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Other Archaeological Sites / The Neolithic of the Levant (500 Page Book Online) McDonald Ancient Near East Book Auction Ad Infinitum Ancient Pteria (Kerkenes Dag) A low granite peak covering almost an entire square mile of central Turkey's Anatolian plateau, Kerkenes Dag is believed to be the site of an important sixth-century BC city mentioned in Herodotus called Pteria. A short-lived metropolis inhabited by the Medes (an ancient Iranian people), Pteria was burned to the ground and its inhabitants were enslaved by the Lydians (sixth-century rulers of Asia Minor) in 547 BC. Only the city's strong defensive walls survived the conflagration. Archaeologists from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara have now succeeded in reconstructing significant portions of the ancient city by combining conventional excavation methods with some creative high-tech approaches like ground-penetrating radar and remote-satellite sensing. Over the last three years the Kerkenes excavation team has managed to locate the charred remains of ancient Pteria's central gateway (known as the Cappadocia Gate), the city's imperial stables and a number of timber-frame houses ..... (BAS) The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium |