and 62 scientists or students from various countries (Belgium, Turkey, Great Britain, Portugal, France, Austria and Greece) were involved in the project. The team included 25 archaeologists, 8 illustrators, 8 architect-restorers (supervised by T. Patricio and directed by Prof. K. Van Balen and Prof. F. Hueber), 4 cartographers (directed by Prof. F. Depuydt), 2 geomorphologists (Prof. E. Paulissen and K. Vandaele), 2 archaeozoologists from the Museum of Central Africa at Tervuren (Belgium), 6 conservators (directed by G. Hibler-Vandenbulcke), 1 photographer (P. Stuyven), 2 computer specialists and 4 people taking care of everyday logistics. The Turkish Antiquities Department was represented by Mrs. Nurhan Ülgen for the first and by Mrs. Aliye Yamancı for the second half of the season, whom we both thank for their much appreciated help and collaboration.

The history of Roman and Italian businessmen in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, and especially in Asia, during the first century B.C. is a familiar one. There is ample evidence of many kinds for their emigration and activities after the formation of the province of Asia, interrupted by the hegemony of Mithridates, but resumed on a larger scale after he had been driven back from Asia into Pontus. This evidence can be placed into two broad categories. First, there are allusions in the contemporary literature, inscriptions and historical accounts of the period which provide direct information about individuals and families active in the province. Then there is the evidence of inscriptions of the Imperial period, especially the second and third centuries AD., which reveal both established settlements of resident Romans in the cities and an extraordinary number of families with Roman and Italian names, which could clearly trace their origins back to the Republican period of emigration and settlement. Opportunities to study particular families or groups of emigrants at both periods are unfortunately rare, since usually one or the other category of evidence is lacking. Although the record is far from complete, and it is necessary to rely more on conjecture than one would wish, the object of this study is to investigate one such emigrant family, the Sestullii, whose presence in Asia is attested both in Republican literary sources and in Imperial inscriptions. It is clearly impossible to write a continuous history of the gens, or even to reconstruct its stemma in outline, especially since there is a notably large gap in our knowledge between ca 50 B.C. and A.D. 150, a two hundred year span from which only a single relevant inscription survives, but the family name is so rare that it can reasonably be assumed that all its bearers are related to one another in some way. It must be stressed that this assumption underlies the whole reconstruction offered here.

Sardis constituted a major urban centre during the early Byzantine period, an era marked by the gradual transformation of the city into a Christian metropolis. From the fourth to the sixth century AD, Sardis maintained an important commercial, industrial and administrative role that sustained high-quality monumental construction. Yet, the major architectural types that emerged during this crucial period in the centre of the early Christian city are largely unknown to us. The unexcavated remains of the monument known as ‘Building D’ offer the best opportunity to shed light on this enigmatic aspect of the history of the city. Indeed, these remains display a late fourth century reused inscription as well as construction details typical of the early Byzantine period. They also lie in what must have been a central area of the city during this time. At first sight, this building seems hopelessly dilapidated and largely inaccessible. Still, the current paper demonstrates that a closer examination of the fabric of Building D reveals invaluable clues for its original form and function. This new exploration of the building includes the graphic recording, careful analysis and interpretation of the remains, thus providing the evidence required for the first substantiated reconstruction of a major part of the monument. The exploration reveals the articulation and structure of the primary load-bearing elements, as well as the form of the enormous vaulted canopy that covered one of the most imposing and towering spaces of early Byzantine Sardis. The article uses this reconstruction as a basis for the identification of those architectural features that help to interpret the function of the building, its role in the development of late antique Sardis as well as its position in the evolution of early Byzantine architecture in western Asia Minor.

Adilcevaz lies on the north shore of lake Van, almost due south of the summit of Süphan Dağ (14,547 ft.). At its west end substantial remains of a lofty wall of later than Urartian times run down from below the Ahlat road to the shore of the lake (and actually into the lake, of which the relative level has evidently risen since the construction of the wall). It was on a largely concealed face (at right-angles to the line of the wall) of a stone block in this wall that it was reported that cuneiform writing could be seen.

Accordingly, in September, 1956, the writer inspected the wall, accompanied by his wife, who located the block some fifteen metres below the road in a short secondary wall-surface of dressed blocks, with hard rubble filling behind, parallel with the line of, and running inland from the broken end of a further wall projecting three or four metres in the Adılcevaz direction from, the main wall. The cuneiform writing proved to be visible as a result of the absence, close to the surface, of mortar between the inscribed block and the one lake-ward of it in the same course; and on poking away more mortar between the two blocks and up to the under surface of a third, larger, block, forming part of the next higher, and uppermost surviving, course, it was found that this under surface also bore cuneiform signs.

The appearance of Aegean-style IIIC pottery at Tarsus occured at a time of unrest and of movement of peoples resulting in part from the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces on the Greek mainland. Mycenaean Late Helladic IIIB pottery exports from mainland Greece to Cyprus and the Levant disappeared and were gradually replaced by local imitations. Eventually Aegean-style IIIC pottery appeared in the East Aegean-West Anatolian Interface, in Cyprus and at various sites on the southern coast of Turkey and in the Levant. It was not exported from the Greek mainland, but seems to have been locally made at each site. A first series of neutron activation analysis (NAA) was carried out on pottery from Tarsus to determine how much of the Aegean-style 12th-century BC pottery was locally produced, how much was imported and, if imported, from whence it came. The favourable results of this first analysis gave rise to a second NAA of more Aegean-style pottery from Tarsus, bringing the total number of pieces analysed to 67. It has confirmed the local production of the pottery; the chemical group TarA is the dominant local group at Tarsus, comprising a third of the samples. A smaller group, TarB, may also be local. The analysis revealed a large number of Aegean-style IIIC imports from Cyprus from several different sites; these make up a quarter of the samples. There are a few imports from other areas, including the East Aegean-West Anatolian Interface. Influence from both Cyprus and the Interface can also be seen at Tarsus in the use of some shapes and motifs. A comparison with 12th-century BC imports identified by NAA at the site of Tell Kazel (ancient Simyra) in Syria directly east of Cyprus shows imports from the same two areas.

