Visibility Graph Analysis and Monumentality in the Iron Age City at Kerkenes in Central Turkey James F. Osborne 1 , Geoffrey D. Summers 2 1 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 2 Koc ¸ University, Istanbul, Turkey This paper investigates symmetry and visualization at two monumental gateways excavated in the late 7th– 6th centuries B.C. Phrygian city on Mount Kerkenes (Turkish: Kerkenes Dag ˘ ) in central Turkey. One of these, the Cappadocia Gate, is one of seven city gates piercing the 7 km stone-built defenses; the other is the Monumental Entrance to the Palatial Complex. We use visibility graph analysis (VGA), a branch of space syntax analysis, and viewshed isovists to demonstrate that a similar visual and symbolic conception underlay the design and furnishing of these two gates. Both were conceived to signal different messages to people entering and exiting the gates, and both manipulated the visibility of cultic statuary to achieve this effect. Other contemporaneous monuments, like the Midas Monument in the Phrygian Highlands, shared many of the same principles. VGA reveals fundamental characteristics of the experience of Phrygian monumental architecture and also indicates a degree of city planning. Keywords: visuality, symmetry, monumentality, gate, Kerkenes, Phrygia, visibility graph analysis (VGA) Introduction The study of monumental buildings and sculpture in antiquity has enjoyed great attention in recent years. The vast literature on monumentality in archaeology includes volumes dedicated to the topic (Burger and Rosenswig 2012; Osborne in press a), examinations of the relationship between monuments, cultural mem- ory, and identity (Alcock 2002; Assmann 2011; Harmans ¸ah 2011a), calculations of energy expendi- ture in monument construction as an indicator of political power and social complexity (Abrams and Bolland 1999; Banning 2011; Kolb 1994; Moore 1996; Pollock 1999: 179; Trigger 1990), monumental architecture as an expression of individual agency (Joyce 2004; Pauketat 2000), and phenomeno- logical reconstructions of landscape monuments in Neolithic Europe especially (Bradley 1993, 1998; Scarre 2002a, 2002b, 2007; Tilley 1994, 1996), among other topics. These widely diverging approaches to ancient monuments and public buildings involve diverse understandings of what is meant by the terms ‘‘monument,’’ traditionally understood as a sculpture or building that is large, commemorative, and characterized by longevity. However, one thread that unites most of these studies is the notion that monuments are typically intended to be highly visible, since their efficacy is considered to be proportional to the degree to which they are encountered and experienced by their target audience (although this is not true in all cases) (Osborne in press b; cf., Wu 1995: 8). One aspect of monumentality that remains under- explored, particularly in the ancient Near East, is how monumental architecture and statuary in urban contexts were experienced by city dwellers who encountered them in their daily routines (Gilibert 2011; Harmans ¸ah 2011b; McMahon 2013). The close association between visibility and monuments is fortuitous for the modern researcher, both because visibility is an aspect of monumen- tality that is relatively accessible through digital modeling, and because such models offer an approximation, however rough, of the ancient experience of past built environments. One purpose of our study is to assess the degree of visual conceptualization involved in the construction of two monumental gateway structures excavated at the Iron Age (late 7th–6th centuries B.C.) city built on Kerkenes Dag ˘ in central Anatolia, includ- ing the two monumental sculptures of draped figures, large semi-iconic, anthropomorphic stone idols of a well-known Phrygian type, and formless aniconic steles that were erected within them (FIG. 1). Another is to address the question of how the gate and the cultic images within it were understood by the inhabitants of the city in terms of the arrangement of space and the symbolic content of the imagery. We refer to this combination of the formal properties of Correspondence to: James F. Osborne, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, Rhode Island Hall, 60 George Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02912. Email: james_osborne@brown.edu 292 ß Trustees of Boston University 2014 DOI 10.1179/0093469014Z.00000000089 Journal of Field Archaeology 2014 VOL. 39 NO.3