Since it was my good fortune to begin working in Anatolia while Seton Lloyd was Director of the Ankara Institute, and to enjoy his friendly encouragement for several years, I am glad to have the opportunity of dedicating this article to him.

In June, 1958, the following inscription was discovered by the writer in Yazdamıköy, one of a group of villages near the ancient site of Isaura (Zengibar Kalesi), which is situated on a mountain crest some 10 km. east of Bozkır and the valley of the Çarşamba Çayı. Large quantities of material from the site have been recorded within these villages since Hamilton first visited the area in 1837. There can, therefore, be little doubt about the provenance of this particular block of limestone, slightly moulded at the top, broken bottom left and to right; H. 0·34, W. 0·93, Th. unknown (buried behind), letters 2·5 cm.

Within the past few years not a little has been written about the relationship between Heinrich Schliemann and Frank Calvert (see, for example, Traill, Calder 1986; Traill 1995; Robinson 1994; 1995; Allen 1999). The central thesis of these studies is that Schliemann mistreated Calvert in every possible way, not only financially, but also intellectually. For instance, ‘Schliemann's egotism and false claims have robbed Calvert of his proper place in the history of archaeology’ (Traill 1984).

Such statements give the impression that Calvert was a better scholar than Schliemann and that there is still a good deal in his work, as there is in that of Schliemann, which can help us. From the above interpretation by Traill one could almost believe that it is a distinct loss that Calvert has become nothing but a footnote in the works of Schliemann and that it is high time for a revaluation. Robinson is the most ardent exponent of this attempted revision. She is of the view that the world was duped by Schliemann, and that everything would have been done much better by Calvert. If truth be spoken, Schliemann has robbed us of the knowledge that Calvert would have given.

Statistical analysis of Carl Blegen's pottery sequence using Correspondence Analysis (CA) suggests a gap of 100–200 years between his Troy III and IV periods. From the Manfred Korfmann excavations three stratigraphic sequences hitherto assigned to Troy IV and V appear to bridge it. This allocation is based on stratigraphic/architectural grounds and on the observable development in ceramic shapes and wares. Heinrich Schliemann's pottery sequence from 1870–1873 is also analysed by CA and found to compare well with Blegen's (with limited exceptions probably due to the larger scope of his excavations), but it does not exhibit the same gap. This suggests that during the ‘bridge’ period occupation shrank to the summit on the western end of the citadel mound. This ‘bridge’ period of seven or more building phases has a distinctive ceramic assemblage and may be called the Proto-IV period. It is broadly contemporary with Middle Helladic I, Beycesultan VIII–VI, Küllüoba II and the Tarsus Early Bronze to Middle Bronze transitional period. Careful re-evaluation of the radiocarbon evidence dates it to ca 2150–1990 cal. BC. Botanical and faunal evidence from the strata in question attests significantly drier climatic conditions which, together with the smaller size of the settlement, probably reflect the 4.2ka cal. BP climatic deterioration.

Examination of a number of satellite and aerial images of the Milesian peninsula has allowed the mapping of a large number of apparently ancient linear features across the landscape. These are here interpreted, for the most part, as relicts of agro-economic field systems of unknown date, but most plausibly established during the Archaic, Hellenistic or late antique periods and perhaps used for centuries after, before the economic decline of the region in the second millennium AD. While earlier survey work has noted the existence of terracing and rural divisions at certain points in the landscape, the new remote-sensing data have provided an unprecedented large-scale insight into the extent and variety of forms of division, as well as documenting the stripping of macquis overgrowth by modern farming practices, which has, on the one hand, exposed these ancient landscapes but also, on the other, poses a threat to their preservation. The extent of the linear features suggests a high degree of land use on the peninsula at certain points in the past. Further investigation of these important features has the potential to provide critical insights into the economic history of rural and urban Miletos over the last 2,000 to 5,000 years.

