Papers by Yavuz Selim Güler
ANMED 22, 2024
This article investigates ten unpublished Early Byzantine bronze balance weights with unit marks ... more This article investigates ten unpublished Early Byzantine bronze balance weights with unit marks from the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum Anatolian Weights and Measures Collection. It aims to provide a supplementary catalog for the Late Roman and Byzantine weights in the Corpus Ponderum Antiquorum et Islamicorum (CPAI) series, prepared for the Pera Museum. We have not included Byzantine balance weights without denominational marks in the study, as it is challenging to assign these weights to a specific metrological system without the assistance of such marks.
Toplumsal Tarih, 2024
Bu makalede yeni bulgular ışığında mühür olarak tanımlanan eser yeniden
değerlendirilecektir. Jea... more Bu makalede yeni bulgular ışığında mühür olarak tanımlanan eser yeniden
değerlendirilecektir. Jean Claude Cheynet’in inceleyip mühür olarak tanımladığı eserin ön yüz ikonografisi, arka yüzündeki lejant ve fiziksel özellikleri yeniden incelenecek; dönemsel özellikleri göz önüne alınarak bilinen sikke ve mühürlerle karşılaştırılacaktır. Okuma hataları ve ikonografik tasvirdeki yorumlama hataları düzeltilecektir.
Adalya, 2023
The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum founded in 2005 stands out as an institution promo... more The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum founded in 2005 stands out as an institution promoting research on the history of measurement with one of its permanent collections: the Anatolian Weights and Measures Collection. The collection holds a wide range of steelyards dating to the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods. Among these objects, a Roman steelyard comes into prominence with its unique control inscriptions dated to the reign of Emperor Commodus (AD 180-192). This article introduces an unpublished steelyard, which shows how Romans maintained the integrity of their steelyards. It evaluates the physical characteristics and metrology of the steelyard, and provides an epigraphic analysis of the inscription compared with similar control inscriptions of weighing and measuring equipment from the Roman Imperial period. The inscription contributes to our understanding of the verification process of the steelyard by the officials after its manufacture.
The Journal of the Turkish Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 2023
In this article, we will examine mastoid-shaped weights, a somewhat underrepresented topic in the... more In this article, we will examine mastoid-shaped weights, a somewhat underrepresented topic in the study of historical metrology. Initially, we will review the research that has been ongoing since the nineteenth century, assessing its contributions to the field. Following this, we will address three central debates encountered in this research area, revolving around the chronology of mastoid-shaped weights, their metrological system, and their function, offering insights through examples that have been previously published. Then, we will investigate two previously unpublished mastoid-shaped weights found in the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum Anatolian Weights and Measures Collection, looking at them through the lenses of both chronology and metrology. Through this work, we hope to facilitate a deeper understanding of mastoid-shaped weights, supporting future identifications in Turkish museums and archaeological excavations and shedding light on their place in the historical metrology of the Eastern Mediterranean.
LIBRI: Journal of Epigraphy, Reviews and Translations, 2023
This article presents twelve lead balance weights from the Roman Imperial period at the Suna and ... more This article presents twelve lead balance weights from the Roman Imperial period at the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum. Oğuz Tekin previously published these weights in the catalog as part of the Corpus Ponderum Antiquorum et Islamicorum (CPAI) project, which documents the balance weights in museum collections in Türkiye. In the catalog, Tekin left the epigraphic autopsy and possible solutions for the marketplace officials mentioned on the weights for further research. For this reason, this article focuses on the epigraphy of some of these balance weights. This article reviews these inscriptions and provides addenda and corrigenda to them. The findings presented here significantly improve our comprehension of the names of the marketplace officials on the balance weights originating from ‘Western Asia Minor’. The names of these new marketplace officials are as follows: 1) P. Aelius Marcellus (corrigendum), 2) M. Aurelius Metrodoros, 3) M. Aurelius Neratius Philometor (corrigendum), 4) Flavius Aristion (corrigendum et addendum), 5) Tib. Flavius Meliton (corrigendum et addendum), 6) Iulius Claudius Modestus (corrigendum), 7) Iulius Hermolaos and Claudius Genesios (corrigen-dum), 8) Tatianus (corrigendum), 9) Apollonios, Varus, Hermippos, 10) P. Aelius Hermippos (corrigendum et ad-dendum), 11) Apollonios (corrigendum), 12) Tib. Claudius Varus (corrigendum).
