Ancient Anatolia

Brennan’ın kitabını önemli kılan birincil etken, yolculuğunu Irak savaşı başlamadan kısa süre önce, 2000 – 2001 yıllarında gerçekleştirmiş oluşudur. Ksenophon’un yolculuğuna tanıklık etmiş anıtların, kentlerin ve yeryüzü şekillerinin birçoğu, savaş süresince yok edilecektir. Oturduğumuz yerden bizi yolculuğa çıkaran bu kitap, gezi edebiyatının benzersiz bir örneğini oluşturmaktadır. Son yıllarda patlamaya hazır bir coğrafyaya dönüşen bölgede, okuyucuları Ksenophon’un izinden güvenle gezdirir. Geçmişin ve günümüzün anlatıldığı öyküler birbiriyle öyle dengeli harmanlanmıştır ki, okuyucu hem eğlenir hem de tarihe yönelik akademik bilgiler edinir. Brennan, dürüst ve açık anlatımıyla, yolculuğun getirdiği mutlulukları ve zorlukları tüm yalınlığıyla betimlemesiyle ve hem coğrafyaya hem kültürlere hem de kimisi dost canlısı, kimisi düşmanca davranan yerli halka dair gözlemleriyle, okuyucuyu kitabın içine çekip, yolculuğa çıkan okuyucunun kendisiymiş gibi hissettiriyor.
Prof. Jonathan Burgess (Toronto Üniversitesi)

MÖ 9. yüzyıldan itibaren Tuşpa merkezli olarak ortaya çıkan Urartu Krallığı’nın kuruluş süreci kaynakların kısıtlı olması nedeniyle tam anlamıyla açıklığa kavuşturulmuş değildir. Bu dönem genellikle Assur yazıtlarında geçen ‘Uruatri’ ve ‘Nairi’ gibi birtakım tanımlamalarla açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır. MÖ 13. yüzyıldan itibaren Assur kaynaklarında coğrafi birtakım adlandırmalar olarak kullanılan bu terimlerden Uruatri’nin Urartu Krallığı ile ilişkisi ancak MÖ 9. yüzyıldan itibaren kurulabilir. Bu ilişkinin kurulabilmesinde ise Urartulu kralların Assur karşısında ciddi bir siyasi rakip haline dönüşmesi etkilidir...

İ.Ö.1.binyılda, Helenistik dönem Anadolusu'nda güçlü bir krallık kuran Pergamon'un, güçlü kadınları ve kraliçelerinin kişilikleri bağlamında kısa tarihi. The Brief History of Pergamon Kingdom with the Context of Identity of Powerful Women and Queens of Pergamon.

The fact that the Achaemenids controlled Anatolia for two centuries provokes a question about the extent of Greek, Anatolian, and Persian contacts and exchange during this period. The growing
evidence for foreign domination has been accompanied by new and revised evidence of the region’s acculturation, which appears to have been a natural process. Archaeological finds from funerary contexts provide
a large amount of information and testify to the cosmopolitan art and culture. Artists and craftsmen spread their artistic styles far and wide along with iconographic norms closely connected to exchange networks, circulation of people, and common lifeways.

ALİNDA Aydın ili Karpuzlu ilçesi sınırlarında yer alan Alinda antik kenti, Karpuzlu Ovası'nın batısındaki bir tepenin güney ve doğu sırtlarında konumlanmıştır. Karia Bölgesi'nin en egzotik antik kentlerinden biri olan Alinda, bölgenin yöresel ana kayası olan Gnays taşından yapılmış mimari eserleriyle Karia kültürünün saf güzelliğini yansı-tır. Henüz arkelojik bir kazının yapılmadığı Alinda gerek bitki örtüsünün ve doğası-nın güzelliği, gerekse günümüze kadar korunmuş yapılarıyla bölgenin en güzel gezi parkurlarından birine sahiptir. Önündeki ovaya hâkim yüksek bir tepenin üzerine ve yamaçlarına konumlanan kentin stratejik yapısı, onu İÖ 2 binyıldan beri güçlü bir yerleşim haline getirmiştir. Kentin stratejik yapısının ne kadar güçlü olduğu Hitit metinlerinden de anlaşılabilir. Araştırmacıların Hitit kralı III. Hattuşili Dönemi'ne ait olduğunu düşündükleri Tawagalawa Mektubu'nun giriş bölümünde, Piyamaradu adlı bir kişinin Attarimma kentini tahrip ettiği, bunun üzerine Lukka insanlarının Ahhiyawa kralının kardeşi Tawagalawa ve Hitit kralından yardım talep ettikleri an-latılır. Sallapa ve Waliwanda (Alabanda) üzerinden ilerleyen Hitit kralı, Waliwanda kentine geldiğinde Piyamaradu'dan Iyalanda (Alinda) kentini boşaltmasını ister.

