The Kerkenes Project x This Will Destroy You "The Mighty Rio Grande"

The Kerkenes Project is an archeological effort that focuses on an ancient city that met its fiery end toward the first half of the 6th century BC in the Kerkenes Dağı region of central Turkey. Archeologist Seppi Lehner reached out to us and This Will Destroy You last year to talk about this fascinating project and his affinity toward the band. Graciously, we found a way to bring both passions together via a time-lapse film himself and his colleagues put together of their initial phases of excavation (all to the sounds of "The Mighty Rio Grande"). Give yourself 4 minutes to take a break today and check out some of their work. Best of luck to Seppi and his group moving forward!

The ancient city at Kerkenes Dağı, located in central Turkey in the province of Yozgat, is the focus of the Kerkenes Project. The city was built and inhabited for a couple generations in the late 7th and first half of the 6th centuries BC. It met a final fiery destruction and was abandoned, most likely as a result of the conflict between Cyrus the Great of the Persian Empire and King Croesus of the Lydian Empire in the 540s BC, a conflict that led to the destruction of cities across Anatolia such as Gordion and Sardis. The ancient name of the city is unknown though it is likely that it can be equated with the city of Pteria mentioned briefly in ancient sources. The combination of precision excavations and the use of new technologies have typified the work of the Kerkenes Project. Thanks to this, the project and the site have gained international recognition, and the project’s discoveries have significantly changed our knowledge of this important historical period. This research has also contributed to our understanding of cities more broadly in the past, present, and future. None of this would have been possible without the Kerkenes Project sponsors and team members over the years. As we move forward we thank them for their ongoing generous support and always welcome new partners to join with us in the long-term investigations of the ancient city at Kerkenes Dağı. This project is sponsored by the University of Central Florida and funded in part by the Merops Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Cinematography: Joseph W. Lehner Music: "The Mighty Rio Grande" by This Will Destroy You For more information, please visit KerkenesProject.org.