There is no secret about this dam. The American archaeologist Guillermo Algaze included it in the non-intensive survey he made over the land to be flooded by five such dams. But there has been no major fieldwork project. I undertook a brief preliminary season in 1993 and there are at present limited projects being carried out by Catherine Abadie-Reynal of the French Institute in Istanbul and some further rescue excavation by the Gaziantep Museum. A superb mosaic floor in a wealthy villa overlooking the river.
Major fieldwork seems unlikely.
Major institutional funds were not forthcoming, however, and none of the businesses approached was willing to offer support. A little further work may well take place as construction inadevertently discloses new long-buried features. The dam, however, is scheduled for completion in 1998 but may be a little later - millenial. First the continued excavation, decade after decade at a handful of major city sites which are under no threat but absorb substantial resources. Classical archaeology has been criticised for devoting its energies for so long overwhelmingly to the towns and to the monumental buildings at that.