The purpose of this long, interim report is fourfold:

1. to provide a straightforward preliminary account of results of excavations in the Aşvan region in the years 1968–72;

2. to attempt an explanation of how and why the modern studies were carried out;

3. to offer a tentative demonstration of the relevance of the modern studies to archaeology (i.e. the excavation of objects and structures);

4. to outline, by using concrete examples, the general theory and methods, and thereby to demonstrate the feasibility of a co-ordinated approach.

The Keban Project was founded in 1968 under the aegis of the Middle East Technical University and with the co-operation of the Turkish Government. The stated aim of the Project was the rescue of historical materials from the area to be flooded by the Keban Dam, located just below the confluence of the Murat and the upper Euphrates (Fig. 1). The necessity of immediate action had been demonstrated largely through the efforts of the Faculty of Architecture and Restoration. In the area of the flood zone staff and students had carried out feasibility and recording surveys which then made clear both the nature and requirements of a rescue operation. Their results were published in Doomed by the Dam (METU, Ankara 1967). In 1968 a Committee (METU Keban Dam Area Salvage Project Executive Committee) was set up, under the chairmanship of the then Rector of METU, Dr. Kemal Kurdaş, to co-ordinate the efforts of those various teams, both Turkish and foreign, which had accepted the Committee's appeal for joint action in a rescue operation.