Acta Classica Mediterranea, 2023
The Suna İnan and Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum Anatolian Weights and Measures Collection, formed ... more The Suna İnan and Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum Anatolian Weights and Measures Collection, formed by Suna Kıraç and İnan Kıraç as early as the 1980s, possesses a balance weight collection shedding light to the history of metrology in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. Although there was comprehensive research on the balance weights in the collection, some of the balance weights were not published due to the extent of the collection catalogs. This article introduces sixteen unpublished lead balance weights in the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum Anatolian Weights and Measures Collection. This research investigates the metrology of these unidentified weights in the Greek and Roman weight standards and discusses their relative chronologies by examining forms, designs, marks, and physical characteristics. In addition, the research provides evaluations about the life-cycle of the weights in antiquity revealing production, monitoring, usage and disposal processes.
Gephyra, 2023
The collection of lead seals of the Pera Museum consists of 17 unpublished pieces, which are date... more The collection of lead seals of the Pera Museum consists of 17 unpublished pieces, which are dated from the second half of the 7th century to the 13th century. Ten of the seventeen Byzantine lead seals of the Pera Museum collection mention the dignities and the offices of their owners. These offices range from the lower rank of a simple notary (no. 5) up to the highest office of the emperor himself (no. 9). There is only one seal related to the ecclesiastical administration, issued by a bishop (no. 2). Noteworthy are the seals of Georgios (no. 6), who has the uniquely attested office of an imperial apothekarios, as well as the 11th-century seal of Pharasmanes Apokapes, member of a notable Byzantine family of Armenian origin, by whom no other seals have been published so far. Another group of seals consists of the specimens (nos. 11-14 and possibly also no. 17) where only the name or the surname of their owner is mentioned. All these pieces are dated to the period between the second half of the 11th century and the 13th century. In the collection, there are two more iconographic seals (nos. 15-16) depicting on both sides holy figures without any inscription that mentions their owner, and finally, an unidentified seal (no. 17) (dated to the end of the 11th century).
The Journal of the Turkish Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 2022
The Collection of Anatolian Weights and Measures of the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museu... more The Collection of Anatolian Weights and Measures of the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Pera Museum has an extensive selection of objects that provides information about the economic, social, and cultural life in Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean regions. Part of the collection consists of equal arm balance scales and equipment of these scales. In this article, a bronze object from the collection, a scale pan dating to the Roman period, is evaluated. This previously unpublished object is compared to other known examples of similar pans to determine its function, date the object, and examine the stamp on the pan. Since this object is the only known example of pans with BANNAF inscriptions in Turkish museums, it will greatly contribute to the understanding of pans with BANNAF inscriptions that will appear in future archaeological studies and museum research in Türkiye.
Conference Presentations by Yavuz Selim Güler
Bizantolog Sinan Sertel Bizans Materyal Kültürü Webinar Etkinliği “Bizans’ta Günlük Yaşam”, 2023
Terazi ağırlıkları, Bizans materyal kültüründe az çalışılmış bir buluntu grubudur ve Bizans’taki ... more Terazi ağırlıkları, Bizans materyal kültüründe az çalışılmış bir buluntu grubudur ve Bizans’taki sosyal ve ekonomik hayata ışık tutmaktadır. Son 20 yıl içerisinde Bizans terazi ağırlıkları hakkında yayınlarda ciddi bir artış gözlenmesine karşın müzelerde ve arkeolojik kazılarda yapılan araştırmalar yeterli düzeye erişememiştir. Türkiye’de Bizans ağırlıkları üzerine kapsamlı bir çalışma ortaya çıkmamış: devlet müzeleri, özel müzeler, arkeolojik kazılar ve koleksiyonlardaki ağırlıklar katalog olarak yayınlanarak literatürdeki açık kapatılmaya çalışılmıştır. Ortaya koyulan çalışmalarda Bizans ağırlıklarının tarihsel ve arkeolojik değerlendirmesini yeterince irdelenmemiştir. Yayınlarda karşılaşılan en önemli sorunlar ise ağırlıkların tarihlemesi ve metrolojisi üzerinedir. Bu makalede karşılaşılan bu sorunlar, Erken Dönem Bizans terazi ağırlıkları (4-7. Yüzyıl) üzerinden değerlendirilecektir. Bizans terazi ağırlıklarının tarihlemesinde kullanılan yöntemler incelenecek ve kullanabilecek yeni yöntemler hakkında öneriler getirilecektir. Ayrıca Bizans terazi ağırlıklarının kütlelerinin anlaşılması için gerçekleştirilen metrolojik çalışmalar değerlendirilecek ve bu alanda yapılan çalışmalardaki sorunlar tartışılacaktır.