https://www.habelt.de
Nováková, L. 2019. Greeks who dwelt beyond the sea: people, places, monuments.  Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie 333. Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt. ISBN 978-3-7749-4216-5.
The Greek civilization, whose legacy remains visible to the present day, developed in several places on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Greeks often came into contact with different, sometimes significantly older and more developed cultures that helped them to advance in the sciences, arts and trade. One such crossroads of civilizations was Anatolia, a land that was the literal meeting place of east and west with an incredibly diverse population. This was reflected in the diversity of its cultures, languages and religions. There is a growing volume of new research – papers, articles and monographs – aimed at determining at least in part how these ancient societies defined themselves. The answer to this relatively complex question can only be sought in the written and archaeological evidence. We can get to know the Hellenes from written sources and their unique artistic heritage, while grave art helps to fill in the rich mosaic of their Anatolian neighbors. The term “Greeks dwelling beyond the sea” is a paraphrase of the name for the Greeks in foreign sources (Yaunā), which referred to the inhabitants of the distant lands beyond the western frontier of the Persian Empire. In this case, the term refers to the Greeks who crossed the Aegean Sea and settled on the Anatolian mainland and nearby islands.
https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2020/2020.09.34/

Este artigo trata do desenvolvimento de uma forma de trabalho que pode ser classificada como alienada ou extraída. O foco cronológico é do 5º ao 4º milênio a.C. na Mesopotâmiao período de Ubaid Tardio, Calcolítico Tardio 1 e Úruk. É nessa época que essa nova forma de trabalho se tornou um fenômeno generalizado. Retraçamos aqui as raízes dessa inovação, a contextualizamos e mostramos caminhos para investigá-la empiricamente.

From the Neolithic age mankind has transmitted the rituals of his own period after thousands of years with meaning attribution to megalithic structures. Within the history of civilization, different societies have developed their own building types and these constructions reflected the allegories of their own society. Expressions can be conveyed to concrete as painting, sign, color or figure, or can be kept alive in areas such as form, function, material and fittings as the subject of construction. All these facts should be considered as '' indicator '' in order to reveal the unique cultures. In this study a method for allegorical analyses was created and stylizations were drawn with the photographs of the tombs of Lycia. The analyzes are given under headings; function, form, facade, color-pattern, interior parts & component. With this allegorical critical analysis method, it will be possible to solve the hidden meanings in prehistoric and ancient historic period. Consequently allegory analysis study is also a research for the cultural significance on architectural constructs intensifies aesthetic and functional aspects. Öt: İnsanoğlu neolitik çağdan itibaren megalitik yapı gruplarına yüklediği anlamlar ile binlerce yıl sonrasına kendi dönemlerinin ritüellerini aktarmıştır. Uygarlık tarihi içinde farklı toplumlar kendi yapı tiplerini geliştirmişler ve bu yapılara kendi toplumlarının alegorilerini yansıtmışlardır. Çalışmada Lykia uygarlığı'nın özgün kültürünü ortaya çıkarmak için mezar yapıları, mimaride alegorik eleştirel analiz yöntemi doğrultusunda; işlev, cephe, donatı, renk-desen başlıkları altında incelenmiştir. Yapılan analizler, geliştirilen alegorik eleştirel analiz yönteminin, özellikle antik dönem mimarlık yapılarında uygarlıkların yaşamlarını, kültürlerini, duygularını anlamımıza yardımcı sistematik yol olduğunu kanıtlamıştır. Bu yöntemle özellikle prehistorik dönem insanlarının amaçlarını, tabletler gibi yazılı kaynakların olmadığı dönemlerde, alegorilerde saklı yan anlamlar üzerinden çözülebileceğini söylemek mümkün olacaktır. Benzeri tarihi mimari yapılarda kültürel anlamlar yüklemenin estetik ve işlevsel yönleri kuvvetlendirdiği görülmüştür. Anahtar Kelimeler: Mimari Alegoriler, Likya Mezar Yapıları, Antik dönem yapıları analizi, Alegori

