A General Assessment of Direkli and Other Cave Excavations at Methodology and Practice

Abstract

Excavation sites are laboratories and data sources of archaeological science. Each archaeological site has its own specific excavation practices. Taking this situation into consideration, different excavation methods have been developed and continue to improve thanks to technological tools and equipment. Site dynamics play an important role in deciding an excavation method. As a result of excavations carried out in different systematics as “Horizontal Plan Excavations” and “Vertical Plan Excavations”, both the data to be obtained and the speed of accessing the data vary. Since the aim of “Horizontal Plan Excavations” is based on revealing together of life elements, on the same plane, in wide-plan squares, it provides that the settlement layers in the stratigraphy are clearly visible; in “Vertical Plan Excavations”, the target is to quickly detect cultural layers by excavating from top to bottom in several adjacent plan squares. “Step Trench” as “Vertical Plan Excavation” is methods applied in mounds, but it can also be applied in cave excavations. Since cave, large or small-scale mound and large-scale city excavations are among the rich resources of Anatolian archeology distinct excavation methods mentioned above, can be applied. The cultural deposit structure of settlements is an also important determinants in deciding which of these excavation methods to use. The aim of this article is to reveal the advantages of evaluating the data obtained when cave archeology, which is tried to be continued with a small number of excavations, is carried out with a horizontal plan excavation, specifically in the Direkli Cave. Excavations.