WANAT. Western Anatolia in the Second Millennium BCE: Recent Developments and Future Prospects, 2024
This peer-reviewed edited volume brings together the results of a diverse group of international ... more This peer-reviewed edited volume brings together the results of a diverse group of international researchers conducting new fieldwork, applying new approaches, and making new interpretations about the archaeology of Middle and Late Bronze Age western Anatolia. The territory is huge, and it shows considerable regional diversity. What makes western Anatolian cultures different from their neighbors? Is it possible to identify discrete subregions clearly? And what trajectories of local cultural change and regional interaction did they follow? In addressing these and many other questions, the contributors to this volume provide fresh overviews of current states of research, demonstrating material and chronological synchronicities and/or gaps in knowledge that stretch across the broad territory of western Anatolia, just as they encourage further research into defining regional and sub-regional specificities. Such specificities suggest that the area should not be thought of as one monolithic cultural whole. Rather, they allude to a collection of related yet discrete units, whose shared commonalities stem from participation in overlapping spheres of communication, exchange, and political interaction, justifying their consideration together in a volume like this one.
WANAT. MÖ İkinci Binyılda Batı Anadolu: Son Gelişmeler ve Geleceğe Dair Görüşler, 2024
Hakemlerce değerlendirilerek yayına hazırlanan bu kitap, Orta ve Geç Tunç Çağı Batı Anadolu arkeo... more Hakemlerce değerlendirilerek yayına hazırlanan bu kitap, Orta ve Geç Tunç Çağı Batı Anadolu arkeolojisine yönelik yeni çalışmalar yürüten, yeni yaklaşımlar benimseyip yeni yorumlar ortaya koyan çeşitli uluslararası araştırmacıların sonuçlarını bir araya getiriyor. Söz konusu alan oldukça büyük olmakla birlikte önemli ölçüde bir bölgesel çeşit- liliğe de sahip. Batı Anadolu kültürlerini komşularından ayıran şey ne? Belirli alt bölgeleri açık bir şekilde tanım- lamak mümkün mü? Bu kültürler, yerel kültürel değişim ve bölgesel etkileşim bağlamında hangi yolları izlediler? Bu ve bunun gibi daha pek çok meseleye ışık tutmaya çalışan araştırmacılar, Batı Anadolu’nun geniş toprakla- rına yayılan maddi ve kronolojik eş zamanlılığı ve/veya bilgilerimizdeki eksiklikleri ortaya koyarak araştırmala- rın mevcut durumuna ilişkin güncel bir değerlendirme sunarken, bölgesel ve alt bölgesel farklılıkların tanımlan- masına yönelik gelecek araştırmalara da yol gösteriyor. Bu farklılıklar, bölgenin yekpare bir kültürel bütün olarak ele alınmaması gerektiğini ortaya koyuyor. Bunlar, daha çok birbiriyle iç içe geçen iletişim, değiş tokuş ve politik etkileşim alanlarına dahil olmaları nedeniyle müşterekle- şen, ilişkili ancak farklı olan birimlerin göstergesidir ve bu nedenle bu çalışmaya dahil edildiler.
Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevre ve Toplum, 2022
Roosevelt, C. H., and J. Haldon, eds. 2022. Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevre ve Toplum. Koç Ü... more Roosevelt, C. H., and J. Haldon, eds. 2022. Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevre ve Toplum. Koç Üniversitesi Anadolu Medeniyetleri Araştırma Merkezi (ANAMED) Serisi. İstanbul: Koç Üniversitesi Yayınları. ISBN: 9786258022308
Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia, 2021
Roosevelt, C. H., and J. Haldon, eds. 2021. Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia.... more Roosevelt, C. H., and J. Haldon, eds. 2021. Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia. Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) Series. Istanbul: Koç University Press. ISBN: 9786057685704.
Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public, 2021
Roosevelt, C. H., ed. 2021. Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public. Ko... more Roosevelt, C. H., ed. 2021. Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public. Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) Series. Istanbul: Koç University Press. ISBN 9786057685377
Tekin, O., C. H. Roosevelt, and E. Akyürek, eds. 2021. Tarih Boyunca Anadolu’da Hayırseverlik. İs... more Tekin, O., C. H. Roosevelt, and E. Akyürek, eds. 2021. Tarih Boyunca Anadolu’da Hayırseverlik. İstanbul: Vehbi Koç Vakfı. ISBN 9786057685667
Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu Erişimi İçin Anadolu’nun Geçmişinin Haritalandırılması, 2020
Roosevelt, C. H., ed. 2020. Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu Erişimi İçin Anadolu’nun Geçmişinin... more Roosevelt, C. H., ed. 2020. Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu Erişimi İçin Anadolu’nun Geçmişinin Haritalandırılması. İstanbul: Anadolu Medeniyetleri Araştırma Merkezi. ISBN 9786057685537
Tekin, O., C. H. Roosevelt, and E. Akyürek, eds. 2020. Philanthropy in Anatolia through the Ages.... more Tekin, O., C. H. Roosevelt, and E. Akyürek, eds. 2020. Philanthropy in Anatolia through the Ages. Istanbul: Vehbi Koç Foundation.
This article explores a little-known archive of historical aerial photographs curated by the General Directorate of Mapping of the Republic of Türkiye’s Ministry of Defense and discusses the historical context of their production by US Navy aerial photography squadrons in the 1950s. While the images themselves enable a technical analysis of the method of their collection, contemporary military manuals, domain-specific magazines and newsletters, and eyewitness accounts of how similar photographs were captured fill out the contexts of their production for cartographic purposes, with information about the aircraft involved, their cameras and camera configurations, and mission characteristics. Continuing sections situate the aerial surveys within the framework of US-led initiatives in mapping NATO territories following World War II. As one example of what must have been many special mapping agreements made between NATO countries at this time, the US cartographic surveys over Türkiye discussed here are an expression of postwar realignments of global power, put to the purposes of containment-based security preparations and infrastructure development, and neatly intertwining American military and commercial interests early in the Cold War.
The study of Ottoman lakes and wetlands from the perspective of management and conservation is an emerging field. Scholars have explored Ottoman strategies for managing agricultural and extractive landscapes, yet detailed investigation of socio-political responses to dynamic wetlands, particularly during periods of drastic climate shifts, requires deeper investigation. Our research on wetlands and lakes moves from the purview of waqfs (pious foundations) to the emergence of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA). By examining the shifting perspectives of institutional authority and community responses to it from the early modern period to the nineteenth century, we discuss the complexities of wetland management in the Marmara Lake Basin within the sancak of Saruhan (contemporary Manisa) in western Anatolia. We argue that intimate knowledge of this specific ecosystem played a critical role in mitigating attempts at reclamation and land grabbing and ultimately in developing legal structures of and policies for Ottoman conservation strategies. We situate our discussion within the paradigm of environing made possible by detailed longue-durée archival narratives; these micro-histories afford a dynamic perspective into non-linear responses to ecological and political changes and provide a local lens into the scalar impacts of human agency.
Here we present the results of stable carbon isotope (δ13C) analysis on charred crop seeds from the Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı in western Anatolia. The δ13C data, in conjunction with some 14C-dated seeds, allows for insights into the water availability for crops and a comparison among taxa, enabling a relatively high-resolution investigation of field agriculture, crop cultivation, and crop and field management around the site. From this data, we discuss agroeconomic structures and local paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions in the local micro-region, as well as more generally for western Anatolia. A total of 35 single carbonized seeds were analysed, including seeds of wheat, barley, bitter vetch, pulses, and grape. Almost all samples date to the first half of the second millennium BC, based on radiocarbon dating of 24 seeds from the sample assemblage. The δ13C data demonstrates that crops at Kaymakçı were generally moderately to well-watered, and water availability was likely not a limiting factor for growth. This water availability is unlikely to result from artificial and man-made irrigation systems, however, but rather crop-management and field-location choices, taking advantage of the humid conditions along the shores of Lake Marmara and in surrounding wetland environs. A seeming paradox is the ubiquity of risk buffering crops (barley and bitter vetch) despite a supposed abundance of water availability. This evidence for mixed approaches further underlines the importance of versatility in local agricultural systems and their underlying structures, favored and implemented by local communities.
Recent research has unveiled the immense potential of orthorectifying small datasets of scanned historical aerial imagery for multi-temporal environmental and social science research on limited areas such as single landforms, sites, and cities. This article takes this approach further and presents methods that aim for accurate yet efficient orthorectification of large datasets of archival aerial imagery for landscape and regional-scale research. The study draws from a colossal archive in Türkiye, working with over 850 scanned historical aerial photographs at photographic scales of 1:60,000 and 1:30,000 to showcase a workflow that combines structure-from-motion (SfM) and auto-registration techniques to rectify and mosaic the images. This endeavor covers an area spanning 3,600 km 2 , and produces a 1:60,000 scale orthomosaic and a 1:30,000 rectified mosaic with spatial resolutions of 1.4 m and 0.8 m, respectively. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values reflect sensitivity to accuracy-efficiency trade-offs of the approach. The results thus demonstrate the potential of these combined methods for producing large coverage orthomosaics for regional-scale analyses, while underscoring the challenges that future research must address.
Ceramics are one of the commonest sources of archaeological information, yet their abundance often confounds documentation and analysis. This article presents a new method of documenting and analyzing ceramics that includes laser-aided profile measurement to capture ceramic shape and other information quickly and accurately, resulting in digital outputs suitable for both publication and morphometric analysis. Linked software and database solutions enable unsupervised machine learning to cluster shapes based on similarity, eventually assisting typological analysis. Following an overview of current practices in ceramic recording and both standard and computational shape classification analyses, the new approach is discussed in full as a documentary and analytical tool. A case study from the Middle and Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı in western Anatolia demonstrates the benefits of the recording method and helps show that a combination of automated and manual shape clustering techniques currently remains the best practice in ceramic shape classification.
The Middle and Late Bronze Ages of western Anatolia (modern Turkey) remains poorly understood in ... more The Middle and Late Bronze Ages of western Anatolia (modern Turkey) remains poorly understood in comparison with its Mycenaean and Hittite neighbours, especially in agricultural economies and land use. Kaymakçı is the largest Middle and Late Bronze Age citadel excavated to date in western Anatolia and new archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data from the site presented here shed new light on regional agricultural economies and land use. Agricultural practices at Kaymakçı focused on barley and bitter vetch farming and pig, caprine, and cattle husbandry within a diverse and extensive economic system that made substantial use of wild plants and animals for food, technology, and fuel. Goats and pigs were managed primarily for meat, while sheep and cattle were managed to produce a range of secondary products. Wood charcoal analysis reconstructs both deciduous and evergreen oak woodlands, which also dominate the contemporary landscape. In regional perspective, Kaymakçı is most similar ...
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 36, 102800., 2020
Archaeobotanical analysis at Kaymakçı, a second-millennium BCE site in western Turkey, gives the ... more Archaeobotanical analysis at Kaymakçı, a second-millennium BCE site in western Turkey, gives the first evidence for Bronze Age agricultural practices in central western Anatolia, and represents one of a very few contemporary datasets for western Anatolia as a whole. Inhabitants of the site adopted a diversified agricultural system, with major crops including barley, free-threshing wheat, bitter vetch, chickpea, and grape. Spatial analysis of crop taxa suggests differential distribution of wheat and chickpea across the site, while initial results of diachronic analysis indicate a narrowing of wheat agriculture over time. The archaeobotanical assemblage of Kaymakçı is compared to those of contemporary sites throughout the Aegean and Anatolia, where it represents an intermediate position, an apparent hybrid of Aegean and Anatolian agricultural practices. This study provides a valuable new perspective on agriculture of the Late Bronze Age in a particularly understudied region of the eastern Mediterranean.
Digital technologies have been at the heart of fieldwork at the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project (... more Digital technologies have been at the heart of fieldwork at the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project (KAP) since its beginning in 2014. All data on this excavation are born-digital, from textual, photographic, and videographic descriptions of contexts and objects in a database and excavation journals to 2D plans and profiles as well as 3D volumetric recording of contexts. The integration of structure from motion (SfM) modeling and its various products has had an especially strong impact on how project participants interact with the archaeological record during and after excavation. While this technology opens up many new possibilities for data recording, analysis, and presentation, it can also present challenges when the requirements of the recording system come into conflict with an archaeologist's training and experience. Here, we consider the benefits and costs of KAP's volumetric recording system. We explore the ways that recording protocols for image-based modeling change ho...
3D data captured from archaeological excavations are frequently left to speak for themselves. 3D ... more 3D data captured from archaeological excavations are frequently left to speak for themselves. 3D models of objects are uploaded to online viewing platforms, the tops or bottoms of surfaces are visualised in 2.5D, or both are reduced to 2D representations. Representations of excavation units, in particular, often remain incompletely processed as raw surface outputs, unable to be considered individual entities that represent the individual, volumetric units of excavation. Visualisations of such surfaces, whether as point clouds or meshes, are commonly viewed as an end result in and of themselves, when they could be considered the beginning of a fully volumetric way of recording and understanding the 3D archaeological record. In describing the creation of an archaeologically focused recording routine and a 3D-focused data processing workflow, this article provides the means to fill the void between excavation-unit surfaces, thereby producing an individual volumetric entity that corresp...
This contribution presents the results of a pilot study of earthen materials excavated at the Middle to Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, located in western Anatolia. It argues that systematic collection and analysis of fragmentary and difficult‐to‐identify earthen materials is challenging, yet crucial. These materials inform on activities of which traces are preserved in the archaeological record but which have been largely under‐ ‐researched. Flourishing studies on earthen findings foreground architectural materials, such as mudbrick, and well‐preserved features and objects. However, earthen objects and architectural features were utilized more widely than in building architecture and only a small portion of excavated sites has good preservation. We, therefore, present the different categories of earthen materials discovered at Kaymakçı, specifically ar‐ chitecture, installations, and portable items. Our work demonstrates that by incorporating new knowledge of archaeological remains at the site and re‐studying the earthen assemblage it is possible to gain a better understanding of the morphological, functional, and social aspects of this dataset.
WANAT. Western Anatolia in the Second Millennium BCE: Recent Developments and Future Prospects, 2024
This peer-reviewed edited volume brings together the results of a diverse group of international ... more This peer-reviewed edited volume brings together the results of a diverse group of international researchers conducting new fieldwork, applying new approaches, and making new interpretations about the archaeology of Middle and Late Bronze Age western Anatolia. The territory is huge, and it shows considerable regional diversity. What makes western Anatolian cultures different from their neighbors? Is it possible to identify discrete subregions clearly? And what trajectories of local cultural change and regional interaction did they follow? In addressing these and many other questions, the contributors to this volume provide fresh overviews of current states of research, demonstrating material and chronological synchronicities and/or gaps in knowledge that stretch across the broad territory of western Anatolia, just as they encourage further research into defining regional and sub-regional specificities. Such specificities suggest that the area should not be thought of as one monolithic cultural whole. Rather, they allude to a collection of related yet discrete units, whose shared commonalities stem from participation in overlapping spheres of communication, exchange, and political interaction, justifying their consideration together in a volume like this one.
WANAT. MÖ İkinci Binyılda Batı Anadolu: Son Gelişmeler ve Geleceğe Dair Görüşler, 2024
Hakemlerce değerlendirilerek yayına hazırlanan bu kitap, Orta ve Geç Tunç Çağı Batı Anadolu arkeo... more Hakemlerce değerlendirilerek yayına hazırlanan bu kitap, Orta ve Geç Tunç Çağı Batı Anadolu arkeolojisine yönelik yeni çalışmalar yürüten, yeni yaklaşımlar benimseyip yeni yorumlar ortaya koyan çeşitli uluslararası araştırmacıların sonuçlarını bir araya getiriyor. Söz konusu alan oldukça büyük olmakla birlikte önemli ölçüde bir bölgesel çeşit- liliğe de sahip. Batı Anadolu kültürlerini komşularından ayıran şey ne? Belirli alt bölgeleri açık bir şekilde tanım- lamak mümkün mü? Bu kültürler, yerel kültürel değişim ve bölgesel etkileşim bağlamında hangi yolları izlediler? Bu ve bunun gibi daha pek çok meseleye ışık tutmaya çalışan araştırmacılar, Batı Anadolu’nun geniş toprakla- rına yayılan maddi ve kronolojik eş zamanlılığı ve/veya bilgilerimizdeki eksiklikleri ortaya koyarak araştırmala- rın mevcut durumuna ilişkin güncel bir değerlendirme sunarken, bölgesel ve alt bölgesel farklılıkların tanımlan- masına yönelik gelecek araştırmalara da yol gösteriyor. Bu farklılıklar, bölgenin yekpare bir kültürel bütün olarak ele alınmaması gerektiğini ortaya koyuyor. Bunlar, daha çok birbiriyle iç içe geçen iletişim, değiş tokuş ve politik etkileşim alanlarına dahil olmaları nedeniyle müşterekle- şen, ilişkili ancak farklı olan birimlerin göstergesidir ve bu nedenle bu çalışmaya dahil edildiler.
Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevre ve Toplum, 2022
Roosevelt, C. H., and J. Haldon, eds. 2022. Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevre ve Toplum. Koç Ü... more Roosevelt, C. H., and J. Haldon, eds. 2022. Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevre ve Toplum. Koç Üniversitesi Anadolu Medeniyetleri Araştırma Merkezi (ANAMED) Serisi. İstanbul: Koç Üniversitesi Yayınları. ISBN: 9786258022308
Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia, 2021
Roosevelt, C. H., and J. Haldon, eds. 2021. Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia.... more Roosevelt, C. H., and J. Haldon, eds. 2021. Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia. Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) Series. Istanbul: Koç University Press. ISBN: 9786057685704.
Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public, 2021
Roosevelt, C. H., ed. 2021. Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public. Ko... more Roosevelt, C. H., ed. 2021. Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public. Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) Series. Istanbul: Koç University Press. ISBN 9786057685377
Tekin, O., C. H. Roosevelt, and E. Akyürek, eds. 2021. Tarih Boyunca Anadolu’da Hayırseverlik. İs... more Tekin, O., C. H. Roosevelt, and E. Akyürek, eds. 2021. Tarih Boyunca Anadolu’da Hayırseverlik. İstanbul: Vehbi Koç Vakfı. ISBN 9786057685667
Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu Erişimi İçin Anadolu’nun Geçmişinin Haritalandırılması, 2020
Roosevelt, C. H., ed. 2020. Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu Erişimi İçin Anadolu’nun Geçmişinin... more Roosevelt, C. H., ed. 2020. Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu Erişimi İçin Anadolu’nun Geçmişinin Haritalandırılması. İstanbul: Anadolu Medeniyetleri Araştırma Merkezi. ISBN 9786057685537
Tekin, O., C. H. Roosevelt, and E. Akyürek, eds. 2020. Philanthropy in Anatolia through the Ages.... more Tekin, O., C. H. Roosevelt, and E. Akyürek, eds. 2020. Philanthropy in Anatolia through the Ages. Istanbul: Vehbi Koç Foundation.
This article explores a little-known archive of historical aerial photographs curated by the General Directorate of Mapping of the Republic of Türkiye’s Ministry of Defense and discusses the historical context of their production by US Navy aerial photography squadrons in the 1950s. While the images themselves enable a technical analysis of the method of their collection, contemporary military manuals, domain-specific magazines and newsletters, and eyewitness accounts of how similar photographs were captured fill out the contexts of their production for cartographic purposes, with information about the aircraft involved, their cameras and camera configurations, and mission characteristics. Continuing sections situate the aerial surveys within the framework of US-led initiatives in mapping NATO territories following World War II. As one example of what must have been many special mapping agreements made between NATO countries at this time, the US cartographic surveys over Türkiye discussed here are an expression of postwar realignments of global power, put to the purposes of containment-based security preparations and infrastructure development, and neatly intertwining American military and commercial interests early in the Cold War.
The study of Ottoman lakes and wetlands from the perspective of management and conservation is an emerging field. Scholars have explored Ottoman strategies for managing agricultural and extractive landscapes, yet detailed investigation of socio-political responses to dynamic wetlands, particularly during periods of drastic climate shifts, requires deeper investigation. Our research on wetlands and lakes moves from the purview of waqfs (pious foundations) to the emergence of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA). By examining the shifting perspectives of institutional authority and community responses to it from the early modern period to the nineteenth century, we discuss the complexities of wetland management in the Marmara Lake Basin within the sancak of Saruhan (contemporary Manisa) in western Anatolia. We argue that intimate knowledge of this specific ecosystem played a critical role in mitigating attempts at reclamation and land grabbing and ultimately in developing legal structures of and policies for Ottoman conservation strategies. We situate our discussion within the paradigm of environing made possible by detailed longue-durée archival narratives; these micro-histories afford a dynamic perspective into non-linear responses to ecological and political changes and provide a local lens into the scalar impacts of human agency.