The following article is an attempt to reconstruct the Roman road-system of Eastern Lycaonia from the Peutinger Table (the only ancient itinerary that refers to this region), from published and unpublished milestones and from impressions received on journeys there in 1956 and 1957. I am indebted especially to Sir William Calder for his help at all stages, including the use of his note-books, and also to Messrs. A. S. Hall and J. G. Macqueen, who travelled with me in 1957.

The area covered is in the main that between Laodiceia Combusta on the west and the foot of Hasan Dağ on the east. It is divided into two parts by the great sweep of Boz Dağ, a quarter circle of mountains rising some 500 m. above the surrounding country and separating the fertile and monotonously flat plain of Iconium from the undulating steppe to north and east (map, fig. 1). In Strabo's time the area outside Boz Dağ was a semi-arid waste grazed by vast flocks of sheep and even wild asses, and until the introduction of mechanised methods of farming in the last few years, sheep have always been the principal livelihood of the local population. Water is scarce and many of the wells are over 50 m. deep.

The number of known Hittite rock-reliefs in Anatolia is limited: Karabel, Manisa, Yazılıkaya, Gavurkalesi, Fıraktin, İmamkulu, Taşcı, İvriz, Gezbeli, Sirkeli, and Hemite. Except the Late Hittite relief of Ivriz, the monuments, mostly scattered on the fringe of the highland, have to be ascribed to the Imperial Age (1450–1200 B.C.). Their geographic distribution allows some conclusions as to the extent of the Hittite sphere of influence. The question of the monuments' function is but one of the numerous problems still to be solved.

Apart from the reliefs of Yazılıkaya, Gavurkalesi and Fıraktin, which are all part of a sanctuary, the majority of the monuments at first sight seem to have been put up to demonstrate political power and may be interpreted as representations of the kings (Imamkulu, Taşcı, Gezbeli, Sirkeli and Hemite) or of local dynasts (Karabel and Manisa). This applies especially to the reliefs of Gezbeli and Hemite, which in their overall conception are so designed that the political element seems to dominate over the religious. Upon closer examination, however, we must admit that this explanation applies only perhaps to some of the Imperial Age monuments; those monuments in which the kings are shown in an attitude of prayer or as gods appear to have been erected with religious motives in mind. A further indication of religious function is the fact that the monuments are often associated with water in the form of a spring or a river.

1. The tablet published here for the first time belongs to the Musée d'art et d'histoire of Geneva. In 1960, as my employment at that museum was drawing to a close, I copied the tablet for publication but circumstances beyond my control (to borrow that well-worn but convenient cliché) delayed its publication long enough to enable me to offer it here as a modest tribute to my old friend and former colleague, “R.D.B.”, an archaeologist who has always appreciated the services epigraphy could render to archaeology.

2. The text (copy on p. 74 below) reads in transliteration and translation:

(1) 3 ma-na na4 za-gìn

(2) mu urudualam lug[al]

a-ab-ba sig-ga a-a[b] -

ba igi-nim-da gú-[ ḡar-šè]

(3) mu sukal-mah-šè

(4) ki lú-diḡir-[ra]

du[b](!)-[sar-ta]

(5) a-a-ḡu10[šabra]

(6) šu-ba-an-[ti]

(7) iti á-ki-[ti]

(8) mu dšu- d E[N.Z]U

[1]ugal

This seal, one of the earliest with a linear alphabetic inscription, was found in 1959 at Kibbutz Revadim in the Shephelah (Fig. 3). Its find spot lies about three kilometres west of Tel Miqne (Khirbet el-Muqanna'), identified with Ekron of the Philistine Pentapolis. The seal is a scaraboid of hard limestone, most probably mizi hilu, measuring 16 × 13 × 7·5 mm, intended for a ring, as indicated by the two drilled holes that do not meet. The back and sides of the seal are plain. The base carries the owner's name and a scene engraved in a linear, schematic style (Fig. 1, Pl. XLII).

The seal was published in 1961 by R. Giveon, who assigned it to the wellknown class of late Iron Age (mainly 8th—7th century) personal seals from Palestine and neighbouring countries. In an article published a year later, F. M. Cross, on palaeographic grounds, dated the seal to the 12th century. His view won wide acceptance. In this paper, offered with gratitude and admiration to Richard D. Barnett, whose student I had the privilege to be, I wish to re-evaluate the Revadim Seal and its date.

Writing in Carchemish, Vol. III (1952), Richard Barnett brought the evidence of the two Hieroglyphic Luwian stelae found at Tell Ahmar (the Assyrian Til-Barsip) to bear on the Karkamiš chronology. At that date, immediately after the discovery of KARATEPE, the value of a number of Hieroglyphic signs was still not established, which hampered the readings of some of the rulers' names. Also the actual dynastic information provided by the two mutilated stelae lay still largely out of reach. It is nevertheless remarkable that the progress in interpretation of these and related monuments over the last thirty years has tended to confirm the datings originally proposed by Barnett. Thus it is with great pleasure that I offer to Richard Barnett in this volume a new piece of information which elucidates some points on the TELL AHMAR stelae and permits an interesting new interpretation.