Sami PATACI

The subject of this article is three different archaeological sites in Gölgeli and Çobanköy, located in the central and Göle districts of Ardahan. The first of these archaeological sites is an Iron Age fortress located 3.6 km southwest of Gölgeli village from the central district and a settlement which was built just western side of this fortress. It is located in the vast land where the residents of Gölgeli carry our their livestock activities and one of the rare Iron Age finds in the central district of Ardahan. The latest finds of this archaeological area which must had been built in the second millennium BC according to the ceramics found in the field are dated between the 7th and 5th centuries BC. The second archaeological site that constitutes the subject of the article is the fortress of Çobanköy and its settlement located 26 km northeast of the center of Göle district in Ardahan. Two rows of fortification walls were detected in this archaeological site as one is interior and other one is exterior Wall and numerous Iron Age ceramics were observed on the land. The last archaeological site mentioned in the article is an Iron Age mound (höyük site) located at 1.15 km east of the fortress of Çobanköy. This mound is located just north of the settlement of Çobanköy and unfortunately is one of the archaeological sites in Ardahan that has been exposed to the most intense illicit excavations.

Keywords: Iron Age, fortress, mound, settlement, ceramic, Ardahan.