The city of Oinoanda is situated on a lofty ridge rising some 300 m. above the surrounding plain, at a point of obvious strategic value. It is a naturally strong site, but it lacks a generous natural water supply. The following investigation of the various water supply arrangements formed part of the survey at Oinoanda conducted by the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara under the direction of Mr. A. S. Hall, and with the cooperation and assistance of the Directorate of Antiquities of Turkey.

There is a number of small springs on the slopes below the city, and there may have been more, or at least different ones, in antiquity (Fig. 1). There were probably springs at the Leto sanctuary on the west slope of the acropolis and more certainly at the sanctuary of the Nymphs on the east slope, although these do not now function, in summer at least, and perhaps never produced a great deal of water. A third sanctuary, much further down the east slope, also has a small spring, and was apparently devoted to Apollo. However, the only spring which nowadays produces water enough to contribute significantly to the supply of a substantial community lies some 500 m. west of the west gate and over 130 m. lower down, where it would be exposed to any attacking force.

This study of the agora at Oinoanda is based on fieldwork done in 1975, 1977, 1981 and 1983 in the course of the survey of Oinoanda conducted by the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara under the direction of A. S. Hall, and with the cooperation and assistance of the Directorate of Antiquities at Ankara. The topographical survey of the site, which underlies Figures 1 and 2, was undertaken by students of the Northeast London Polytechnic. Since our survey permit allowed no excavation, what follows is based on the visible remains, and some important points remain uncertain. Nevertheless, the extent of the remains and the absence of later interference with the site allow for a substantial reconstruction of the buildings concerned and their chronology.

The agora of Oinoanda occupies an open space c. 87 m. by 27 m. in a depression between three low hills near the middle of the city area. To the north a spur runs out from the Acropolis hill, to the east is a small hill on the summit of which are rock cuttings for a small temple, and to the southwest is a hill which now carries a late antique fort. Between these three hills run the main streets of the city; to the south a road which skirts the hollow containing the Early Christian church Mm 3 to link up with the southern colonnaded street; to the west a much shorter road to the West Gate; and to the northeast another colonnaded street which leads between the two bath-buildings Mk 1 and Ml 1 in the direction of the Esplanade.

In two recent articles Donald Easton has responded to my arguments that fraud is involved in Schliemann's published reports of the discovery of what he called “Priam's Treasure”. The reader of our articles might easily form the opinion that we hold widely different views regarding Schliemann's credibility. In fact, we are in substantial agreement. Our differences are partly a matter of degree and partly methodological. Before discussing them in detail, however, it might be useful to outline the common ground that appears to have been established. After carefully examining Easton's articles I think it fair to say that we are agreed on the following points.

1. Schliemann's excavation notebooks are, for the most part, truthful and accurate records of the finds he made and where and when he made them. This is apparent to anyone who has examined these notebooks closely. Not only are Schliemann's reports archaeologically plausible, but, as Easton points out, “most of the detail is far too mundane to be worth falsifying.” Only a very small percentage of material in the excavation notebooks can seriously be thought to come under suspicion.

Only a few investigations on the composition of Anatolian copper and copper alloys have been carried out. Esin (1967) published analyses of 750 copper artifacts excavated from different Anatolian prehistoric sites and found that 600 of them were made of copper alloys containing deliberate quantities (i.e. more than 1%) of arsenic, lead or tin. Of these, 50% contain As between 1–6%, 25% As 1–3% and Sn 1–10% together, 20% Sn only (2–10%) and the remaining 5% Pb and/or Sn, As. The results of these analyses show that prehistoric Anatolian artifacts which are made of copper alloys have closely similar composition to Egyptian (Hedges, 1979) and Greek (Craddock, 1977) ones or at least their production technology appears to be the same. It is well known that As was added to copper around the third millennium B.C. by prehistoric metallurgists and Sn by the second millennium B.C.