Here we present the results of stable carbon isotope (δ13C) analysis on charred crop seeds from the Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı in western Anatolia. The δ13C data, in conjunction with some 14C-dated seeds, allows for insights into the water availability for crops and a comparison among taxa, enabling a relatively high-resolution investigation of field agriculture, crop cultivation, and crop and field management around the site. From this data, we discuss agroeconomic structures and local paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions in the local micro-region, as well as more generally for western Anatolia. A total of 35 single carbonized seeds were analysed, including seeds of wheat, barley, bitter vetch, pulses, and grape. Almost all samples date to the first half of the second millennium BC, based on radiocarbon dating of 24 seeds from the sample assemblage. The δ13C data demonstrates that crops at Kaymakçı were generally moderately to well-watered, and water availability was likely not a limiting factor for growth. This water availability is unlikely to result from artificial and man-made irrigation systems, however, but rather crop-management and field-location choices, taking advantage of the humid conditions along the shores of Lake Marmara and in surrounding wetland environs. A seeming paradox is the ubiquity of risk buffering crops (barley and bitter vetch) despite a supposed abundance of water availability. This evidence for mixed approaches further underlines the importance of versatility in local agricultural systems and their underlying structures, favored and implemented by local communities.
Recent research has unveiled the immense potential of orthorectifying small datasets of scanned historical aerial imagery for multi-temporal environmental and social science research on limited areas such as single landforms, sites, and cities. This article takes this approach further and presents methods that aim for accurate yet efficient orthorectification of large datasets of archival aerial imagery for landscape and regional-scale research. The study draws from a colossal archive in Türkiye, working with over 850 scanned historical aerial photographs at photographic scales of 1:60,000 and 1:30,000 to showcase a workflow that combines structure-from-motion (SfM) and auto-registration techniques to rectify and mosaic the images. This endeavor covers an area spanning 3,600 km 2 , and produces a 1:60,000 scale orthomosaic and a 1:30,000 rectified mosaic with spatial resolutions of 1.4 m and 0.8 m, respectively. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values reflect sensitivity to accuracy-efficiency trade-offs of the approach. The results thus demonstrate the potential of these combined methods for producing large coverage orthomosaics for regional-scale analyses, while underscoring the challenges that future research must address.
Ceramics are one of the commonest sources of archaeological information, yet their abundance often confounds documentation and analysis. This article presents a new method of documenting and analyzing ceramics that includes laser-aided profile measurement to capture ceramic shape and other information quickly and accurately, resulting in digital outputs suitable for both publication and morphometric analysis. Linked software and database solutions enable unsupervised machine learning to cluster shapes based on similarity, eventually assisting typological analysis. Following an overview of current practices in ceramic recording and both standard and computational shape classification analyses, the new approach is discussed in full as a documentary and analytical tool. A case study from the Middle and Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı in western Anatolia demonstrates the benefits of the recording method and helps show that a combination of automated and manual shape clustering techniques currently remains the best practice in ceramic shape classification.
The Middle and Late Bronze Ages of western Anatolia (modern Turkey) remains poorly understood in ... more The Middle and Late Bronze Ages of western Anatolia (modern Turkey) remains poorly understood in comparison with its Mycenaean and Hittite neighbours, especially in agricultural economies and land use. Kaymakçı is the largest Middle and Late Bronze Age citadel excavated to date in western Anatolia and new archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data from the site presented here shed new light on regional agricultural economies and land use. Agricultural practices at Kaymakçı focused on barley and bitter vetch farming and pig, caprine, and cattle husbandry within a diverse and extensive economic system that made substantial use of wild plants and animals for food, technology, and fuel. Goats and pigs were managed primarily for meat, while sheep and cattle were managed to produce a range of secondary products. Wood charcoal analysis reconstructs both deciduous and evergreen oak woodlands, which also dominate the contemporary landscape. In regional perspective, Kaymakçı is most similar ...
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 36, 102800., 2020
Archaeobotanical analysis at Kaymakçı, a second-millennium BCE site in western Turkey, gives the ... more Archaeobotanical analysis at Kaymakçı, a second-millennium BCE site in western Turkey, gives the first evidence for Bronze Age agricultural practices in central western Anatolia, and represents one of a very few contemporary datasets for western Anatolia as a whole. Inhabitants of the site adopted a diversified agricultural system, with major crops including barley, free-threshing wheat, bitter vetch, chickpea, and grape. Spatial analysis of crop taxa suggests differential distribution of wheat and chickpea across the site, while initial results of diachronic analysis indicate a narrowing of wheat agriculture over time. The archaeobotanical assemblage of Kaymakçı is compared to those of contemporary sites throughout the Aegean and Anatolia, where it represents an intermediate position, an apparent hybrid of Aegean and Anatolian agricultural practices. This study provides a valuable new perspective on agriculture of the Late Bronze Age in a particularly understudied region of the eastern Mediterranean.
Digital technologies have been at the heart of fieldwork at the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project (... more Digital technologies have been at the heart of fieldwork at the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project (KAP) since its beginning in 2014. All data on this excavation are born-digital, from textual, photographic, and videographic descriptions of contexts and objects in a database and excavation journals to 2D plans and profiles as well as 3D volumetric recording of contexts. The integration of structure from motion (SfM) modeling and its various products has had an especially strong impact on how project participants interact with the archaeological record during and after excavation. While this technology opens up many new possibilities for data recording, analysis, and presentation, it can also present challenges when the requirements of the recording system come into conflict with an archaeologist's training and experience. Here, we consider the benefits and costs of KAP's volumetric recording system. We explore the ways that recording protocols for image-based modeling change ho...
3D data captured from archaeological excavations are frequently left to speak for themselves. 3D ... more 3D data captured from archaeological excavations are frequently left to speak for themselves. 3D models of objects are uploaded to online viewing platforms, the tops or bottoms of surfaces are visualised in 2.5D, or both are reduced to 2D representations. Representations of excavation units, in particular, often remain incompletely processed as raw surface outputs, unable to be considered individual entities that represent the individual, volumetric units of excavation. Visualisations of such surfaces, whether as point clouds or meshes, are commonly viewed as an end result in and of themselves, when they could be considered the beginning of a fully volumetric way of recording and understanding the 3D archaeological record. In describing the creation of an archaeologically focused recording routine and a 3D-focused data processing workflow, this article provides the means to fill the void between excavation-unit surfaces, thereby producing an individual volumetric entity that corresp...
This contribution presents the results of a pilot study of earthen materials excavated at the Middle to Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, located in western Anatolia. It argues that systematic collection and analysis of fragmentary and difficult‐to‐identify earthen materials is challenging, yet crucial. These materials inform on activities of which traces are preserved in the archaeological record but which have been largely under‐ ‐researched. Flourishing studies on earthen findings foreground architectural materials, such as mudbrick, and well‐preserved features and objects. However, earthen objects and architectural features were utilized more widely than in building architecture and only a small portion of excavated sites has good preservation. We, therefore, present the different categories of earthen materials discovered at Kaymakçı, specifically ar‐ chitecture, installations, and portable items. Our work demonstrates that by incorporating new knowledge of archaeological remains at the site and re‐studying the earthen assemblage it is possible to gain a better understanding of the morphological, functional, and social aspects of this dataset.
This paper explores pig husbandry across the Aegean and Anatolia based on zooarchaeological data and ancient texts. The western Anatolian citadel of Kaymakçı is the departure point for discussion, as it sits in the Mycenaean-Hittite interaction zone and provides a uniquely large assemblage of pig bones. NISP, mortality, and biometric data from 38 additional sites across Greece and Anatolia allows observation of intra- and interregional variation in the role of pigs in subsistence economies, pig management, and pig size characteristics. Results show that, first, pig abundance at Kaymakçı matches Mycenaean and northern Aegean sites more closely than central, southern, and southeastern Anatolian sites; second, pig mortality data and biometry suggest multiple husbandry strategies and pig populations at Kaymakçı, but other explanations cannot yet be excluded; and, third, for the Aegean and Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age more generally, pig data suggests pluriformity, which challenges the use of “pig principles” in this region.
Während der ersten Grabungssaison im Jahr 2014 wurde in der spätbronzezeitlichen Siedlung Kaymakçı ein Bronzemesser mit einem ungewöhnlich verzierten Griff gefunden. Kaymakçı ist eine kürzlich entdeckte Zitadelle, die 100 km östlich der Ägäisküste im Gediz-Tal lokalisiert ist. Es ist eine der wenigen Fundstellen im Inneren Westanatoliens, die durch reguläre Grabungen erforscht wird. Das Messer kam in einem turmartigen Gebäude zutage, das sich an die Befestigungen im Nordwesten der Zitadelle anschloss. Es gehört zu einer kleinen Gruppe von Messern mit festem Griff (Sandars-Klasse 4), die bis vor Kurzem nur von Elitegräbern und kultischen Kontexten auf der Peloponnes, Kreta, Psara und Troia bekannt waren. Diese Messer sind u. a. durch Rippenverzierung und einen massiven Bronzeknopf am Griffende charakterisiert. Das geometrische Fischgrätmuster an dem Messer aus Kaymakçı findet jedoch keine Parallelen in der minoischen und mykenischen Kunst, ist dagegen geometrischen Verzierungen ähnlich, die von anderen estanatolischen Funden bekannt sind. Daher ist das Fischgrätmesser aus Kaymakçı höchstwahrscheinlich das Eigentum eines Mitglieds der westanatolischen Elite, ein Ergebnis der Verschmelzung der ägäischen und westanatolischen Traditionen. Gleichzeitig ist es eines der ersten bekannten Beispiele lokaler Ornamentik, die aufgrund des Forschungsstandes im Inneren Westanatoliens bis jetzt noch wenig untersucht ist.
