Excavatıon Hıstory

Remzi Oğuz Arık visited Konya Karahöyük in 1941 as a part of his research between Konya and Ankara. His work could be counted as one of the first systematic surveys in the region. While he visited many prehistoric and classical sites, he named the mound Karahüyük 1, as there are several Karahöyük's in the region. He collected Hittite pottery from the site which he later carried out to Ankara Museum. The first plan of the mound was also sketched by Mahmut Akok during these days.

Akok's 1941 drawing of Karahüyük I which refers to Konya Karahöyük.

(Remzi Oğuz Arık, Travels to Ankara-Konya, Eskişehir-Yazılıkaya, 1956)

The first rounds of excavations at Konya Karahöyük were conducted between 1953 and 1992 under the directorship of Professor Sedat Alp, a Hittitologist by training, from Ankara University. These long-lasting excavations revealed the remains of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE through rich archaeological material collections. Alp’s excavations yielded 27 archaeological levels dated from the end of the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1750 BCE, based on Alp’s chronology) to the Late Chalcolithic period. While Alp’s studies mainly focused on the early 2nd millennium BCE, known as the Assyrian Trading Colonies period in the literature, seals and seal impressions (bullae) got particular attention among the scholarly community due to their significance in showing relations between Anatolia, Syria, northern Mesopotamia, and the Aegean. Regardless of the excavations’ extent, the collections of the site have been meagerly published since then.

Alp's Trench L 

(Alp 1994)

After three decades of break, the archaeological excavations at the site reconvened in 2022 under the directorship of Gonca Dardeniz from Istanbul University, Department of Protohistory and Near Eastern Archaeology. This new round of excavations aims to establish a refined chronology for the site while setting the scene for this mega Bronze Age settlement.

Alp's Trench T 

(Alp 1975)