Excavations at Sos Höyük, 1995: Second Preliminary Report

Archaeological investigations this year at Sos Höyük, carried out by the University of Melbourne and Erzurum Museum, took place in the summer, between 2 June and 3 August. The aims for the 1995 season included activities both on the mound and off-site. Among the former objectives, was the need to expose further the Medieval settlement on the summit of the mound, and the burnt building of the Hellenistic period in trenches L14 and L13. Excavation was also required in the lower northeast trenches to clarify the depositions of the late third to second millennium B.C. In addition to these largely horizontal operations, we commenced an independent vertical sounding in J14 to obtain a immediate guide to the sequence of Iron Age deposits.The intensive field survey of the site environs continued, as did the search for the obsidian source in the hilltops around Pasinler. A detailed palaeoecological study of the region was initiated this year. Information from promising pollen cores taken at various altitudes in the Kargapazarı Dağları, the mountain range immediately to the north of the site, will no doubt complement the faunal and botanical data from the excavations. We also conducted a magnetic survey of the ancient cemeteries surrounding the site to better define their boundaries, but human and animal disturbance often made it difficult to discriminate between burials, pits and burrows of comparable magnetic intensity. Finally, there was a concerted effort to organize and establish a new exhibition at Erzurum Museum covering the campaigns at both Büyüktepe Höyük and Sos Höyük.