During the first season of excavations in 2014 at the Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, a bronze ... more During the first season of excavations in 2014 at the Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, a bronze knife with an unusually decorated handle was found. Kaymakçı is a recently discovered citadel located ca. 100 km east of the Aegean coast in the Gediz Valley and is one of the few excavated sites from interior central western Anatolia. The knife was recovered in the tower-like structure attached to the fortifications at the northwestern extent of the citadel. It belongs to a small group of solid-hilted knives (Sandars Class 4) known until recently only from elite graves and cultic contexts in the Peloponnese, Crete, Psara, and Troy. The knife shares decorative ribbing, a solid bronze knob at the end of its handle, and some other features with its Aegean counterparts. However, the geometric style of its decoration, such as the central herringbone-pattern, is unparalleled among Minoan and Mycenaean art, instead it corresponds with geometric designs known from other western Anatolian finds. Therefore, the herringbone knife from Kaymakçı, most probably the property of a member of the western Anatolian elite, is an outcome of the fusion of Aegean and western Anatolian traditions. Simultaneously it is one of the first known examples of local ornamental style, still poorly known due to the state of research in interior western Anatolia.
In 2005 the Central Lydia Archaeological Survey (CLAS) identified an open-air Lower Paleolithic site called Bozyer near Lake Marmara in the province of Manisa, Turkey. Intensive survey of Bozyer in 2008 resulted in collection of over 300 stone tools. Subsequent systematic analysis attributed 189 of these lithics to a Lower Paleolithic industry. The assemblage is characterized by flakes and retouched flake tools, many of which were produced with the bipolar flaking technique; preferential use of locally available quartz and quartzite over chert; a low proportion of cores, most of which were reused as choppers and chopping tools; and the absence of bifaces and other large cutting tools. With few exceptions, similar assemblages are rare in Anatolia, and comparable industries from Eurasia and the Near East date to the Early Pleistocene period. The lithic industry from Bozyer thus joins other nearby sites in evidencing some of the earliest hominin activities outside Africa, shedding new light on growing understandings of Lower Paleolithic technology, mobility, and activities in Anatolia.
Ancient DNA (aDNA) from 3500–4000 years old seeds of Triticum aestivum L. or Triticum durum Dest.... more Ancient DNA (aDNA) from 3500–4000 years old seeds of Triticum aestivum L. or Triticum durum Dest., Vicia ervillia (L) Willd., Cicer arietinum L. and Vitis vinifera L. excavated from the archaeological site of Kaymakc ̧ı was successfully extracted using various isolation methods. The geno- mic DNA of each species was amplified with respect to the 26S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) gene further using the aDNA of the seeds. The reasons for successful DNA extraction and amplification are likely due to (1) preservation of certain ancient seed specimens in good conditions and (2) use of improved DNA extraction and amplification methods. The results indicate that all seeds were identified correctly by the DNA sequence data from the 26S rDNA gene. Specifically, a mor- phologically unidentified wheat seed from Kaymakc ̧ı was characterized by DNA sequence data as bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). Comparative sequence analysis revealed that specific base positions in the ancient 26S rDNA gene were either lost or substituted with different DNA bases in contemporary seeds, most likely due to continued domestication and breeding activities. Attaining high amounts and a good quality of amplified genomic DNA from ancient seeds will further allow the investigation of the extent of genetic change between ancient seeds and their contemporary species in genetic diversity studies.
Mudbrick is a challenging material to interpret, maintain, and preserve in terms of planning and ... more Mudbrick is a challenging material to interpret, maintain, and preserve in terms of planning and treatment decision-making—especially when recovered during archaeological excavation. Further challenges exist where mudbrick remains have been exposed and abandoned, as interactions with the environment (especially water and wind) introduce additional dissolution and damage of the resource. In this paper, we present multidisciplinary research focused on the interpretation and preservation of ancient and vernacular mudbrick architecture in the Marmara Lake Basin in western Turkey. Of interest is the preservation of mudbrick and stone foundations at Kaymakçı, a Middle to Late Bronze Age, ridge-top citadel. We demonstrate that utilizing multiple lines of evidence, including macromorphological, mineralogical, and chemical studies interpreted within the context of extant vernacular traditions in the region, produces a nuanced understanding of the archaeological evidence. Further, ethnographic and experimental archaeological research with local stakeholders allows for the development of a robust template for testing and implementing sustainable site-preservation strategies for in situ architecture with immediate communities.
Kaymakçı Manisa İl sınırları içerisinde Orta Gediz Vadisinde bulunan tahkimli bir Orta ve Geç Tunç Çağı yerleşmesidir. Kaymakçı yaklaşık 8.6 hektarlık bir alanı kapsayan kale içi yerleşmesi, bunun dışında dağınık bir sur dışı yerleşmesi ve mezarlık alanından oluşmaktadır. Yerleşme ilk olarak 2001 yılında keşfedilmiş ve 2006 yılından itibaren ise Merkezi Lidya Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırmaları (CLAS) kapsamında araştırılmış- tır. Döneminin Gediz vadisindeki en büyük yerleşmesi olan Kaymakçı önemli bir bölgesel başkent olarak yorumlanmaktadır. Kaymakçı’da yürütülen kazı çalışmaları MÖ 2. binyılda Batı Anadolu hakkında bilimsel bilgilerimizi arttırmasının yanı sıra bu bölgenin Ege ve Anadolu’nun diğer yöreleri ile olan bağlantılarını açığa çıkarma potansiyeline sahiptir. Bu makalede 2014 ve 2016 yılları arasında Kaymakçı’da gerçekleş- tirilen kazı çalışmalarının sonuçları tartışılmaktadır. Kazılar hem topoğrafik hem de mimari ve yerleşim düzeni açısından farklılıklar gösteren üç ayrı alanda gerçekleştirilmiştir. Bu alanlar “Güney Teras”, “İç Kale ve Çevresi” ve “Kuzey Savunma Sistemi” olarak adlandırılmaktadırlar. Makale genel anlamda bu alanlarda açığa çıkarılan mimari kalıntılar ve bunların Kaymakçı’daki Tunç Çağı yerleşmesinin düzeni hakkında sunduğu ipuçlarına odaklanmaktadır.
Current understandings of the archaeology of second-millennium B.C.E. central western Anatolia are enriched by ongoing research at Kaymakçı, located in the Marmara Lake basin of the middle Gediz River valley in western Turkey. Discovered during regional survey in 2001, the site offers a critical node of exploration for understanding a previously unexamined period in a well-traversed geography thought to be the core of the Late Bronze Age Seha River Land known from Hittite texts. Here we present results from the first three seasons of excavation on the citadel of Kaymakçı plus a study season (2014–2017), introducing the site’s chronology, historical and regional context, and significance through presentation of excavation areas as well as material and subsistence economies. With reference to such evidence, we discuss the site’s development, organization, and interregional interactions, demonstrating its place in local and regional networks that connected Aegean and central Anatolian spheres of interest.
This article examines the field architect’s evolving role in interdisciplinary archaeology projects when equipped with new technologies for reconstructing ancient history. The research analyzes how digital technologies facilitate the architect’s extrapolation of embedded knowledge from archaeological datasets, especially those contained in a shared interoperable modeling domain, to enhance understanding of ancient building traditions. The outcomes from this research illuminate how people in the second millennium BCE lived and engaged with the environment through constructed systems, offering new technology-enhanced methods to reveal the architectural knowledge that resides within archaeological sites.
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research,, 2017
Shallow conical depressions hewn into bedrock, known as cup-marks, have been documented at and ar... more Shallow conical depressions hewn into bedrock, known as cup-marks, have been documented at and around 2nd-millennium b.c.e. citadels in the Marmara Lake basin of the Gediz Valley, western Anatolia. These rupestral features are among the best indications of the presence of libation ceremonies in the region and provide evidence that local communities shared in cultural traditions spread over western and central Anatolia. Libation rituals in the basin were probably intended to summon the divine for protection, stewardship of the dead, and/or assurance of agricultural prosperity through maintenance of stable environmental conditions. Periodic catastrophes, resulting from massive inundations and/or droughts typical to the region, weigh in favor of an environmental interpretation. We frame our discussion of the topography and archaeology of the Gediz Valley and the evidence for Middle to Late Bronze Age cup-marks within the context of historical geography and the archaeology of Anatolia.
Roosevelt, C.H., T. Kaner, and C. Luke. 2022. “Kaymakçı Arkeoloji Projesi: 2019–2020 Yılı Kazı ve... more Roosevelt, C.H., T. Kaner, and C. Luke. 2022. “Kaymakçı Arkeoloji Projesi: 2019–2020 Yılı Kazı ve Araştırma Sonuçları.” Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 2019–2020(1): 451–475.
Roosevelt, C.H., T. Kaner, and C. Luke. 2020. “Kaymakçı Arkeoloji Projesi: 2018 Yılı Kazı ve Araştırma Sonuçları.” Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 41(1): 437–459., 2020
Roosevelt, C.H., S. Ünlüsoy, and C. Luke. 2019. “Kaymakçı Arkeoloji Projesi: 2016–2017 Yılı Kazı ve Araştırma Sonuçları.” Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı 40(1): 487–504., 2019
Roosevelt, C.H., C. Luke, and B. Sekedat. 2016. “The Central Lydia Archaeological Survey: 2014 Work at Kaymakçı and in the Marmara Lake Basin.” Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 33(2): 251–262., 2016
Roosevelt, C. H., C. Luke, P. Cobb, and B. Sekedat. 2015. “The Central Lydia Archaeological Survey: 2013 Work at Kaymakçı and in the Marmara Lake Basin.” Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 32 (2): 239–258., 2015
Roosevelt, C. H., C. Luke, P. Cobb, C. O’Grady, and B. Sekedat. 2014. “The Central Lydia Archaeological Survey: 2012 Work at Kaymakçı and in the Marmara Lake Basin.” Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 31 (1): 333–355., 2014
Roosevelt, C. H., and C. Luke. 2013. “The Central Lydia Archaeological Survey: 2011 Work at Kaymakçı and in the Marmara Lake Basin.” Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 30 (1): 237–254., 2013
WANAT. Western Anatolia in the Second Millennium BCE: Recent Developments and Future Prospects, 2024
Owing to abandonment after its primary period of use and an exposed location, the ridgetop citade... more Owing to abandonment after its primary period of use and an exposed location, the ridgetop citadel of Kaymakçı offers a remarkably clear picture of the structure of a 2nd-millennium BCE site in western Anatolia. Even before excavation, non-invasive investigations in 2007-2014 identified remains preserved at or near the site's surface, allowing interpretation of spatial structure-the general configuration of buildings and walls across the site. Excavations beginning in 2014 continue to provide stratigraphic evidence as a control on earlier interpretations deriving from non-invasive methods, in some cases confirming and in others challenging them. In all cases, ongoing work allows refinement of previous understandings of both spatial structure and stratigraphy. Current evidence underlines the robustness of settlement on the citadel of Kaymakçı in the second quarter of the 2nd millennium BCE, in addition to both earlier and later remains, stretching from at least the 20th through the 14th century BCE. Exactly where and whether Kaymakçı may have been occupied into the 13th century BCE and exactly when and why it was abandoned are among the topics recent evidence has brought back into question. Archival and recent aerial evidence provides clues about which areas of the site might be least disturbed from natural and anthropogenic degradation, pointing to possible venues for ongoing and future research at the site aiming to clarify its long and rich history.
