Using Geophysical Methods for Archaeological Excavation in 2008 Season for Urartian Sites Located in Van, Yoncatepe

Abstract

This Paper presents the results of the archeological excavation carried out for Urartian settlement located in Yoncatepe (Van-Turkey) in 2008. The Yoncatepe Palace is located 9 km away from the city of Van, to the west of Varak and Erek Mountains, 1.5 km to the southwest of Yukari Bakracli (Yedikilise) village. The Yoncatepe Palace acropol and necropol kept its strategical position from 1000 B.C. until the Urartian kingdom. The archeological excavation carried out at a flat elevated hillside since 1998 positioned the locations of an acropol at the summit of Yoncatepe Palace, a settlement site to the northeast of it, and the necropol site to the north of the hillside. An acropol study carried out at an area of 900 square meters at the summit of the settlement identified an architectural structure complex distributed all over the study area. The wall of the structures usually expanded East-West is constructed using slab-stone's mud mixture. As in the other castle and settlement centers belonging to early iron age the necropol and the settlement site in Yoncatepe are overlapped. The southern part of Acropol ends in a deep and steep valley. The Doni stream flowing from southeast to west has wide and deeply excavated bed. Although the northern side of Acropol is steep, the northeast and northwest sides are gentle. During the conventional archeological well-drillings aiming to determine the distribution of the Acropol settlement, we determined an architectural complex that is a likely settlement located to the north of Yoncatepe Palace and to the east of necropol. In 2008 excavation season we used geophysical exploration techniques to locate the sites. 6 tombs belonging to iron age are identified during the excavation studies to determine the necropol site at northern hillside of Yoncatepe Palace during the 1997-2008 period. Important knowledge on architecture is inferred owing to the fact that the cover of the tombs is not collapsed. In addition to these 6 tombs another tomb is identified using geophysical exploration methods.