[1] It has been suggested that this was a Hittite site in the Bronze Age, with the underlying hill being the sacred Mount Daha.
According to Gurney, the textual evidence that he assembled strongly points towards an identification of Kusakli Hoyuk with the town of Zippalanda, as mentioned in Hittite documents.
The Iron Age city, apparently a planned urban space, was only briefly occupied and is extremely large.
[8] In 1926 and 1927 H. H. von der Osten and F. H. Blackburn conducted a preliminary survey of the site and made a map of the city defences.
[9] Also in 1926, the site was visited by Emil Forrer [10] In 1929 Erich Schmidt excavated at Kerkenes Dagh for around a week for the Oriental Institute of Chicago.