Macroscale City Structure at Late Assyrian Ziyaret Tepe, Turkey

FAIN: RZ-50516-06

University of Akron, Main Campus (Akron, OH 44325-0001)
Timothy Matney (Project Director: November 2005 to April 2008)

Continuing excavation, analysis, and interpretation of urban planning and settlement patterns of a site in modern Turkey that was a provincial capital of the Late Assyrian Empire. (12 months)

This proposal seeks funds for archaeological fieldwork to be conducted at the site of Ziyaret Tepe in the Diyarbakir Province of southeastern Turkey in July-September 2006 and for subsequent specialist analyses through June 2007. Ziyaret Tepe was a provincial capital of the Late Assyrian Empire during its zenith between 900-600 BC. The proposed project explores the nature of urban planning, structure and functioning at Late Assyrian Ziyaret Tepe though a combination of geophysical subsurfacing mapping and broad-scale horizontal excavations. It is our long-term goal to map the entire settlement, providing a unique database on ancient urbanism. Ziyaret Tepe will be destroyed by the construction of the Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River scheduled to be completed by 2012. Nine seasons of work (1997-2005) have made significant progress towards the mapping of the Late Assyrian city and the proposed work fills important gaps in our existing maps. Previous NEH support was granted under RZ-50288-04.