TRACE 2023 – Tree rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology, 8-13 May 2023, Coimbra, Portugal, 2023
This paper is a critical overview of our dendroarchaeological case-studies in Turkey within the f... more This paper is a critical overview of our dendroarchaeological case-studies in Turkey within the framework of the Balkan-Aegean Dendrochronology Project: “Tree-Ring Research for the Study of SE-European and East Mediterranean Civilizations” with a discussion of existing challenges and prospects for the future. Tree-ring research and dendrochronology were formally introduced to archaeology of Turkey as early as the 1970s through Peter I. Kuniholm’s pioneering study on a 2750-year-old Iron Age tumulus housing a wooden burial chamber built of juniper logs with nearly 900 rings, the oldest known standing wooden structure in the world. This work together with his subsequent dating projects resulted in long regional tree-ring chronologies covering mostly the late antique and Ottoman periods in the wider Mediterranean region. The main goal of our project was to revive and build on this work through new collaborations, materials and perspectives in such a landscape full of huge archaeological potential offering a diverse set of data and questions on ancient societies. Another major goal was to extend such existing chronologies, identify problems, and fill in the gaps especially for the second and first millennia BCE, a time period that witnessed the rise and fall of many great polities in ancient Anatolia, such as the Hittites and the Phrygians, the emergence and disruption of long-distance trade networks, and a major crisis resulting in a new “house of cards”. Besides dating of a number of exceptional Late Bronze Age contexts, such as the 3500-year-old sacred spring of ancient Nerik, and identification of wood species and their origins, such as the Black pine timber posts used by the Early Bronze Age inhabitants of Seyitömer Höyük ca. 4700 years ago, we were able to identify issues arising from the quality, quantity, and management of available material. Our revisit to existing Anatolian tree-ring chronologies has revealed that sequences from Bronze and Iron Ages are still floating and represent only a small fraction of what has been unearthed thus far. During fieldwork we also observed a general loss of interest in dendrochronology among archaeologists, probably caused by the increasing popularity of other forms of absolute dating and long disappearances of dendrochronologists especially in less-favored areas. Our ultimate goal is to restore and foster the role of dendroarchaeology in shaping and answering questions on human past and environment while outlining prospects for the future in collaboration with local researchers in a geography offering many great challenges but full of surprises.
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remains from numerous archaeological sites in the East Aegean region. Charcoal pieces dating from Late Bronze Age to Byzantine/Late Roman have been examined at archaeological sites in the Peloponnese and in Crete (Greece), but also at key excavation sites in Turkey. In all cases charcoal wood identification corresponded to local timber, including—but not exclusive to—species that are useful for dendrochronology, such as deciduous oaks (Quercus spp.) and several conifers like cedar (Cedrus spp.), cypress (Cypressus sempervirens), low altitude pines (P. halepensis and P. brutia), and high-altitude black pine (P. nigra). Absolute dating was achieved at some of the examined study sites, but the results should be considered with caution, due to the continued scarcity and uncertainty of relevant reference chronologies.
This research project makes use of The Garden of the Mosques in order to map, with the help of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), the location and distribution of hamams as a significant urban amenity and socio-economic institution within Istanbul’s cityscape. An earlier study of similar nature—combining GIS with data extracted from a 1752 Ottoman archival source that lists in great detail all of the city’s male hamam employees—already exists. Therefore, a comparison between these two will allow us to consider the following questions: How did the urban landscape and the hamams’ place within it change over time? What new questions and answers may emerge from a study on the same monuments within the time-span of a few decades? And, on a methodological level, how does the different nature of the sources influence the processes of digitally mapping architectural and urban heritage?
RI24 PHRYGIAN IDENTITIES, IDENTIFYING PHRYGIA MATHEMATICS BUILDING - ROOM 417
Chair: Dr. Catherine Draycott
Organiser(s): Dr. Catherine Draycott, Ms. Yasemin Özarslan, Prof. Hakan Sivas
http://eaaglasgow2015.com/session/phrygian-identities-identifying-phrygia/
Over the past few decades the archaeology of Phrygia has seen important new developments. Explorations at Gordion, identified as the central seat of the Iron Age Kingdom of Phrygia have readjusted the stratigraphy, showing overlaps of Hittite and Phrygian period occupation, and dramatically moving the heyday of the site back to the 9th century BC. Surveys at the same site are expanding understanding of the site’s limits and later occupation, while those in the Phrygian Highlands to the West have discovered new monuments from various periods. The discovery of Phrygian inscriptions and new sculptures at the site of Kerkenes Dağ east of the Kızılırmak River (the ancient Halys) has expanded the territory thought to have been occupied by Phrygian speaking groups.
Although new discoveries have been rich, however, so far there has been little overall consideration of approaches to Phrygia and Phrygian culture as larger concepts. Usually considered to be immigrants from the Balkans, who entered Anatolia at around the turn of the first millennium BC, this origin ‘myth’ sets up notions of ethnic purity and cultural contiguity that continue to inform Phrygian archaeology. Are Phrygians a ‘pure’ race? How does one identify ‘Phrygians’ and define ‘Phrygian culture’? Is it consistent and stable or does it change over time and space? How are definitions of Phrygia and Phrygians entangled with modern notions of national and ethnic identity?
Please note: the published abstracts booklet erroneously includes the pre-edited versions of abstracts for the papers. The document uploaded here includes the correct versions.
Session Programme:
08:00 – 08:10 Introduction
08:10 – 08:30 The Archaeological Implications of the “Phrygian Wanax”, Öztürk, H (University of Cincinnati / ASCSA)
08:30 – 08:50 Phrygians vs. Neo-Hittites: reconsidering the political history of Central Anatolia in the Middle Iron Age, d’Alfonso, L (ISAW New York University)
08:50 – 09:10 Kingdom, Empire or Polity? Reassessing the nature of political authority in the Early-Middle Iron Age of central Anatolia, Krsmanovic, D (University of Leicester)
09:10 – 09:30 Phrygian or Phrygianized: A View from Kerkenes Dağ, a late Phrygian Capital East of the Halys River, Summers, G (University of Mauritius)
09:30 – 09:50 A New Rock-cut Necropolis from Western Phrygia (Demirkaya Necropolis), Sivas, H (Anadolu University)
09:50 – 10:00 Discussion
Coffee break
10:30 – 10:50 The practice of everyday’s identity in Roman Phrygia, Kelp, U (German Archaeological Institute)
10:50 – 11:10 The Findings of Aizanoi Graves and Interpreting, Özer, E (Pamukkale University); Özer, A
11:10 – 11:30 Two Sanctuaries from Aizanoi in Phrygia: Meter Steuene and Aba Sultan, Taşkıran, M (Pamukkale University); Özer, E
11:30 – 12:30 Discussion