Beycesultan, 1959: Sixth Preliminary Report

Extract

A final season of excavating at Beycesultan was arranged in the autumn of 1959 and lasted from 15th September to 28th October. The work was once more in charge of the Director, who was accompanied by Mrs. Seton Lloyd and a staff consisting of Mr. Martin Harrison (Institute Scholar for 1958–59) and Mrs. Harrison, Mr. Harry Smith of Christ's College, Cambridge, Miss Carol Cruikshank, Mr. Michael Brett as architect and Bay Osman Aksoy as Turkish Government representative. The Assistant Director and Miss Clare Goff also took part in the excavations during the second half of the season.

It had been decided on this occasion to concentrate the entire resources of the expedition on the continued clearance of the Middle Bronze Age palace on the eastern summit of the mound, partly excavated in the seasons of 1954 and 1955, in the hope of recovering as much of the plan as possible before the excavations finally closed down. This was accomplished with considerable success. Two large new areas of the building were cleared and a point reached where any further extension would have met with serious practical difficulties.