Beycesultan Excavations Second Preliminary Report, 1955

The Second Excavating season at Beycesultan lasted from 1st May to 6th July, 1955. As a result of a motor accident on 30th April Mr. Seton Lloyd was unable to take charge of the work until 21st May and his place was taken by Mr. James Mellaart, Institute Fellow for 1955–56. The field staff also included Mr. G. R. H. Wright as architect and surveyor, Mrs. Wright as housekeeper and registrar, Mr. T. Burton Brown as visiting adviser, Mr. Maurice Cookson, whose services as photographer were kindly lent to us by the London Institute of Archaeology, and Mr. John Carswell as draughtsman. The Turkish Antiquities Department was represented by Bayan Nihal Dönmez, who relieved the Director of much administrative work. The expedition was once more housed in tents and rented accommodation in Menteş, village: thanks are again due to the Turkish Ministry of Education for the loan of the local school building as museum and workshop.The season's work divided itself into three distinct phases. The first part of the excavations was confined to the eastern summit of the mound, where the great Burnt Palace had been discovered in 1954 (see Fig. 1), and consisted in the successive examination and clearance of the four uppermost levels (I–IV) over an area about thirty metres square, in order to gain access to the palace beneath. This work occupied the expedition throughout the greater part of May. The second phase was concerned with the extension of the palace excavations themselves in a north-westerly direction.