The metal objects whose analyses are reported below were all found in the İkiztepe excavation during 1978 and 1979 (Alkım, 1979). İkiztepe was located on the shore of the Black Sea and Kızılırmak (Red River) during the prehistoric ages, though today it is 60 km. away from the Black Sea. It was the largest occupation site around Samsun and consisted of four different natural hüyüks. Two hüyüks numbered İkiztepe I and II have been excavated to date.

Gritille is the modern name for a mound lying on the right bank of the Euphrates River in southeast Turkey. Four years of excavation by a team led by Professor Richard S. Ellis of Bryn Mawr College concentrated on uncovering two main occupation levels bracketing the site's long sequence, the Neolithic and the Medieval. This article will focus on the last three seasons of excavation on top of the mound.

The mound of Gritille lies 10 km. upstream from Samsat (Greek Samosata, Arabic Sumaisāṭ), a major halting point on the medieval road from North Syria through Urfa (Greek Edessa, Arabic ar-Ruhā) to Malatya (Greek Melitene) and central eastern Anatolia. It was at Samsat that the crossing of the Euphrates was attempted. Samsat was also a stop for East–West traffic from Diyarbakır (Āmid) to Birecik (Bīra) and beyond, but the road through Nisibin (Nusaybin) and Harran (or Urfa) to Birecik seems to have been heavily travelled in the late Middle Islamic period (Fig. 1).

At the end of a passage in Strabo's Geography (XIII, 631), where he gives an account of the foundation of Kibyra and the extent of its power in the first century B.C., we find a succinct definition of the territory of the neighbouring Milyas (τῆς ὀμόρου Μιλυάδος):

In spite of its precision, Strabo's definition of the Milyas is inadequate in several ways. First, the geographical limits are set from south to north, but not from east to west. Secondly, it is only a brief footnote to his account of the Kibyratis, and lacks comparable information about the language, settlements and history of the inhabitants of this neighbouring region. Probably a dearth of information in Strabo's sources restricted him to a statement of what was agreed to be the core of a once extensive territory; earlier writers, such as Herodotus and Polybius, had referred to the Milyas in terms which show that it extended more widely in earlier centuries.

I. The Isaurians escaped notice for long centuries. They first come to mention in an episode of the year 322 B.C. when Perdiccas after subduing Cappadocia captured their city, described as strong and populous, of ancient opulence. Isaurians next emerge in the campaign that earned a triumphal cognomen for P. Servilius Vatia (cos. 79), the proconsul of Cilicia.

As the name of a region, Isauria was destined to acquire a wide extension. Early in the reign of Antoninus Pius it was applied to Cilicia Tracheia, as one of the three portions (with Pedias and Lycaonia) in the enlarged Cilician province. Before that, sundry problems infest the definition of Isauria. One of them that continues to perplex is conveyed by a passage in Pliny. After Cilicia and before proceeding to deal in summary fashion with Pisidae and Lycaonia, he inserts remarks about the “gens Isaurica” and the adjacent people called Homanades.

Four-wheeled wagons, which can be considered as one of the major breakthroughs of man's technological evolution and range over a considerable period of time, seem to appear as pictographic signs on inscribed clay tablets from Uruk in southern Mesopotamia during the fourth millennium B.C. These simple vehicles which are depicted with a roofed superstructure were probably drawn by a pair of bovids the existence of which is attested in the ancient Near East both by literary sources and osteologically. The evidence for four-wheeled wagons, this time without a roof, becomes extensive in the following millennium as represented on the “Standard of Ur”, the “Vulture Stele”, specimens of vase painting, sealing and seals, terracotta and metal wagon models and actual wagon remains. In the beginning of the third millennium B.C. they are depicted in military contexts, hence the name “battle cars”, whereas there is no evidence for a similar use towards the end of the period and following millennia. It seems that they were relegated to cult use in the later third millennium B.C. and continued to the early second millennium B.C.