Shopping and Weighing Instruments in the Mediterranean World and Beyond Throughout History (AKMED), 2023
Steelyard is one of the outstanding inventions in the history of measurement. This invention lets... more Steelyard is one of the outstanding inventions in the history of measurement. This invention lets the users weigh heavier goods and commodities with simple equipment. There are several studies on the
history of steelyards and their typologies as well as comprehensive works on the steelyard weights. However, except few researches on the individual steelyards from the museums and excavations, there is inadequate literature discussing the steelyard inscriptions with comprehensive analyses. This paper intends to fill the lacuna in the literature by discussing inscriptions on the Roman and Byzantine steelyards indicating practices of control, monitoring and ownership. The paper examines the published examples of the copper-alloy steelyards with inscriptions from the 1st century CE to the 7th century CE from the excavations, museums and private collections in the world as well as few unpublished examples from the private museums in Türkiye. After an introduction to the working principle and the history of the steelyard, the paper discusses the chaîne opératoire of the steelyards from production process to disposal. The paper provides epigraphic autopsies for the inscriptions to reveal the “micro-histories” of these objects. It is supported with a comparative evaluation of the textual and archaeological sources as well as other instrumenta publica in the marketplace including balance scales and weights. In the end, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the steelyard inscriptions and contextualizes the production and usage of the steelyards.
Talks by Yavuz Selim Güler
"Ve Taş Kendi Ağırlığınca Düştü III" Pera Müzesi, 2022
Suna ve İnan Kıraç Vakfı Anadolu Ağırlık ve Ölçüleri Koleksiyonu’ndan bir seçkiyle hazırlanan Ağı... more Suna ve İnan Kıraç Vakfı Anadolu Ağırlık ve Ölçüleri Koleksiyonu’ndan bir seçkiyle hazırlanan Ağırlık ve Ölçü Sanatı sergisi ağırlık ve ölçü aletleri etrafında şekillenen ekonomiyi, kültürü, kültürlerarası sistem ilişkilerini, toplumsal güven dinamiklerini ve birimlerin standartlaşmasının yolculuğunu, MÖ 2. binyıldan günümüze uzanan bir süreçte uygarlıkların, tanrıların, tüccarların, usta ve çırakların gözünden keşfetmeyi amaçlıyor, dönüşümlerin ve sürekliliklerin izlenmesine olanak veriyor. Homeros’un İlyada Destanı’ndaki dizeden esinlenen “Ve Taş Ağırlığınca Düştü” başlıklı konuşma serisinde alanında uzman konuşmacılar serginin kapsadığı dönemler olan Asur Ticaret Kolonileri Çağı, Hititler, Helenistik Dönem; Roma, Bizans ve Osmanlı dönemlerindeki alışveriş, ticaret, ağırlık ve ölçü sistemlerine ışık tutuyor.
MÖ 2. Yüzyılda Doğu Akdeniz’de yaşanan siyasi değişimler, Roma’nın Anadolu’daki topluluklarla ekonomik ve kültürel ilişkilerinin gelişmesine sebebiyet vermiştir. MÖ 133 yılında Pergamon Krallığı’nın Roma’ya miras bırakılması ve Asia eyaletinin kurulmasıyla birlikte Batı Anadolu, Roma’nın bir parçası haline gelmiştir. Bankerler ve tüccarlar, Anadolu’da oluşan ekonomik fırsatları değerlendirerek zenginleşmişler ve Anadolu’daki Roma’nın önemli bir parçası konumuna gelmişlerdir.
Serinin üçüncü konuşmasında Romalı tüccarların ve bankerlerin Geç Cumhuriyet ve Roma İmparatorluk Döneminde Asia eyaletindeki ticari ve finansal faaliyetleri, örgütlenmeleri ve yerel topluluklarla ilişkileri tarihi, epigrafik, arkeolojik kaynaklar ışığında değerlendirilmiştir.
Marmara Eskiçağ Konuşmaları II, 2024
Bu konuşmada Geç Antik Çağ'da kullanılan terazi ağırlıklarının pazar yerlerinde kullanımı, tipolo... more Bu konuşmada Geç Antik Çağ'da kullanılan terazi ağırlıklarının pazar yerlerinde kullanımı, tipolojik gelişimi ve tarihlendirmelerindeki sorunlar incelenmiştir.
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Papers by Yavuz Selim Güler
değerlendirilecektir. Jean Claude Cheynet’in inceleyip mühür olarak tanımladığı eserin ön yüz ikonografisi, arka yüzündeki lejant ve fiziksel özellikleri yeniden incelenecek; dönemsel özellikleri göz önüne alınarak bilinen sikke ve mühürlerle karşılaştırılacaktır. Okuma hataları ve ikonografik tasvirdeki yorumlama hataları düzeltilecektir.
