Excavations at the Old City, Fortress, and Mound of Van: Work in 2018

Abstract

The citadel at the site of Van Fortress-Tushpa rises on a natural rock formation and consists of three main sections including the Van Fortress Mound in the north and the Old City of Van in the south and the Citadel of Tushpa. In the 2018 excavation season, excavations were carried out on the mound and the citadel. The rooms that are connected to the columned hall, which was found in trenches M25 and N25 on the Van Fortress Mound between 2015 and 2017, were completely exposed in the north-south direction. As we have encountered in other trenches in the previous years, Urartian architecture in this area also consists of two building levels, “Early Urartian” and “Late Urartian”. In 2018, ex¬cavations concentrated on the section between the Urartian buildings in trenches N20 and N21 to the west of the mound and the columned hall in the east at the highest part of the mound. Excavation work started in trenches N24 and M24 to the west of the columned hall, and levels belonging to the Medieval/Modern, Post-Urartian/Late Iron, and Urartian pe¬riods were exposed. The part of the citadel area that is known as “Širšini of Minua” was cleared and investigated through soundings in order to un-derstand its function.