Manisa: Akademik Araştırma Işığında (Fen Bilimleri & Coğrafya & İktisat) Cilt-4, 2022
Vardar, Serdar, Roosevelt, Christopher H., and Christina Luke. 2022. “Kuraklığın Kontrolündeki Ma... more Vardar, Serdar, Roosevelt, Christopher H., and Christina Luke. 2022. “Kuraklığın Kontrolündeki Marmara Gölü Sulak Alanına Paleocoğrafya Açısından Bakış (Gölmarmara-Manisa).” In Manisa: Akademik Araştırma Işığında (Fen Bilimleri & Coğrafya & İktisat) Cilt-4, edited by Yüksel Abalı, Orkide Minareci, Sermin Çam Kaynar, and Leman İncedere, 510–529. Ankara, TR: Berikan Yayınevi. ISBN 9786258365962 / 9786257457521.
Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevre ve Toplum, 2022
Haldon, John, and Christopher H. Roosevelt. 2022. “Rüzgâr Nereye Eserse: Anadolu’da Çevre Tarihi ... more Haldon, John, and Christopher H. Roosevelt. 2022. “Rüzgâr Nereye Eserse: Anadolu’da Çevre Tarihi ve Arkeoloji.” In Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevre ve Toplum, edited by C. H. Roosevelt and J. Haldon, 281–284. Koç Üniversitesi Anadolu Medeniyetleri Araştırma Merkezi (ANAMED) Serisi. İstanbul: Koç Üniversitesi Yayınları. ISBN: 9786258022308.
Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevre ve Toplum, 2022
Roosevelt, Christopher H., and John Haldon. 2022. “Önsöz.” In Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevr... more Roosevelt, Christopher H., and John Haldon. 2022. “Önsöz.” In Değişim Rüzgârları: Anadolu’da Çevre ve Toplum, edited by C. H. Roosevelt and J. Haldon, ix–xi. Koç Üniversitesi Anadolu Medeniyetleri Araştırma Merkezi (ANAMED) Serisi. İstanbul: Koç Üniversitesi Yayınları. ISBN: 9786258022308.
Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia, 2021
Haldon, John, and Christopher H. Roosevelt. 2021. “Whither the Wind Blows: Environmental History ... more Haldon, John, and Christopher H. Roosevelt. 2021. “Whither the Wind Blows: Environmental History and Archaeology in Anatolia.” In Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia, edited by C. H. Roosevelt and J. Haldon, 281–284. Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) Series. Istanbul: Koç University Press. ISBN: 9786057685704.
Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia, 2021
Roosevelt, Christopher H., and John Haldon. 2021. “Preface.” In Winds of Change: Environment and ... more Roosevelt, Christopher H., and John Haldon. 2021. “Preface.” In Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia, edited by C. H. Roosevelt and J. Haldon, ix–xi. Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) Series. Istanbul: Koç University Press. ISBN: 9786057685704.
Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public, 2021
Roosevelt, Christopher H. 2021. “Location Matters: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the P... more Roosevelt, Christopher H. 2021. “Location Matters: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public.” In Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public, edited by Christopher H. Roosevelt, 5–26. Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) Series. Istanbul: Koç University Press. ISBN 9786057685377.
Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public, 2021
Roosevelt, Christopher H. 2021. “Preface.” In Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research ... more Roosevelt, Christopher H. 2021. “Preface.” In Spatial Webs: Mapping Anatolian Pasts for Research and the Public, edited by Christopher H. Roosevelt, vii–viii. Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) Series. Istanbul: Koç University Press. ISBN 9786057685377.
Roosevelt, Christopher H., Oğuz Tekin, and Engin Akyürek. 2021. “Giriş Yorumlar: Tarih Boyunca An... more Roosevelt, Christopher H., Oğuz Tekin, and Engin Akyürek. 2021. “Giriş Yorumlar: Tarih Boyunca Anadolu’da Hayırseverlik.” Tarih Boyunca Anadolu’da Hayırseverlik. Düzenlenen: O. Tekin, C. H. Roosevelt ve E. Akyürek, ix–xiii. İstanbul: Vehbi Koç Foundation. ISBN 9786057685667.
Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu için Anadolu'nun Geçmişini Haritalamak, 2020
Roosevelt, Christopher H. 2020. “Konumun Önemi: Geçmişin Dijital Olarak Haritalandırılmasında Dis... more Roosevelt, Christopher H. 2020. “Konumun Önemi: Geçmişin Dijital Olarak Haritalandırılmasında Disiplin Çeşitliliği ve Toplumla İş Birliği.” In Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu için Anadolu'nun Geçmişini Haritalamak. Düzenlenen: Christopher H. Roosevelt, 5–26. Istanbul: Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations. ISBN 9786057685537.
Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu için Anadolu'nun Geçmişini Haritalamak, 2020
Roosevelt, Christopher H. 2020. “Önsöz.” In Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu için Anadolu'nun Ge... more Roosevelt, Christopher H. 2020. “Önsöz.” In Mekânsal Ağlar: Araştırma ve Kamu için Anadolu'nun Geçmişini Haritalamak. Düzenlenen: Christopher H. Roosevelt, vii–viii. Istanbul: Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations. ISBN 9786057685537.
Roosevelt, C. H., O. Tekin, and E. Akyürek. 2020. “Introductory Comments: Philanthropy in Anatoli... more Roosevelt, C. H., O. Tekin, and E. Akyürek. 2020. “Introductory Comments: Philanthropy in Anatolia through the Ages.” In O. Tekin, C. H. Roosevelt, and E. Akyürek, eds., Philanthropy in Anatolia through the Ages. Istanbul: Vehbi Koç Foundation, ix–xiii.
Spear-Won Land: Sardis, from the King’s Peace to the Peace of Apamea, 2019
Roosevelt, C.H. 2019. “The Inhabited Landscapes of Lydia.” In A. Berlin and P. J. Kosmin, eds., S... more Roosevelt, C.H. 2019. “The Inhabited Landscapes of Lydia.” In A. Berlin and P. J. Kosmin, eds., Spear-Won Land: Sardis, from the King’s Peace to the Peace of Apamea. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 145–164.
Luke, C. and Roosevelt, C. 2016 “Memory and Meaning in Bin Tepe, The Lydian Cemetery of the “Thou... more Luke, C. and Roosevelt, C. 2016 “Memory and Meaning in Bin Tepe, The Lydian Cemetery of the “Thousand Mounds,” In Tumulus as Sema: Proceedings of an International Conference on Space, Politics, Culture and Religion in the First Millennium B.C., edited by O Henery and U. Kelp. TOPOI Excellence Cluster series. Berlin: De Gruyter.
This paper draws from five years of Central Lydia Archaeological Survey (CLAS) results (2005–2009) to reassess the meaning of Iron Age tumuli in central Lydia, western Turkey, and especially in the area of Bin Tepe, thought to be the Lydian royal cemetery. Invoking scholarship on shared and collective memories and citing both the discovery of a Bronze Age kingdom in the basin of the Gygaean Lake (modern Marmara Gölü) and the sacred significance of the area deriving from the cyclic fluctuation of its water bodies, we suggest Lydian kings selected Bin Tepe for burial to associate themselves with and co-opt local memories of heroes and sacred meanings. Thus, the development of Bin Tepe is considered from the perspective of the significance of its natural and conceptual landscapes. The meanings and memories of Bin Tepe in post-Lydian through recent times are assessed briefly, also, stressing its dynamic valuing as it was exploited for treasures and strategic qualities in war, plunder, and agriculture.
Frank, T., C. Luke, and C. H. Roosevelt. 2015. “Envisioning our First-Principles Predecessors: Legacies of Climatization in Ancient Anatolian Structures.” In Envisioning Architecture: Image, Perception and Communication of Heritage. Lodz: Lodz University of Technology, 152–164., 2015
Frank, T., C. Luke, and C. H. Roosevelt. 2015. “Thermal Zoning and Natural Ventilation in Vernacular Anatolian Settlements,” in C. Mileto, F. Vegas, L. García Soriano, and V. Cristini, eds., Vernacular Architecture: Towards a Sustainable Future. Leiden: CRC Press/Balkema, 305–310., 2015
Since the widespread adoption of mechanical equipment for cooling buildings, thermal zoning has e... more Since the widespread adoption of mechanical equipment for cooling buildings, thermal zoning has evolved into a design strategy that provides climate control and maintenance of steady-state interior environments regardless of building orientation or occupancy. Prior to the invention of mechanical cooling devices, early populations achieved thermal zoning by putting basic building attributes and material constituents to task, finely attuning building assemblages to ever-changing factors such as prevailing airflow. Two Anatolian settlements, Çatalhöyük and Mardin, have been analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) platforms to disclose their respective passive cooling strategies relative to variable inputs, including wind velocity and direction. This paper reports the findings from this analysis and discusses how these attributes produce comfort levels that rival contemporary standards, including air-change rates at 1.5 meters per second. The paper also demonstrates how these vernacular devices have been adapted for contemporary use to passively maintain thermal comfort while offsetting energy consumption.
Roosevelt, C. H. 2012. “Iron Age Western Anatolia: The Lydian Empire and Dynastic Lycia.” In D. Potts, ed., A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Malden, MA: Blackwell, vol. 2, 896–913., 2012
Roosevelt, C. H. 2005. Review of Athanassopoulos, Effie F., and LuAnn Wandsnider, eds. 2004. Mediterranean Archaeological Landscapes: Current Issues. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Journal of Field Archaeology 30: 218–22., 2005
Recent studies have highlighted the significance of environmental changes in transformational pro... more Recent studies have highlighted the significance of environmental changes in transformational processes throughout human history. While this presumption proves to be true to a certain extent, it should not be understood as a monocausal correlation, but rather as an integral element of the complex adaptive system of historic human-environment interaction. The level of complexity often seems overwhelming and impossible to manage; however, studies on a regional or micro-level scale might hold the key to a better understanding. In order to establish comparability between studies and bridge temporal and spatial distances within the rich history of Anatolia, we propose to use the framework of social metabolism and socio-ecological models. By making use of different approaches, the aim is to create a basis for meta-analyses or `bigger narratives ́ of the complex hybrid system between the ecological and socio-cultural spheres.
