Perge in Pamphylia. New Evidence of Parha on the River Kastraja. Report on the Excavation Campaign of 2008

Abstract

In a concluding campaign in 2008 on the Acropolis of Perge, two sites with a scarcely disturbed sequence of layers from the Chalcolithic to the early Byzantine era were investigated. Above all, the Bronze Age layers and to a lesser extent the early and middle Iron Age layers – along with the finds and walls they contain – were dated on the basis of 14C-datings from botanical samples and bones. The Bronze Age layers, documented for the first time at Perge, in conjunction with the local geomorphological structure indicate that further well-preserved Bronze and early Iron Age features are likely to be found east of these excavated sections in an area measuring some 25 m × 70 m. A large, carefully constructed hearth altar of clay with a libation appliance from the phase LH III C together with various cult objects and architectural remains from the middle and late Bronze Age attest a socially and culturally differentiated settlement on the table mountain, whose identity with the documented, Hittite era Parha on the river Kastraja is now highly probable.