Conference Presentations by Yavuz Selim Güler
history of steelyards and their typologies as well as comprehensive works on the steelyard weights. However, except few researches on the individual steelyards from the museums and excavations, there is inadequate literature discussing the steelyard inscriptions with comprehensive analyses. This paper intends to fill the lacuna in the literature by discussing inscriptions on the Roman and Byzantine steelyards indicating practices of control, monitoring and ownership. The paper examines the published examples of the copper-alloy steelyards with inscriptions from the 1st century CE to the 7th century CE from the excavations, museums and private collections in the world as well as few unpublished examples from the private museums in Türkiye. After an introduction to the working principle and the history of the steelyard, the paper discusses the chaîne opératoire of the steelyards from production process to disposal. The paper provides epigraphic autopsies for the inscriptions to reveal the “micro-histories” of these objects. It is supported with a comparative evaluation of the textual and archaeological sources as well as other instrumenta publica in the marketplace including balance scales and weights. In the end, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the steelyard inscriptions and contextualizes the production and usage of the steelyards.
Talks by Yavuz Selim Güler
MÖ 2. Yüzyılda Doğu Akdeniz’de yaşanan siyasi değişimler, Roma’nın Anadolu’daki topluluklarla ekonomik ve kültürel ilişkilerinin gelişmesine sebebiyet vermiştir. MÖ 133 yılında Pergamon Krallığı’nın Roma’ya miras bırakılması ve Asia eyaletinin kurulmasıyla birlikte Batı Anadolu, Roma’nın bir parçası haline gelmiştir. Bankerler ve tüccarlar, Anadolu’da oluşan ekonomik fırsatları değerlendirerek zenginleşmişler ve Anadolu’daki Roma’nın önemli bir parçası konumuna gelmişlerdir.
Serinin üçüncü konuşmasında Romalı tüccarların ve bankerlerin Geç Cumhuriyet ve Roma İmparatorluk Döneminde Asia eyaletindeki ticari ve finansal faaliyetleri, örgütlenmeleri ve yerel topluluklarla ilişkileri tarihi, epigrafik, arkeolojik kaynaklar ışığında değerlendirilmiştir.
değerlendirilecektir. Jean Claude Cheynet’in inceleyip mühür olarak tanımladığı eserin ön yüz ikonografisi, arka yüzündeki lejant ve fiziksel özellikleri yeniden incelenecek; dönemsel özellikleri göz önüne alınarak bilinen sikke ve mühürlerle karşılaştırılacaktır. Okuma hataları ve ikonografik tasvirdeki yorumlama hataları düzeltilecektir.
history of steelyards and their typologies as well as comprehensive works on the steelyard weights. However, except few researches on the individual steelyards from the museums and excavations, there is inadequate literature discussing the steelyard inscriptions with comprehensive analyses. This paper intends to fill the lacuna in the literature by discussing inscriptions on the Roman and Byzantine steelyards indicating practices of control, monitoring and ownership. The paper examines the published examples of the copper-alloy steelyards with inscriptions from the 1st century CE to the 7th century CE from the excavations, museums and private collections in the world as well as few unpublished examples from the private museums in Türkiye. After an introduction to the working principle and the history of the steelyard, the paper discusses the chaîne opératoire of the steelyards from production process to disposal. The paper provides epigraphic autopsies for the inscriptions to reveal the “micro-histories” of these objects. It is supported with a comparative evaluation of the textual and archaeological sources as well as other instrumenta publica in the marketplace including balance scales and weights. In the end, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the steelyard inscriptions and contextualizes the production and usage of the steelyards.
MÖ 2. Yüzyılda Doğu Akdeniz’de yaşanan siyasi değişimler, Roma’nın Anadolu’daki topluluklarla ekonomik ve kültürel ilişkilerinin gelişmesine sebebiyet vermiştir. MÖ 133 yılında Pergamon Krallığı’nın Roma’ya miras bırakılması ve Asia eyaletinin kurulmasıyla birlikte Batı Anadolu, Roma’nın bir parçası haline gelmiştir. Bankerler ve tüccarlar, Anadolu’da oluşan ekonomik fırsatları değerlendirerek zenginleşmişler ve Anadolu’daki Roma’nın önemli bir parçası konumuna gelmişlerdir.
Serinin üçüncü konuşmasında Romalı tüccarların ve bankerlerin Geç Cumhuriyet ve Roma İmparatorluk Döneminde Asia eyaletindeki ticari ve finansal faaliyetleri, örgütlenmeleri ve yerel topluluklarla ilişkileri tarihi, epigrafik, arkeolojik kaynaklar ışığında değerlendirilmiştir.