One of the most stimulating areas of research in the study of Anatolia’s multi-layered past is the complex reciprocal relationship between settlements, the countryside and their zones of transit. Through the tangible and intangible cultural and natural heritage, conclusions can be drawn about the socio-ecological metabolism – the continuous exchange of people with nature in order to reproduce and sustain the material requirements of a population as well as the set of flows within and between societies. Applying this concept, aspects such as the exploitation of resources, carrying capacities and catchment areas as well as communication and surveillance networks, administration and social hierarchies need to be examined. The interplay between these and other factors is of a complex processual character and poses the challenge of identifying interdependencies on the one hand of quantifiable parameters, such as the supply of resources for construction sites, and on the other hand, often biased and non-quantifiable sources, such as textual evidence on state and society.
The multi-layered history of Anatolia offers a strong foundation for diachronic and transdisciplinary exchange on socio-ecological approaches from prehistoric times to the Ottoman period.
For many years western Anatolia was one of the least known cultural landscapes in the second–mill... more For many years western Anatolia was one of the least known cultural landscapes in the second–millennium BCE eastern Mediterranean, overshadowed by its better-known neighbors in Hittite central Anatolian and Minoan and Mycenaean cultural spheres. Owing to the efforts of recent decades, it is becoming possible to grasp the character of western Anatolian identity, or rather identities, as well as their place(s) in the Bronze Age world. Co-organized in partnership with Charles University and Tübingen University, the WANAT 2021 Symposium brings together scholars to present and discuss recent developments in interdisciplinary research on western Anatolia, as well as to discuss how to leverage shared information better and how to bridge research gaps. The first day of the program features thematically organized topics, including textual evidence, burial rites, chronology, pottery, economy, and culture contact. The second day focuses on specific western Anatolian sites and recent fieldwork.
Along with the fertile crescent, the Indus valley and the Yellow River plain in China, Anatolia w... more Along with the fertile crescent, the Indus valley and the Yellow River plain in China, Anatolia was one of the great “cradles of civilization” in the Old World. Each of these regions has their own unique characteristics, and Anatolia is no exception. It lies at the point where Asia, Europe, and Africa meet and where three climatic systems intersect, and this has had significant consequences for the evolution of its cultures and civilizations. The issue of how environmental, especially climatic, disruptions affect human societies and political systems has begun to attract a great deal of attention from the scientific community and the general public and can have significant consequences not just for historians but also for policymakers and future planning. Integrating high-resolution archaeological, textual, and environmental data with longer-term, low-resolution data on ancient climate affords greater precision in identifying some of the causal relationships underlying societal change across several millennia, and regional and microregional studies have now thrown significant light on questions that until recently could not be answered satisfactorily. The Anatolian case in particular challenges many assumptions about the impact of climatic factors on socio-political organization and medium-term historical evolution and highlights the importance of further collaboration between archaeologists, historians, and climate scientists.
This symposium aims not only to showcase recent research but also to engage with both specific evidence for climatic conditions or changes—textual, scientific, or other—and specific evidence for societal phenomena—archaeological, historical, or other—to discuss the complicated range of correspondences and/or correlations between them. Given such emphases, some (if not most) presentations are expected to be collaborative, co-authored efforts between those whose primary expertise is the human past (in the social sciences and humanities) and those whose primary expertise is proxy climate data (in the natural sciences). In this way, the symposium illustrates how such collaborative research helps to understand complex social and cultural change as well as the results of recent work relevant to the relationships between climate, environment, and society in Anatolia.
We aim to include a range of presentations that span the geographic entirety of Anatolia as well as cover the chronological periods of ANAMED’s primary mission, from Neolithic through Late Ottoman times. Contributions may touch on one or more of the many possible “pinch points” of the Anatolian past, including—for earlier periods—climatic interplays with early Neolithic ways of life, the “4.2 BP event” and the end of the Early Bronze Age, the Theran eruption, and aridity or climate volatility and the collapse of LBA societies, and—for later periods—re-evaluations or reconsiderations of the effects of the Roman Warm Period, Late Antique climatic oscillations, the Medieval Warm Period (or Climatic Anomaly), the Little Ice Age, the Tambora eruption, and mid- to late 19t h century famines. These are only some better-known topics of interest and are by no means exclusive. We will strive for a balance of approaches and chronological foci to allow for discussions that cut across particular periods and societies but that remain united by the common geography and climatic regimes of Anatolia.
Archaeological fieldwork projects generate extensive digital datasets and use increasingly sophis... more Archaeological fieldwork projects generate extensive digital datasets and use increasingly sophisticated technologies to document and analyze them. Submission of these datasets to digital repositories for archiving and data sharing purposes is becoming increasingly common. It appears, however, that final publications of archaeological fieldwork projects still mainly appear as paper volumes or in their digital counterparts (e.g., PDF documents), with all the limitations they entail. Yet the online publication of archaeological data from excavation and survey projects that produce complex sets of textual, quantitative, visual, and geospatial data would seem to present many possibilities, if not also challenges. Ultimately, as is becoming increasingly recognized, online publication can provide diverse communities of users (from project members, to broader research networks, to the public) the means to browse, query (textually and spatially), and reuse archaeological datasets for broader regional and/or new research questions.
In this workshop, jointly sponsored by Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED), the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT), and the Journal of Field Archaeology, we aim to bring together a small group of interested scholars for one day to discuss publishing archaeological data online in spatially queryable and displayable fashion, based on integration with existing platforms or via individually catered solutions. With a combination of short, 15-minute presentations from participants and general discussion, we would like to explore questions like these: What has been developed to date by individual archaeological projects and among archival platforms, what structures, protocols, and standards are available and recommended for textual, visual, geospatial, and 3D data, what hurdles can be expected and how can we deal with them, and how can projects with varied recording and classification systems work together?
The last two decades have witnessed an explosion in digital and spatial technologies that allow i... more The last two decades have witnessed an explosion in digital and spatial technologies that allow interactive spatial querying of cultural datasets – many representing past demographic, economic, political, religious, and other phenomena – enabled by analyses of settlement and communication networks, material distributions, social and political boundaries, and census statistics, for example. This phenomenon can be seen as part and parcel of simultaneous developments in digital humanities that have leveraged archival and textual sources in new ways, taking advantage of concepts deriving from commercial approaches to big data and advances in digital data presentation. At the same time, it is a consequence of the increasing user-friendliness and mainstream usage of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, with its inherent advantages in asking and answering spatially-significant questions. It was only a matter of time before the combination of these trends saw the emergence of “Historical GIS” from the field of historical geography and, more recently, “spatial humanities,” “spatial history,” and “deep mapping” approaches. In all such approaches to understanding the past via digital tools for spatial data management and analysis, the idea that location matters is inherent in understanding places across space and through time.
Historical GIS, spatial humanities, spatial history, and deep mapping approaches can refer to the georeferencing of historical maps to modern Cartesian systems for subsequent digitization of sites, routes, and boundaries and interrogation via GIS analyses. They may also refer to the “spatialization” of aspatial data deriving from literary or archival sources, including evidence for urban topographies, early travelogues, or census data from the recent past, for example. They may incorporate data from the deeper past, as well, including both “born digital” data from archaeological projects and data that has only recently become digital. Similarly, these approaches have been applied on a variety of scales, from the site, to the city, province, region, and empire.
The primary aim for the symposium it to provide a forum where those active in relevant initiatives can share how “spatial webs” can be employed for research and public presentation. A desired outcome is a set of principles or proposals for how multi-period and multi-scalar datasets of diverse types but common geographies can be integrated (or at least standardized in ways to allow for integration) in ways that leverage their diachronic potential for longitudinal research across time and space. The primary common geographies and periods concerned are those of Anatolian civilizations in their most expansive sense, stretching across the eastern Mediterranean basin and spanning Neolithic through Ottoman times.
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ISBN 978-605-7685-27-8
This article explores a little-known archive of historical aerial photographs curated by the General Directorate of Mapping of the Republic of Türkiye’s Ministry of Defense and discusses the historical context of their production by US Navy aerial photography squadrons in the 1950s. While the images themselves enable a technical analysis of the method of their collection, contemporary military manuals, domain-specific magazines and newsletters, and eyewitness accounts of how similar photographs were captured fill out the contexts of their production for cartographic purposes, with information about the aircraft involved, their cameras and camera configurations, and mission characteristics. Continuing sections situate the aerial surveys within the framework of US-led initiatives in mapping NATO territories following World War II. As one example of what must have been many special mapping agreements made between NATO countries at this time, the US cartographic surveys over Türkiye discussed here are an expression of postwar realignments of global power, put to the purposes of containment-based security preparations and infrastructure development, and neatly intertwining American military and commercial interests early in the Cold War.
The study of Ottoman lakes and wetlands from the perspective of management and conservation is an emerging field. Scholars have explored Ottoman strategies for managing agricultural and extractive landscapes, yet detailed investigation of socio-political responses to dynamic wetlands, particularly during periods of drastic climate shifts, requires deeper investigation. Our research on wetlands and lakes moves from the purview of waqfs (pious foundations) to the emergence of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA). By examining the shifting perspectives of institutional authority and community responses to it from the early modern period to the nineteenth century, we discuss the complexities of wetland management in the Marmara Lake Basin within the sancak of Saruhan (contemporary Manisa) in western Anatolia. We argue that intimate knowledge of this specific ecosystem played a critical role in mitigating attempts at reclamation and land grabbing and ultimately in developing legal structures of and policies for Ottoman conservation strategies. We situate our discussion within the paradigm of environing made possible by detailed longue-durée archival narratives; these micro-histories afford a dynamic perspective into non-linear responses to ecological and political changes and provide a local lens into the scalar impacts of human agency.
