The third excavation campaign of the Türkmen-Karahöyük Archaeological Project (TKAP), led by Michele Rüzgar Massa (Bilkent University) and James F. Osborne (ISAC-University of Chicago) started in late June 2026 and is still ongoing. Nine Fields are under excavation this year by a very large team of more than 150 participants; they are investigating the different periods and contexts of the site first discovered by the Konya Regional Archaeological Survey Project (KRASP) in 2017, from the Middle Bronze Age to the early Roman period, from public and private buildings within the ancient urban center to a funerary area at the outskirt of the settlement.
One core question for research at Türkmen-Karahöyük concerns its occupation during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. The potential identification with Tarhuntassa, the 13th century BCE capital of the Hittite Empire, the existence of a continuity of occupation at the site after the fall of the empire, and the possible identification of the site with Iron Age Parzuta/Prizuwanda/Bit Burutas await confirmation from excavations at the site. Starting in 2025, the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition (BIAT) research project led by Lorenzo d’Alfonso for ISAW-NYU and UNIPV is a partnership with TKAP whose goal is to enhance research on these specific periods of occupation at the site. In 2026 BIAT started excavating a step trench on the western slope of the site (Field 8), identifying layers of occupation covering the whole Late Bronze and part of the Iron Age. The detailed results will be published in a report to appear in 2027.
During the clearing of the excavation area on the surface, a biconvex seal with Anatolian Hieroglyphic inscriptions was found at the same elevation in which Late Bronze Age II deposits and architecture were later unearthed. The basalt seal was heavily worn, but it was possible to read on one side the name Kurunti-ziti, while on the other side a second name was present, to be read Muwa-x-mi. Both were associated with the title BONUS2.VIR2.
The type of seal and its graphic properties support a dating between the late thirteenth century BCE and the post-Hittite period. More importantly, it attests to direct acquaintance with administrative tools and writing associated with the Hittite empire. The Luwian name is indicative of the cult of the Luwian Stag-god Kurunti in the region, of which important occurrences are found in the Hieroglyphic inscriptions on the Emirgazi stone altars, on the nearby Karaca Mountain. It may, however, be interpreted as a devotional choice that relates to the well-known Great King Kuruntiya, whose name and likeness were carved in the mid-thirteenth century on a rock face near Hatip, and whose royal seat was in Tarhuntassa. The seal and its inscription thus provide a first evidence of Hittite presence at the site for the second half of the thirteenth century or even the timespan after the end of the Hittite dynasty of Hattusa.
Together with two copper seals excavated in the previous campaigns and the first clay sealing carrying another Anatolian Hieroglyphic inscription found in other TKAP Fields, there is growing evidence that settlement at Türkmen-Karahöyük included an organized Hittite bureaucracy during the Late Bronze Age.
The publication of the biconvex seal has been submitted by L. d'Alfonso, C. Mora, M. R. Massa and J. F. Osborne to the journal Athenaeum and is expected to appear in early 2027.
The BIAT project is supported by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU, by the University of Pavia, and for the 2026 campaign by a grant of the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. TKAP is grateful for the support of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago, Bilkent University, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Merops Foundation, the Foundation for the Study and Preservation of Tells in the Prehistoric Old World, the American Schools of Overseas Research, and private sponsors Sok Nam and Catherine Novotny.
