Page - 9 -Scan 17 of 28
Printed: MINISTÈRE DES AFFAIRES ÉTRANGÈRES
Printed: LIBERTÉ·ÉGALITÉ·FRATERNITÉ / RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE
of the Bairam, the work was carried through to completion with satisfactory results.
On the North end of the hill, the only part examined by Delaporte, we carried out a series of soundings and deep excavations at the site of the palace and its periphery. / We were able to establish that stratigraphically speaking, the sculptures depicting lions in the round as well as the bas-reliefs found accidentally on the tepe prior to Delaporte's excavations, / belong to different constructions both in the topographic and chronological sense. It was customary on the tepe to reuse sculptures recovered from earlier monuments. / This observation was to prove important for explaining the group of sculptures uncovered by Delaporte in the palace he attributed to the Neo-Hittite period.
From the stratigraphic point of view, the dating proposed by Delaporte for the palace and the so-called Lion Gate is correct. / It is a complex of constructions unfortunately insufficiently cleared by him and subsequently completely destroyed by the natives, which is certainly later than the Imperial Hittite period of the 15th-13th centuries.
here By deepening/the investigations, we discovered 1m 15 lower than the so-called Lion Gate,/a monumental gate strictly identical, but of slightly smaller dimensions. / The two monuments are exactly superimposed. / The so-called Lion Gate uncovered by Delaporte, as the topographic plan shows, is merely the reconstruction of an earlier gate destroyed during a fire attested by thick
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain
