Christopher H. Roosevelt

Understanding the varied and dynamic interactions between environment and society in Anatolia. In recent decades, the influences of environmental and climatic conditions on past human societies have attracted significant attention from both the scientific community and the general public. Anatolia’s location at the conjunction of Asia, Europe, and Africa and at the intersection of three climatic systems makes it well suited for the study of such effects. In particular, Anatolia challenges many assumptions about how climatic factors affect the socio-political organization and historical evolution, highlighting the importance of close collaboration between archaeologists, historians, and climate scientists. Integrating high-resolution archaeological, textual, and environmental data with longer-term, low-resolution data on past climates, this volume of essays, drawn from the fifteenth International ANAMED Annual Symposium (IAAS) at Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, showcases recent evidence for periods of climate change and human responses to it, exploring the causes underlying societal change across several millennia.

Spatial Webs charts the cultural heritage and identity of Anatolia, focusing on projects that incorporate Geographic Information Systems and other analytical tools in spatially significant research into the past. An important new contribution to archaeology and cultural heritage research, the volume brings together multidisciplinary researchers engaged in creating and using spatialized data resources for interactive web-mapping applications. The topics explored include sociospatial differentiation in bostancibasi registers, identity mapping the Jewish communities of medieval Anatolia, and the Turkey Cultural Heritage Map of the Hrant Dink Foundation.

The articles of this volume offer a rich diversity of perspectives on philanthropy as practiced in Anatolia over some 2500 years. From such an extensive set of investigations, one would expect to compose a coherent synthetic statement on the nature of Anatolian philanthropy as well as some proposals for how to develop further a meaningful program of research on the topic. It turns out that the latter is far easier than the former; although this volume contains twenty original studies, they do not ultimately clarify either the definition of philanthropy or any essential aspect of Anatolia. The reflections below address first what might be called “the problem with philanthropy” and “the ambiguity of Anatolia.” Once these waters are sufficiently muddied, it nonetheless emerges that a program of research on the topic is possible and even promising. The First International Suna and Inan Kiraç Symposium on Mediterranean Civilization - March 26-29, 2019, Antalya

In The Archaeology of Lydia, from Gyges to Alexander, Christopher Roosevelt provides the first overview of the regional archaeology of Lydia in western Turkey, including much previously unpublished evidence as well as a fresh synthesis of the archaeology of Sardis, the ancient capital of the region. Combining data from regional surveys, stylistic analyses of artefacts in local museums, ancient texts, and environmental studies, he presents a new perspective on the archaeology of this area. Roosevelt situates the archaeological evidence within frameworks established by evidence for ancient geography, environmental conditions, and resource availability and exploitation to assess the importance of Lydian landscapes under Lydian and Achaemenid rule. This book considers the significance of evidence of settlement and burial at Sardis and beyond for understanding Lydian society as a whole and the continuity of cultural traditions across the transition from Lydian to Achaemenid hegemony.

In The Archaeology of Lydia, from Gyges to Alexander, Christopher Roosevelt provides the first overview of the regional archaeology of Lydia in western Turkey, including much previously unpublished evidence as well as a fresh synthesis of the archaeology of Sardis, the ancient capital of the region. Combining data from regional surveys, stylistic analyses of artefacts in local museums, ancient texts, and environmental studies, he presents a new perspective on the archaeology of this area. Roosevelt situates the archaeological evidence within frameworks established by evidence for ancient geography, environmental conditions, and resource availability and exploitation to assess the importance of Lydian landscapes under Lydian and Achaemenid rule. This book considers the significance of evidence of settlement and burial at Sardis and beyond for understanding Lydian society as a whole and the continuity of cultural traditions across the transition from Lydian to Achaemenid hegemony.