I have tried to apply three criteria so far: 1) Genesis' proto-history contains allusions to historical peoples, shrouded by some well-known mythology in a period identifiable with the second half of the sixth century B.C. and Homeric Lycians comply to this description, because their myth goes back to Iron Age at least. 2) The second criterion is to give a paradigmatic value for Genesis to the Lycian myths in which the fight with a serpentine mythological enemy is involved. Certainly, if the "gestation period" for Genesis was late sixth century, then at that time Homeric epic cycles are a proof that certain themes were already circulating. Leto's mythical fight against Python fulfils this criterion, because she is a mother-goddess that might have provided a mirror for the "the mother of all living" Eve (Gn 3:20). With the due proportions, this parallelism between Eve and Leto comes to rescue the so-called "prophecy" of Gn 3:15 from nonsense. Eve and her seed are bound to fight the snake's seed in a narrative which has allowed the future enemies to talk to each other friendly. Among the Lycian myths which may be consistent with this original pattern of a "talkative monster", we should have a look at what is said about the Lycian warrior Amisodarus (or Isaras, LLES 243, 246; HE 41, 118, 164, 553), who fed the Chimera according to Homer (Il. 16.28). Besides, the Lycian adopted hero, Bellerophon, who slays the Chimera, a serpentiform monster, offspring of Echidna (Hesiod, Theogony 295-308), is available to represent the "seed of the woman" engaged in the mysterious fight described in Gn 3:15. From Bellerephon's myth we might draw inspiration to discover who is the people bound to challenge the celestial sphere in which Cain seems to inhabit. The Gygean Lake, not far from Sardis, the capital of Lydia, was home to Echidna and the birthplace of the Lydian royal lineage (Robert 1982 [1]: 334-352). 3) The third criterion is to check whether the application of a certain mythological framework is motivated by a historical background where to find the underlying ideological reasons. Lydia is the last great Anatolian empire before the arrival of the Persians and also the protagonist of an epoch-making betrayal, according to Herodotus, because Lydians revolt after the conquest, triggering the Persian plan to make a nation of merchants out of a race of warriors. At this point, another work hypothesis can be advanced: the clash between the two brothers Cain and Abel would represent the conflict between two eponymous heroes.

This chapter provides an overview of the patterns of agriculture in Anatolia during the Hellenistic and Roman periods in relation to themes such as the geography, agrarian land‐use strategies, types of crops and fruits, agricultural implements, land ownership, and divine protection. Besides evaluating the forms of evidence, it also underlines some contributions of the recent interdisciplinary researches conducted within the discipline of classical archaeology in Turkey to our general knowledge of ancient Anatolian agriculture. The results of this study also show that significant changes occurred in agricultural life with the Romanization process in order to create the province of Asia. These changes are particularly evident in the land ownership and management strategies.

In Hittite Landscape and Geography Mark Weeden and Lee Ullmann have gathered 28 specialist authors to present an up-to-date account of research on the Geography of Late Bronze Age Anatolia (second half of the second millennium BC) using information both from cuneiform texts and from archaeological excavation and survey. The study of texts and archaeology require different specialisms. This is the first time an attempt has been made to present a co-ordinated monograph-length view of Hittite geography since 1959, and the first time that any work has tried to balance archaeological and textual data for the same geographical areas. The result is a foundational research tool which will put scholarship on Hittite Geography on a firm footing for the future.

Chapter III (55)

How Roman Arms Came to Conquer the Successors of Alexander (55)

How Much More Successful Was the Roman Legion than the Macedonian Phalanx? (57)

The Best Soldiers versus the Best Formation (59)

Why the Greeks Were Shocked after Rome’s Domination of Macedon (60)

Final Thoughts on the Impact of Alexander on Polybius’ Work (63)

Nicomedia, modern İzmit, was first founded as a settlement in the Hellenistic period. The city has always been strategically important because of its commanding location and its safe harbour. Nicomedia’s important role as a center of power continued through the Roman and Byzantine periods. During these periods, several monuments; imperial and civil structures as well as religious ones were built while a number of imperial reconstruction projects were being accomplished in Nicomedia. Some of these ancient structures are temples built for the Emperor Augustus and Goddess Roma in 29 BC, aqueducts built in the time of Emperor Traianus, palaces, mint and hippodrome built by Diocletianus and baths of Antoninus.

Since 2005, with the ongoing archaeological surveys of Kocaeli Province, numerous architectural fragments have been found. Among these findings, there are several column pieces, pedestals, column capitals in different orders, architrave fragments, marble pieces of trigliph and geisopedes, parts of church templons and templon piers. In this study, the structural fragments from the Roman and Byzantine times found in Nicomedia will be outlined and these archaeological materials will be explained by being studied according to their chronological and geographical properties.

Keywords: Nicomedia, Roman, Byzantine, Ancient Structures, Architectural Fragments

ABSTRACT: This Ancient Near East and adjacent regions' resource guide represents an updated guide compiling diverse encyclopedae entries, book chapters, and various books (plus listing and reviewing many pertinent documentaries and Great Courses lecture series) currently in, or being obtained for, my institution's limited, but growing library holdings for student, public, and faculty use.  It may be of use for instructors with a similar range of resources in relatively small library collections, and will provide a basic starter guide for undergraduate and MA student papers. It aims mainly at Ancient Mesopotamia and adjacent areas, including Iran, the Indus Valley, Arabia, the Levant, Anatolia, and partly the Aegean and Egypt (the latter of which are covered more extensively by another guide). UPDATED: March 8, 2020, collating more sources into main guide, adding additional new items, etc.

The Temple of Artemis – a masterpiece of the famous Hellenistic architect Hermogenes – is considered one of the most important structures of Magnesia on the Meander and of the architectural history of Anatolia. There have been many studies on the temple and Hermogenes, and again many were produced on the date of the temple, its architecture and the active years of its architect. Along with the Temple of Artemis, many structures of Magnesia were associated with Hermogenes and dated to the late 3rd century and 2nd century BC. Among them is the Propylon situated on the Eastern Stoa of Agora, between Artemision of Magnesia and the Agora. As a consequence of its attribution to Hermogenes it is dated to the 2nd century BC by scholars.
Following excavations from 1993 until 2004, the architecture of the Propylon, its technical features and its craftsmanship were re-examined. The new findings differ considerably from the results published by Carl Humann in 1890–1893 and revealed unknown or wrong features of the structure. The paper will also discuss the question whether the building was constructed in 2nd century BC under the influence of Hermogenes or in the Augustan period under the influence of another famous architect of the time, Vitruvius.

Simpson, E., ed. The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, is a Festschrift celebrating the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Oscar Muscarella is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a formidable scholar who has excavated at sites in Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He has published eight books and nearly 200 articles, excavation reports, and reviews on topics ranging from the arts of antiquity and the importance of connoisseurship, to the difficulties of dating and the problems of forgeries, the looting of ancient sites, and the antiquities trade. The forty-seven contributors are experts in the areas of Muscarella's interests and are major scholars in their fields. This volume constitutes an unusual, important, and timely addition to the archaeological and art historical literature.

The following is chapter 1 (text and plates) from my PhD dissertation on the analysis of social interaction in west and central Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age (EBA, c.3200-1950 BC). The dissertation aims at identifying potential rationales for and mechanisms of exchange from the intra-settlement to the interregional scale, within the context of growing socio-economic and political complexity experienced by the local communities across the EBA. Through distributional and contextual analysis of a large range of case studies, this dissertation explores how different products, raw materials, technological knowledge and cultural behaviours circulated within Anatolia, and does so both by mapping likely flows of goods and ideas and by analysing the context of artefact use and deposition. It also investigates how increasing degrees of organization affected patterns of exchange, both at the production (specialisation, scale and intensity of production) and the circulation stages (presence of specialised exchange intermediaries, innovations in transport technology, investment in road infrastructure, control over routes). This research further attempts to reconstruct the structure of physical and social networks in EBA Anatolia, looking at how topographic and cultural constraints funnelled movement (and hence interaction) along specific landscape corridors. Lastly, it explores the role played by rising local elites and the importance of Anatolia’s vast metal resources in the process of expansion of long-distance exchange networks, which ultimately allowed the integration of Anatolia within the Near Eastern and Aegean worlds towards the end of the EBA.

