11. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

layet of Burdur. Yazır Göl lies within the aneient territory of Balboura,and its high altitude, about 1480 m above see leveL, promised to providedirect evidence of the vegetation typical of much of Balboura's agriculturalland.A series of coring sites was planned across the widest and deepestpart of the lake, with the hand driven cylindrical drill based on an inflatableboat. In the event, however, the sediment cores extended for lessthan a metre in depth, and below that was hard red day, indicating thatthere was not a permanent lake here at all periods. These short cores mayshed some light on the problematic deforestation phase of recent centuries,but any earlier pollen will have decayed during the dry phase indicatedby the red day.However, by a happy aceident, the launch site for the drilling rig providedvaluable information about management of the lake in antiquity.Towards the northem end ofthe rocky eastem side of the lake is anaturalsink hole (çukur), which in recent years has been surrounded by an earthdam to prevent the lake water from draining away. Within this dam wefound the remains of a massiye wall of dry laid rubble masonry enclosingan area of c. 20x12 m and rising about 4 m above the sink hole. A precisedate for the wall is impossible, but its build suggests that it is Hellerıisticor early Roman, and its purpose was obviously to enclose the sink holeso as to maintain the level of the lake.A higher lake level would obviously benefit crops grown in the surroundingbasin, as well as providing reeds for winter fodder, and archaeologicalexploration revealed a Roman settlement at each end of the lakebasin. That at the south end had slight remains of a Hellenistic erıclosureof the type found elsewhere in Balboura's territory, and both settlementspreserved lion-lidded sarcophagi, which indicate a measure of prosperityduring the Roman period. At both sites we also found stone press weightsof the now familiar kind, showing that occupation even at this altitudewas based on agriculture, including vinyards.At both these sites, and also at a third close to the sink hole, votiverock reliefs were found; eight out of nine of them were of the Triad type,and none of the generally commoner Dioskouroi. On the other hand twoDioskouroi reliefs were found in the valley in front of the nearby villageof Gölçük (Yazır), one of them (Fig. 1) last noted by Schönbom in 1842.This homogeneous local cluster, not just single sites devoted to one cultor another, is of some interest, and may suggest that certain groups of thepopulation specially favoured a particular cult.430