Archaeology and City Planning in the Phrygian City at Kerkenes Dağ, Turkey

The immense Iron Age city at Kerkenes Dağ in central Turkey has the potential to expand our understanding of how cities function.  This pre-planned city was apparently built and occupied by Phrygians, of King Midas fame, in a brief period before the rise of the Persian Empire in the mid-6^th century BCE.  Over the past twenty years the site has been a used by archaeologists as a showcase of new technologies useful in reconstructing the plan of the city and the activities and interactions of the people who inhabited it.  Technologies, ranging from remote sensing for mapping buildings below the surface of the ground to computer simulations used to breathe new life into the static city plan by putting virtual people back into the long dead city, have been extensively applied or even pioneered at this site.  These technologies provide us with new ways to better understand planning in both ancient and modern cities.

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