This extensive book (2 volumes, 134 pages of sources and modern bibliography, 716 pages of main text, prosopographical lists and index, 4046 references) -based on the research of my PhD thesis- examines in depth the administrative and military organization of the Anatolian / Asiatic regions of the Byzantine Empire (i.e. Eastern border and Central Asia Minor) during the 11th century AD.

Moreover, it describes in detail the political and military developments by region.

Finally, it attempts to trace and evaluate the most important causes that led to the collapse of Byzantine sovereignty in the above geographical areas after the mid. 11th century: internal political instability; overexposure of the new established Byzantine border to vast and inhomogeneous regions (Armenia, northern Mesopotamia, Cilicia, northern Syria); hostility of some of the local populations and their leadership to the local Byzantine authorities and (in general) to the imperial sovereignty and rule; Turkish military pressure across the whole imperial eastern border and the interior; difficulty in dealing with the new enemy for a variety of reasons (agility, multidimension etc.); new administrative and military organization (δουκάτα / doukates, κατεπανάτα / katepanates etc.) that had not yet fully established and properly consolidated, when if faced the deadly external threat; insufficient local leadership and fragmentation of command; personal interests and actions that led to confusion, segregation and dissolution; lack of sufficient military and economic resources; inadequate or bad diplomatic choices from the central and regional administration; decline of the old thematic system and the military organization in the interior of Asia Minor; consequent lack of defense in depth, poor regular and tactical organization, discouragement of imperial local armies and troops.

Extensive prosopographical catalogues of the political and military imperial officers, who served in the above areas during the 11th century AD, are also listed (based on the information provided primary by the known sigillographic evidence and other epigraphic material and -of course- the written sources).

[Centre for Byzantine Research. Byzantine Texts and Studies 43A-B, Thessaloniki 2007, ISBN: 978-960-7856-22-7, text in Greek language]

The Anatolian lands have hosted numerous civilizations because of their geopolitical position between Asia and Europe, favorable climate, possibilities of agriculture and animal husbandry, and trade routes. These civilizations; have built cities and settlements, at prehistoric and post-historic periods which some of them was interacting with each other.Settlements are shaped by regional data and conditions like traditions. The influence of the life of Anatolian people and the structure of society is clearly seen in this formation and shaping. The designs of the places that make up the settlements and the cities bear traces of the unique culture and art of the Anatolian peninsula. For the first people in Anatolia, the beginning of the adventure of construction has been started with designing spaces at caves and the religious centers that were built by gigantic stones. For centuries, they have designed rational spaces and accessory elements without an advanced technology that has reached today. The most specific details are reached from NevaliÇori, Hacilar, Cayonu, Catalhoyuk and Kultepe that were built in prehistoric times. At the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the development of architectural and cultural areas on the Anatolian lands which the Greater Hittite Empire called "Hatti Country",reached the Advanced degree. But this development has been undermined by the migration of sea peoples. As a result of this, Anatolia has entered into a great collapse in architectural and cultural sense. Late Hittite, Phrygian, Urartu, Lykian and Lydian Civilizations that were established centuries later and the level of space and accessory designs reached at the time of the former Hatti country. Every civilization has interacted with each other, or took further the development of architectural designs with their own unique solutions. With this thesis study it is understood that Anatolia has brought a rich heritage to today's architecture in terms of space and accessory design. Research has shown that many of the details and design principles we are using on Anatolia are not a novelty that the Western world has brought to us.

Commensal behaviour, and in particular wine consumption, is an important field to which strategies of self-identity can be applied. The ethnographic surveys of the Ionian historian Herodotus focus on the cultural and social differences that he believes separate other peoples from the Greeks. This paper examines in what ways he associates wine drinking among the Persians with cultural sophistication, luxury and the good life in general. The dominant view among Greek writers of the Classical period was that luxury was reducible to decadence, and Herodotus is no exception. His detailed accounts of excessive Persian wine drinking and a decaying Persian society are the outcomes of his idea of historical causation, which predominantly is applied to the Achaemenid Empire. Even if he is inclined to explain cultural differences by reference to climate, geography and political system, analysing how these differences arise and change with time, he resorts to literary images and stereotypes about Persian society. This narrative feature, which ultimately derives from his background as oral performer, prevents him from grasping the ideological dimensions of the Persian display of luxury.