Uşaklı Höyük: new results from a site in the heart of the Anatolian plateau

Uşaklı Höyük is the largest archaeological mound visible across the countryside between the cities of Yozgat and Sorgun in northcentral Anatolia, at the center of the territory defined in Hittite texts as the ‘Upper Land’. The excavations, which began in 2013, brought to light a long sequence of occupation extending from the 3rd millennium BCE to the Byzantine period. In recent years, the main focus of the Uşaklı Höyük Archaeological Project has been to reconstruct the history of the settlement during the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE and understand the form and extent of the site. Excavations so far document the presence of monumental architecture dated to the Hittite period in the lower town, as well as a stone glacis and fortifications of probable Iron Age date surrounding the high mound.