Excavations at Alahan Monastery: Second Preliminary Report

Abstract

Excavations at Alahan Monastery were continued during the summer of 1962 for a period of exactly eight weeks, from early July until 1st September. The Director was accompanied by Mrs. Gough, and Mr. Robin Guthrie acted as his chief assistant. Messrs. Gerard Bakker and Anthony Harrison, the expedition's architects, were responsible for the survey and partial restoration of newly excavated buildings, and Miss Susan Harrison for pottery and small finds. Miss Caroline Pickard and Mr. David White were field assistants. Bayan Süheyla Keskil, Director of the Antakya Museum, acted as the official representative of the Turkish General Directorate of Museums and Antiquities. To her and to the Kaymakam of Mut the expedition is grateful for their co-operation. An average of twenty-four workmen was employed, many experienced from earlier excavations at Alahan and Dağ Pazarı, and Süleyman Yemenici was again a most efficient foreman. The number of visitors to the site showed a great increase over 1961, and if a jeep road could be built to cover the 300 metres of steep slope from the main road to the monastery, there is no doubt that this outstanding monument of the early Christian period would soon be better known and appreciated (Pl. XXXa).