The site of Bakr Awa is situated in north-eastern Iraq, in the Plain of Shahrizor. Excavations were undertaken in 1960/61by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and 2010/11 by the University of Heidelberg/Germany. Occupation layers from the beginning of the Early Bronze Age tothe Ottoman period were uncoveredin the lower city and on the citadel. Archaeological evidence from the secondmillennium B.C. shows the most intensive settlement activities and apparent prosperity at Bakr Awa. Several forms of pottery, small finds and architecture reflect dynamic processes of cultural and political transformation at this site located in an area of transition between northern and southern Mesopotamia and western Iran.

The site of Sirkeli Höyük in the province of Adana in modern Turkey is one of the largest settlement mounds in Plain Cilicia. In 2012, a geophysical survey revealed that the ancient settlement was not confined to the höyük, but also encompassed an extensive lower town to the southeast of the main mound. To gain information on the dating and development of this part of the settlement, an excavation area (“Sector F”) was opened at a spot where the magnetometry survey suggested the presence of a city gate. Since then, archaeological work in this area has continuously produced new discoveries that help us understand how this residential area and its inhabitants developed throughout the periods of its occupation. Especially the Iron Age (Neo Cilician period) levels, which cover approximately the 11th–7th centuries B.C., provide important information on how this urban center of the Neo Hittite kingdom Hiyawa/Que changed over time and to which extent historical events impacted the people living in one of its residential areas. This contribution discusses the stratigraphic sequence, the pottery, and the archaeobotanical remains discovered in Sector F during the 2013–2019 campaigns, and concludes with a synthesis of the development in this area from a historical perspective.

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