Here we present the results of stable carbon isotope (δ13C) analysis on charred crop seeds from the Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı in western Anatolia. The δ13C data, in conjunction with some 14C-dated seeds, allows for insights into the water availability for crops and a comparison among taxa, enabling a relatively high-resolution investigation of field agriculture, crop cultivation, and crop and field management around the site. From this data, we discuss agroeconomic structures and local paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions in the local micro-region, as well as more generally for western Anatolia. A total of 35 single carbonized seeds were analysed, including seeds of wheat, barley, bitter vetch, pulses, and grape. Almost all samples date to the first half of the second millennium BC, based on radiocarbon dating of 24 seeds from the sample assemblage. The δ13C data demonstrates that crops at Kaymakçı were generally moderately to well-watered, and water availability was likely not a limiting factor for growth. This water availability is unlikely to result from artificial and man-made irrigation systems, however, but rather crop-management and field-location choices, taking advantage of the humid conditions along the shores of Lake Marmara and in surrounding wetland environs. A seeming paradox is the ubiquity of risk buffering crops (barley and bitter vetch) despite a supposed abundance of water availability. This evidence for mixed approaches further underlines the importance of versatility in local agricultural systems and their underlying structures, favored and implemented by local communities.
Recent research has unveiled the immense potential of orthorectifying small datasets of scanned historical aerial imagery for multi-temporal environmental and social science research on limited areas such as single landforms, sites, and cities. This article takes this approach further and presents methods that aim for accurate yet efficient orthorectification of large datasets of archival aerial imagery for landscape and regional-scale research. The study draws from a colossal archive in Türkiye, working with over 850 scanned historical aerial photographs at photographic scales of 1:60,000 and 1:30,000 to showcase a workflow that combines structure-from-motion (SfM) and auto-registration techniques to rectify and mosaic the images. This endeavor covers an area spanning 3,600 km 2 , and produces a 1:60,000 scale orthomosaic and a 1:30,000 rectified mosaic with spatial resolutions of 1.4 m and 0.8 m, respectively. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values reflect sensitivity to accuracy-efficiency trade-offs of the approach. The results thus demonstrate the potential of these combined methods for producing large coverage orthomosaics for regional-scale analyses, while underscoring the challenges that future research must address.
Ceramics are one of the commonest sources of archaeological information, yet their abundance often confounds documentation and analysis. This article presents a new method of documenting and analyzing ceramics that includes laser-aided profile measurement to capture ceramic shape and other information quickly and accurately, resulting in digital outputs suitable for both publication and morphometric analysis. Linked software and database solutions enable unsupervised machine learning to cluster shapes based on similarity, eventually assisting typological analysis. Following an overview of current practices in ceramic recording and both standard and computational shape classification analyses, the new approach is discussed in full as a documentary and analytical tool. A case study from the Middle and Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı in western Anatolia demonstrates the benefits of the recording method and helps show that a combination of automated and manual shape clustering techniques currently remains the best practice in ceramic shape classification.
This contribution presents the results of a pilot study of earthen materials excavated at the Middle to Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, located in western Anatolia. It argues that systematic collection and analysis of fragmentary and difficult‐to‐identify earthen materials is challenging, yet crucial. These materials inform on activities of which traces are preserved in the archaeological record but which have been largely under‐ ‐researched. Flourishing studies on earthen findings foreground architectural materials, such as mudbrick, and well‐preserved features and objects. However, earthen objects and architectural features were utilized more widely than in building architecture and only a small portion of excavated sites has good preservation. We, therefore, present the different categories of earthen materials discovered at Kaymakçı, specifically ar‐ chitecture, installations, and portable items. Our work demonstrates that by incorporating new knowledge of archaeological remains at the site and re‐studying the earthen assemblage it is possible to gain a better understanding of the morphological, functional, and social aspects of this dataset.
ISBN 978-605-7685-27-8
This article explores a little-known archive of historical aerial photographs curated by the General Directorate of Mapping of the Republic of Türkiye’s Ministry of Defense and discusses the historical context of their production by US Navy aerial photography squadrons in the 1950s. While the images themselves enable a technical analysis of the method of their collection, contemporary military manuals, domain-specific magazines and newsletters, and eyewitness accounts of how similar photographs were captured fill out the contexts of their production for cartographic purposes, with information about the aircraft involved, their cameras and camera configurations, and mission characteristics. Continuing sections situate the aerial surveys within the framework of US-led initiatives in mapping NATO territories following World War II. As one example of what must have been many special mapping agreements made between NATO countries at this time, the US cartographic surveys over Türkiye discussed here are an expression of postwar realignments of global power, put to the purposes of containment-based security preparations and infrastructure development, and neatly intertwining American military and commercial interests early in the Cold War.
The study of Ottoman lakes and wetlands from the perspective of management and conservation is an emerging field. Scholars have explored Ottoman strategies for managing agricultural and extractive landscapes, yet detailed investigation of socio-political responses to dynamic wetlands, particularly during periods of drastic climate shifts, requires deeper investigation. Our research on wetlands and lakes moves from the purview of waqfs (pious foundations) to the emergence of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration (OPDA). By examining the shifting perspectives of institutional authority and community responses to it from the early modern period to the nineteenth century, we discuss the complexities of wetland management in the Marmara Lake Basin within the sancak of Saruhan (contemporary Manisa) in western Anatolia. We argue that intimate knowledge of this specific ecosystem played a critical role in mitigating attempts at reclamation and land grabbing and ultimately in developing legal structures of and policies for Ottoman conservation strategies. We situate our discussion within the paradigm of environing made possible by detailed longue-durée archival narratives; these micro-histories afford a dynamic perspective into non-linear responses to ecological and political changes and provide a local lens into the scalar impacts of human agency.
Here we present the results of stable carbon isotope (δ13C) analysis on charred crop seeds from the Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı in western Anatolia. The δ13C data, in conjunction with some 14C-dated seeds, allows for insights into the water availability for crops and a comparison among taxa, enabling a relatively high-resolution investigation of field agriculture, crop cultivation, and crop and field management around the site. From this data, we discuss agroeconomic structures and local paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions in the local micro-region, as well as more generally for western Anatolia. A total of 35 single carbonized seeds were analysed, including seeds of wheat, barley, bitter vetch, pulses, and grape. Almost all samples date to the first half of the second millennium BC, based on radiocarbon dating of 24 seeds from the sample assemblage. The δ13C data demonstrates that crops at Kaymakçı were generally moderately to well-watered, and water availability was likely not a limiting factor for growth. This water availability is unlikely to result from artificial and man-made irrigation systems, however, but rather crop-management and field-location choices, taking advantage of the humid conditions along the shores of Lake Marmara and in surrounding wetland environs. A seeming paradox is the ubiquity of risk buffering crops (barley and bitter vetch) despite a supposed abundance of water availability. This evidence for mixed approaches further underlines the importance of versatility in local agricultural systems and their underlying structures, favored and implemented by local communities.
Recent research has unveiled the immense potential of orthorectifying small datasets of scanned historical aerial imagery for multi-temporal environmental and social science research on limited areas such as single landforms, sites, and cities. This article takes this approach further and presents methods that aim for accurate yet efficient orthorectification of large datasets of archival aerial imagery for landscape and regional-scale research. The study draws from a colossal archive in Türkiye, working with over 850 scanned historical aerial photographs at photographic scales of 1:60,000 and 1:30,000 to showcase a workflow that combines structure-from-motion (SfM) and auto-registration techniques to rectify and mosaic the images. This endeavor covers an area spanning 3,600 km 2 , and produces a 1:60,000 scale orthomosaic and a 1:30,000 rectified mosaic with spatial resolutions of 1.4 m and 0.8 m, respectively. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values reflect sensitivity to accuracy-efficiency trade-offs of the approach. The results thus demonstrate the potential of these combined methods for producing large coverage orthomosaics for regional-scale analyses, while underscoring the challenges that future research must address.
Ceramics are one of the commonest sources of archaeological information, yet their abundance often confounds documentation and analysis. This article presents a new method of documenting and analyzing ceramics that includes laser-aided profile measurement to capture ceramic shape and other information quickly and accurately, resulting in digital outputs suitable for both publication and morphometric analysis. Linked software and database solutions enable unsupervised machine learning to cluster shapes based on similarity, eventually assisting typological analysis. Following an overview of current practices in ceramic recording and both standard and computational shape classification analyses, the new approach is discussed in full as a documentary and analytical tool. A case study from the Middle and Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı in western Anatolia demonstrates the benefits of the recording method and helps show that a combination of automated and manual shape clustering techniques currently remains the best practice in ceramic shape classification.
This contribution presents the results of a pilot study of earthen materials excavated at the Middle to Late Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, located in western Anatolia. It argues that systematic collection and analysis of fragmentary and difficult‐to‐identify earthen materials is challenging, yet crucial. These materials inform on activities of which traces are preserved in the archaeological record but which have been largely under‐ ‐researched. Flourishing studies on earthen findings foreground architectural materials, such as mudbrick, and well‐preserved features and objects. However, earthen objects and architectural features were utilized more widely than in building architecture and only a small portion of excavated sites has good preservation. We, therefore, present the different categories of earthen materials discovered at Kaymakçı, specifically ar‐ chitecture, installations, and portable items. Our work demonstrates that by incorporating new knowledge of archaeological remains at the site and re‐studying the earthen assemblage it is possible to gain a better understanding of the morphological, functional, and social aspects of this dataset.
This paper explores pig husbandry across the Aegean and Anatolia based on zooarchaeological data and ancient texts. The western Anatolian citadel of Kaymakçı is the departure point for discussion, as it sits in the Mycenaean-Hittite interaction zone and provides a uniquely large assemblage of pig bones. NISP, mortality, and biometric data from 38 additional sites across Greece and Anatolia allows observation of intra- and interregional variation in the role of pigs in subsistence economies, pig management, and pig size characteristics. Results show that, first, pig abundance at Kaymakçı matches Mycenaean and northern Aegean sites more closely than central, southern, and southeastern Anatolian sites; second, pig mortality data and biometry suggest multiple husbandry strategies and pig populations at Kaymakçı, but other explanations cannot yet be excluded; and, third, for the Aegean and Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age more generally, pig data suggests pluriformity, which challenges the use of “pig principles” in this region.
