Historical Background

Although for most of its history the Göksu valley looks for its cultural context towards the Mediterranean and to the cities of Cilicia, like Mersin and Tarsus, in the Late Bronze Age (1600-1200 BC) the Hittite Empire extended its political control from its capital at Hattusa southwards to the Mediterranean, eventually annexing all Cilicia (known as Kizzuwatna), and its influence on the material culture is clearly apparent in the Level III ceramics at Kilise Tepe. Later, in the final century of the Hittite Empire a large tract of territory in the south of Anatolia, known as the kingdom of Tarhuntassa, was entrusted by the Hittite king Hattusili III to a nephew called Kurunta as a subordinate king. The location of the eastern borders of Tarhuntassa is still subject to discussion among Hittitologists, but most would include the Göksu Valley within its frontiers.

At one of the major turning points in Old World history, the Hattusa dynasty collapsed along with other palatial regimes in the disruptions associated with the Sea Peoples, around 1190 BC, and it is likely that the Tarhuntassa Dynasty did not much outlast them. Across Anatolia strong central control was replaced by local power structures, and places like Kilise Tepe, where the population probably mostly spoke Luwian, may well have been abandoned or have become one of a patchwork of small local centres. Writing had gone with the palace bureaucracies, and historical news of our area has to await tangential references in the inscriptions of 8th-6th century Assyrian and Babylonian rulers, which confirm a fragmented political order with local rulers occupying strongholds in the hills.

Our recent work at Kilise Tepe has concentrated on this era of major transformation. In particular, we wanted to observe the changes in three classes of evidence: the architecture, the ceramics, and the subsistence base as reflected in the animal and plant remains. That changes took place is obvious, and by observing them more closely we hope to shed light on the effects of the presence or absence of centralized government, and see how life changed for the inhabitants of the site in response to events further afield.