2. Cilt - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

Iron Age/Kinet Phase III, Southwest Slope 21OP. U was opened in 2001, on the mound’s south rim, for its medievalphase; and again in 2005, when Hellenistic and late Achaemenid Persianlevels (Kinet Periods 2, 3A and 3B), were exposed. One feature of thistrench was a thick gravel packing visible at its southern end, at the moundslope. It was attributed in 2001 to the Iron Age, without firm evidence fordate and purpose 22 . The 2007 season investigated it thoroughly, and made astratigraphic probe into earlier levels of this otherwise untested, south side ofthe mound.OP. U doubled in size this year to a total N-S length of 18 m. It included anarrow sounding at the slope edge (1.5 m.-wide ST, 176); and a smaller one inits northeast corner, which was taken down 6.5 m. to OP. U’s deepest point,at 16.45 masl (2 x 3.5 m. DS, 177/180). Two Late Iron architectural levels wereexposed throughout the trench. Cut into them were four large pits filled withpartial to nearly complete amphoras, spanning the fourth to second centuriesB.C. Earlier phases were sampled in the two soundings, and interpretedaccording to contemporary levels in larger exposures on the mound’s west(OPs. E/H, CII, F, L) and east sides (OPs. A-AII, D).The two Late Iron architectural levels were of considerable interest, sincetheir periods were poorly attested at Kinet. OP. U’s Period 4 (late fifth c. B.C.)domestic architecture, and cultural assemblage compared closely with thisphase in E/H, including the small but consistent percentage of black-glazedGreek imports (skyphoi and kotyle). The new evidence from OP. U has expandedKinet’s fifth-century occupation across the western third of the mound; othertrenches show that it did not extend further east.Immediately below this shallow phase was discovered the source for thesouth slope’s gravel. It was contained in a neat grid of connecting trenches,laid out parallel and at right angles to each other on a N-S axis. These servedas sunken architectural foundations, over 2 m. deep and 1.10 - 1.40 m. wide,packed with cut “blocks” of gravel in lieu of stones (Fig. 14). In U, theydelineated two rooms, whose scale was disproportionate to the sturdinessof the foundations (129, 3.3 x 3 m.; and 159, 3.3 x > 4.3 m.), and an emptyzone to their west. The walls preserved no trace of superstructure except,perhaps, for a cluster of burnt square bricks to the north; floors were alsomissing, since the foundations were lying below floor levels. In the absence21 Supervisor: B. Claasz Coockson, with Ö. Yarma.22 Gates 2003: 286-287.359