Während der ersten Grabungssaison im Jahr 2014 wurde in der spätbronzezeitlichen Siedlung Kaymakçı ein Bronzemesser mit einem ungewöhnlich verzierten Griff gefunden. Kaymakçı ist eine kürzlich entdeckte Zitadelle, die 100 km östlich der Ägäisküste im Gediz-Tal lokalisiert ist. Es ist eine der wenigen Fundstellen im Inneren Westanatoliens, die durch reguläre Grabungen erforscht wird. Das Messer kam in einem turmartigen Gebäude zutage, das sich an die Befestigungen im Nordwesten der Zitadelle anschloss. Es gehört zu einer kleinen Gruppe von Messern mit festem Griff (Sandars-Klasse 4), die bis vor Kurzem nur von Elitegräbern und kultischen Kontexten auf der Peloponnes, Kreta, Psara und Troia bekannt waren. Diese Messer sind u. a. durch Rippenverzierung und einen massiven Bronzeknopf am Griffende charakterisiert. Das geometrische Fischgrätmuster an dem Messer aus Kaymakçı findet jedoch keine Parallelen in der minoischen und mykenischen Kunst, ist dagegen geometrischen Verzierungen ähnlich, die von anderen estanatolischen Funden bekannt sind. Daher ist das Fischgrätmesser aus Kaymakçı höchstwahrscheinlich das Eigentum eines Mitglieds der westanatolischen Elite, ein Ergebnis der Verschmelzung der ägäischen und westanatolischen Traditionen. Gleichzeitig ist es eines der ersten bekannten Beispiele lokaler Ornamentik, die aufgrund des Forschungsstandes im Inneren Westanatoliens bis jetzt noch wenig untersucht ist.
In 2005 the Central Lydia Archaeological Survey (CLAS) identified an open-air Lower Paleolithic site called Bozyer near Lake Marmara in the province of Manisa, Turkey. Intensive survey of Bozyer in 2008 resulted in collection of over 300 stone tools. Subsequent systematic analysis attributed 189 of these lithics to a Lower Paleolithic industry. The assemblage is characterized by flakes and retouched flake tools, many of which were produced with the bipolar flaking technique; preferential use of locally available quartz and quartzite over chert; a low proportion of cores, most of which were reused as choppers and chopping tools; and the absence of bifaces and other large cutting tools. With few exceptions, similar assemblages are rare in Anatolia, and comparable industries from Eurasia and the Near East date to the Early Pleistocene period. The lithic industry from Bozyer thus joins other nearby sites in evidencing some of the earliest hominin activities outside Africa, shedding new light on growing understandings of Lower Paleolithic technology, mobility, and activities in Anatolia.
Kaymakçı Manisa İl sınırları içerisinde Orta Gediz Vadisinde bulunan tahkimli bir Orta ve Geç Tunç Çağı yerleşmesidir. Kaymakçı yaklaşık 8.6 hektarlık bir alanı kapsayan kale içi yerleşmesi, bunun dışında dağınık bir sur dışı yerleşmesi ve mezarlık alanından oluşmaktadır. Yerleşme ilk olarak 2001 yılında keşfedilmiş ve 2006 yılından itibaren ise Merkezi Lidya Arkeolojik Yüzey Araştırmaları (CLAS) kapsamında araştırılmış- tır. Döneminin Gediz vadisindeki en büyük yerleşmesi olan Kaymakçı önemli bir bölgesel başkent olarak yorumlanmaktadır. Kaymakçı’da yürütülen kazı çalışmaları MÖ 2. binyılda Batı Anadolu hakkında bilimsel bilgilerimizi arttırmasının yanı sıra bu bölgenin Ege ve Anadolu’nun diğer yöreleri ile olan bağlantılarını açığa çıkarma potansiyeline sahiptir. Bu makalede 2014 ve 2016 yılları arasında Kaymakçı’da gerçekleş- tirilen kazı çalışmalarının sonuçları tartışılmaktadır. Kazılar hem topoğrafik hem de mimari ve yerleşim düzeni açısından farklılıklar gösteren üç ayrı alanda gerçekleştirilmiştir. Bu alanlar “Güney Teras”, “İç Kale ve Çevresi” ve “Kuzey Savunma Sistemi” olarak adlandırılmaktadırlar. Makale genel anlamda bu alanlarda açığa çıkarılan mimari kalıntılar ve bunların Kaymakçı’daki Tunç Çağı yerleşmesinin düzeni hakkında sunduğu ipuçlarına odaklanmaktadır.
Current understandings of the archaeology of second-millennium B.C.E. central western Anatolia are enriched by ongoing research at Kaymakçı, located in the Marmara Lake basin of the middle Gediz River valley in western Turkey. Discovered during regional survey in 2001, the site offers a critical node of exploration for understanding a previously unexamined period in a well-traversed geography thought to be the core of the Late Bronze Age Seha River Land known from Hittite texts. Here we present results from the first three seasons of excavation on the citadel of Kaymakçı plus a study season (2014–2017), introducing the site’s chronology, historical and regional context, and significance through presentation of excavation areas as well as material and subsistence economies. With reference to such evidence, we discuss the site’s development, organization, and interregional interactions, demonstrating its place in local and regional networks that connected Aegean and central Anatolian spheres of interest.
This article examines the field architect’s evolving role in interdisciplinary archaeology projects when equipped with new technologies for reconstructing ancient history. The research analyzes how digital technologies facilitate the architect’s extrapolation of embedded knowledge from archaeological datasets, especially those contained in a shared interoperable modeling domain, to enhance understanding of ancient building traditions. The outcomes from this research illuminate how people in the second millennium BCE lived and engaged with the environment through constructed systems, offering new technology-enhanced methods to reveal the architectural knowledge that resides within archaeological sites.
This paper draws from five years of Central Lydia Archaeological Survey (CLAS) results (2005–2009) to reassess the meaning of Iron Age tumuli in central Lydia, western Turkey, and especially in the area of Bin Tepe, thought to be the Lydian royal cemetery. Invoking scholarship on shared and collective memories and citing both the discovery of a Bronze Age kingdom in the basin of the Gygaean Lake (modern Marmara Gölü) and the sacred significance of the area deriving from the cyclic fluctuation of its water bodies, we suggest Lydian kings selected Bin Tepe for burial to associate themselves with and co-opt local memories of heroes and sacred meanings. Thus, the development of Bin Tepe is considered from the perspective of the significance of its natural and conceptual landscapes. The meanings and memories of Bin Tepe in post-Lydian through recent times are assessed briefly, also, stressing its dynamic valuing as it was exploited for treasures and strategic qualities in war, plunder, and agriculture.
One of the most stimulating areas of research in the study of Anatolia’s multi-layered past is the complex reciprocal relationship between settlements, the countryside and their zones of transit. Through the tangible and intangible cultural and natural heritage, conclusions can be drawn about the socio-ecological metabolism – the continuous exchange of people with nature in order to reproduce and sustain the material requirements of a population as well as the set of flows within and between societies. Applying this concept, aspects such as the exploitation of resources, carrying capacities and catchment areas as well as communication and surveillance networks, administration and social hierarchies need to be examined. The interplay between these and other factors is of a complex processual character and poses the challenge of identifying interdependencies on the one hand of quantifiable parameters, such as the supply of resources for construction sites, and on the other hand, often biased and non-quantifiable sources, such as textual evidence on state and society.
The multi-layered history of Anatolia offers a strong foundation for diachronic and transdisciplinary exchange on socio-ecological approaches from prehistoric times to the Ottoman period.
Co-organized in partnership with Charles University and Tübingen University, the WANAT 2021 Symposium brings together scholars to present and discuss recent developments in interdisciplinary research on western Anatolia, as well as to discuss how to leverage shared information better and how to bridge research gaps. The first day of the program features thematically organized topics, including textual evidence, burial rites, chronology, pottery, economy, and culture contact. The second day focuses on specific western Anatolian sites and recent fieldwork.
This symposium aims not only to showcase recent research but also to engage with both specific evidence for climatic conditions or changes—textual, scientific, or other—and specific evidence for societal phenomena—archaeological, historical, or other—to discuss the complicated range of correspondences and/or correlations between them. Given such emphases, some (if not most) presentations are expected to be collaborative, co-authored efforts between those whose primary expertise is the human past (in the social sciences and humanities) and those whose primary expertise is proxy climate data (in the natural sciences). In this way, the symposium illustrates how such collaborative research helps to understand complex social and cultural change as well as the results of recent work relevant to the relationships between climate, environment, and society in Anatolia.
We aim to include a range of presentations that span the geographic entirety of Anatolia as well as cover the chronological periods of ANAMED’s primary mission, from Neolithic through Late Ottoman times. Contributions may touch on one or more of the many possible “pinch points” of the Anatolian past, including—for earlier periods—climatic interplays with early Neolithic ways of life, the “4.2 BP event” and the end of the Early Bronze Age, the Theran eruption, and aridity or climate volatility and the collapse of LBA societies, and—for later periods—re-evaluations or reconsiderations of the effects of the Roman Warm Period, Late Antique climatic oscillations, the Medieval Warm Period (or Climatic Anomaly), the Little Ice Age, the Tambora eruption, and mid- to late 19t h century famines. These are only some better-known topics of interest and are by no means exclusive. We will strive for a balance of approaches and chronological foci to allow for discussions that cut across particular periods and societies but that remain united by the common geography and climatic regimes of Anatolia.
In this workshop, jointly sponsored by Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED), the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT), and the Journal of Field Archaeology, we aim to bring together a small group of interested scholars for one day to discuss publishing archaeological data online in spatially queryable and displayable fashion, based on integration with existing platforms or via individually catered solutions. With a combination of short, 15-minute presentations from participants and general discussion, we would like to explore questions like these: What has been developed to date by individual archaeological projects and among archival platforms, what structures, protocols, and standards are available and recommended for textual, visual, geospatial, and 3D data, what hurdles can be expected and how can we deal with them, and how can projects with varied recording and classification systems work together?
Historical GIS, spatial humanities, spatial history, and deep mapping approaches can refer to the georeferencing of historical maps to modern Cartesian systems for subsequent digitization of sites, routes, and boundaries and interrogation via GIS analyses. They may also refer to the “spatialization” of aspatial data deriving from literary or archival sources, including evidence for urban topographies, early travelogues, or census data from the recent past, for example. They may incorporate data from the deeper past, as well, including both “born digital” data from archaeological projects and data that has only recently become digital. Similarly, these approaches have been applied on a variety of scales, from the site, to the city, province, region, and empire.
The primary aim for the symposium it to provide a forum where those active in relevant initiatives can share how “spatial webs” can be employed for research and public presentation. A desired outcome is a set of principles or proposals for how multi-period and multi-scalar datasets of diverse types but common geographies can be integrated (or at least standardized in ways to allow for integration) in ways that leverage their diachronic potential for longitudinal research across time and space. The primary common geographies and periods concerned are those of Anatolian civilizations in their most expansive sense, stretching across the eastern Mediterranean basin and spanning Neolithic through Ottoman times.