Kef Kalesi İlk Dönem Kazıları: 1964-1972 Yılları

English (OpenAlex)

Urartian King II. Kef Castle, built during the Rusa period (685-645 BC), is important as it reveals the wealth and power of the kingdom. Kef Castle is located on a volcanic hill overlooking Lake Van at an altitude of 2300, at the foot of Süphan Mountain, within the borders of Bitlis Province, Adilcevaz District. The castle is located on an important transit route leading to the Van Lake basin. The first excavations in Kef Castle were carried out between 1964 and 1972. The importance of the castle has been revealed with the archaeological data of architectural and literary value identified in these studies. Archaeological excavations, which started in 1964, continued regularly for a total of 8 seasons until 1972. The area around the northern and southern walls of the castle was cleaned and very few small finds were found throughout all these excavation seasons. It was seen that some rooms of the castle were completely empty. During the excavations, it was discovered that there were 3 storage rooms connected to each other with doors and more than 170 pithoi in these rooms. It was observed that there were cuneiform writings on the upper part of the pithoi found here. The data in question were among the important findings of the early excavations. In our study, the findings obtained during the excavations carried out between 1964 and 1972 will be examined. Key Words: Urartian, Kef Castle, II. Russia