Papers by Chris Roosevelt
Cartographic perspectives, May 29, 2024
This article explores a little-known archive of historical aerial photographs curated by the Gene... more 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.
Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakulta, 2020
This contribution presents the results of a pilot study of earthen materials excavated at the Mid... more 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 architecture, 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.
During the first season of excavations in 2014 at the Late Bronze Age (LBA) citadel of Kaymakçı (... more During the first season of excavations in 2014 at the Late Bronze Age (LBA) citadel of Kaymakçı (Manisa İli / TR) in western Anatolia, a bronze knife with a decorated handle was recovered (fig. ). It belongs to a small group of solid-hilted knives, known until recently only from Mycenae (Argolid / GR), Psychro Cave (Lasithi / GR), and a few other Aegean sites. Therefore, this item is especially important to scholarly debates on local western Anatolian identities and the role of Aegean and central Anatolian networks 1 . Western Anatolian 2 cultures in the 2 nd millennium BC remain relatively unexplored, particularly in comparison with the more established spheres of »Hittite« central Anatolia or the »Minoan« and »Mycenaean« Aegean. Excavations from Troy (Çanakkale İli / TR), Panaztepe (Izmir İli / TR), Limantepe (Izmir İli / TR), and Miletus (Aydın İli / TR) are helpful for understanding the Aegean coast 3 , and work at Aphrodisias (Aydın İli / TR), and Beycesultan (Denizli İli / TR) informs our understanding of the interior landscape (fig. ) 4 . Excavations at the citadel of Kaymakçı afford an opportunity to examine more closely how these two spheres interacted, effectively providing further evidence of East-West networks during the Middle and Late Bronze Age. The style of the knife from Kaymakçı potentially points to a tradition specific to western Anatolia. In the text that follows, the knife is discussed in its local, regional, and interregional context with a specific attention to comparanda from western Anatolia and the eastern Aegean. Fig. 1 The herringbone knife (inv. no. 81.551.34.7) from Kaymakçı (Manisa İli / TR). -(Photo M. Pieniążek; illustration M. Möck; © Gygaia Projects).
Digital Technology, Digital Practices: Incorporating Digital Techniques into Archaeological Excavation and Interpretation
Presented at the 2018 SAA in Washington, DC.
Agropastoral Economies and Land Use in Bronze Age Western Anatolia
Environmental Archaeology, 2021
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 ...
Open Archaeology, 2021
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 how archae...
Open Archaeology, 2021
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...
Agricultural practices at Bronze Age Kaymakçı, western Anatolia
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2021
Abstract Archaeobotanical analysis at Kaymakci, a second-millennium BCE site in western Turkey, g... more Abstract Archaeobotanical analysis at Kaymakci, 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 Kaymakci 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.
Quaternary International, 2019
In 2005 the Central Lydia Archaeological Survey (CLAS) identified an open-air Lower Paleolithic s... more 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.
American Journal of Archaeology, 2018
Current understandings of the archaeology of second-millennium B.C.E. central western Anatolia ar... more 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)(2015)(2016)(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. 1 1 For research permissions and assistance, we gratefully acknowledge the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism and its annual representatives Ö. Çavga, S. Yılmaz, L. Pancar, and N. Okan, as well as the Manisa Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, its current and former directors H. Güllü and S. Soyaker, and their staff.
European Journal of Archaeology, 2017
This article presents previously unknown archaeological evidence of a mid-second-millenniumbcking... more This article presents previously unknown archaeological evidence of a mid-second-millenniumbckingdom located in central western Anatolia. Discovered during the work of the Central Lydia Archaeological Survey in the Marmara Lake basin of the Gediz Valley in western Turkey, the material evidence appears to correlate well with text-based reconstructions of Late Bronze Age historical geography drawn from Hittite archives. One site in particular—Kaymakçı—stands out as a regional capital and the results of the systematic archaeological survey allow for an understanding of local settlement patterns, moving beyond traditional correlations between historical geography and capital sites alone. Comparison with contemporary sites in central western Anatolia, furthermore, identifies material commonalities in site forms that may indicate a regional architectural tradition if not just influence from Hittite hegemony.
Cup-Marks and Citadels: Evidence for Libation in 2nd-Millennium B.C.E. Western Anatolia
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.
Memory and Meaning in Bin Tepe, the Lydian Cemetery of the ‘Thousand Mounds’ (Plates 183–191)
Space, Politics, Culture and Religion in the First Millennium BC
This paper draws from five years of Central Lydia Archaeological Survey (CLAS) results (2005–2009... more 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 mem- ories 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 mem- ories 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.
Stone Alabastra in Western Anatolia
ABSTRACT
Archaeology: The Omnivore’s Delight
ABSTRACT
Journal of Field Archaeology, 2015
This article modifies an old archaeological adage-''excavation is destruction''-to demonstrate ho... more This article modifies an old archaeological adage-''excavation is destruction''-to demonstrate how advances in archaeological practice suggest a new iteration: ''excavation is digitization.'' Digitization, in a fully digital paradigm, refers to practices that leverage advances in onsite, image-based modeling and volumetric recording, integrated databases, and data sharing. Such practices were implemented in 2014 during the inaugural season of the Kaymakc ¸ı Archaeological Project (KAP) in western Turkey. The KAP recording system, developed from inception before excavation as a digital workflow, increases accuracy and efficiency as well as simplicity and consistency. The system also encourages both practical and conceptual advances in archaeological practice. These involve benefits associated with thinking volumetrically, rather than in two dimensions, and a connectivity that allows for group decision-making regardless of group location. Additionally, it is hoped that the system's use of almost entirely ''off-the-shelf'' solutions will encourage its adoption or at least its imitation by other projects.
Iron Age Western Anatolia: The Lydian Empire and Dynastic Lycia
A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 2012
ABSTRACT
«The Central Lydia Archaeological Survey: Documenting the Prehistoric through Iron Age Periods»
… : Papers Presented in Honor of Peter Ian Kuniholm, 2009
ABSTRACT
Recherche, 2009
In The Archaeology of Lydia, From Gyges to Alexander, Christopher H. Roosevelt provides the first... more In The Archaeology of Lydia, From Gyges to Alexander, Christopher H. Roosevelt provides the first overview of the regional archaeology of Lydia in western Turkey, including much previously unpublished evidence and a fresh synthesis of the archaeology of Sardis, the ancient capital of the region. Combining data from regional surveys, stylistic analyses of artifacts in local museums, ancient texts, and environmental studies, he presents a new perspective on the archaeology of this area. To assess the importance of Lydian landscapes under Lydian and Achaemenid rule, roughly between the seventh and fourth centuries BCE, Roosevelt situates the archaeological evidence within frameworks established by evidence for ancient geography, environmental conditions, and resource availability and exploitation. Drawing on detailed and copiously illustrated evidence presented in a regionally organized catalogue, 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.
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Papers by Chris Roosevelt