Through analysis of a figurine assemblage from the site of Koçumbeli-Ankara, this study aims to re-evaluate the origins, meanings and functions of the Early Bronze Age (third millennium BC) anthropomorphic figurines of Anatolia. Conventional typological approaches to figurines are often focused on their origins and sex; however, such approaches hinder an understanding of the context of the norms of production, display and discard within which the figurines become more meaningful. Following an examination of breakage patterns and the decorative aspects of the Koçumbeli assemblage, a comparative review of figurine find contexts, raw materials and abstraction scales in Anatolia is provided, so that the social concerns underlying the use of these figurines can be explored. It is concluded that the origins of the figurines are difficult to pinpoint, due to the presence of similar items across a variety of regions of the Near East from the later Neolithic onwards. The sex of the figurines is equally ambiguous; while some human sexual features can be discerned, it is difficult to decide whether these features are ‘male’, ‘female’, both or beyond classification. Alternatively, the decoration, breakage and find contexts of the figurines suggest that the imagery was embedded in more complex perceptions of social status, death and social regeneration. The need for materialisation of these concerns in the form of the figurines could be related to the development of a new social landscape of interaction leading to political centralisation by the second millennium BC. Furthermore, the figurines were produced through a meaningful linking of particular raw materials and particular abstraction scales to particular use contexts, which seems to have shifted during the centralisation process.

This article, which concerns six inscriptions from Galatia, is dedicated with gratitude to Seton Lloyd, whose wide-ranging scholarship, shrewd guidance and unstinted generosity provided a constant inspiration to those of us fortunate enough to have lived and worked in the Institute in its early days. I hope he will find it appropriate that the text brings together allusions to the traditional epigraphical links between the University of Aberdeen and Anatolia, and illustrations of the kindly attitudes of the Turkish village folk towards nomadic epigraphers.

A bowl with an incised heroic combat scene was found at the Hittite capital of Boğazköy and dates to the end of the 15th/beginning of the 14th century BC. This article reconsiders this previously published bowl, its production history and the message it conveys. The warrior is usually identified as Mycenaean, and in previous studies the bowl has been considered only for its incised decoration without evaluation of the bowl itself, its context and associated finds. This article argues that the bowl had a physical journey from Rough Cilicia to Hattusa and a non-physical journey from being a simple everyday object to a unique artwork through the secondary carving of an image, which reflects dualistic aspects.

In the summer of 2012 Oylum Höyük yielded its first Hittite cuneiform tablet and thus joined five other Hittite tabletyielding sites in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria. The tablet was probably removed from a nearby Hittite imperial-period monumental building, which seems to have been the Hittites’ administrative centre at Oylum, and incorporated into Iron Age debris. The wording of the text, in its preserved parts, shares traits with Hittite state treaties. It also has striking similarities with Hittite instruction texts, due to the generic affinities between these two genres. However, on the basis of the overall structure of the Oylum tablet and, most significantly, the inclusion of a list of oath gods at the end of the text, it is proposed that we are dealing here with a treaty. This article clarifies the genre and comprehensible context of the tablet, provides a transliteration and, as far as it is possible, a translation of the text, provides some philological comments and ends with the suggestion that the ancient name of Oylum Höyük was Ḫaššu(wa).

Of the increasing number of Roman gemstones from Turkey published from museum and private collections, nearly all lack a secure archaeological context. Consequentially, it has been difficult to discuss the origin, production or dissemi¬nation of gemstones in Anatolia during the imperial period. Excavations in the cemeteries at Gordion have yielded over a dozen carved intaglios typical of the first to the fourth century AD. Three of the gems are cut in a relatively rare octagonal form, an eight-sided shape which achieved limited popularity during the late imperial period but has yet to receive scholarly treatment. The recent recovery of similar late Roman octagonals from other central Anatolian sites has indicated strongly that this particular gemstone type was popular and possibly produced locally in central Turkey. Examination of octagonals as a distinct group, via analyses of gem type, dimension, provenance, date and iconographic representation as evident in a newly-constructed corpus of 185 examples, appears to provide additional support for this theory. It is suggested here that the octagonal shape held numeric and symbolic significance among the military and early Christian communities of central Turkey, where a permanent workshop catering to that mixed clientele possibly existed in at least one of the principal urban centres, at Ancyra and/or Caesarea.

The Church of St Mary is one of the most significant monuments of Ephesos, but also one of the most enigmatic. Its repeated modifications prior to its destruction created an amalgam of different phases that have proven difficult to decipher within the present remains. Written records and inscriptions suggest that this church was the venue of the riotous Ecumenical Council of AD 431, but the identification of the phase of the building that corresponds to this event is controversial. And, although the remains make it clear that at some point the church was transformed into a domed basilica, the latter’s form and date have not been established with certainty. The present article tries to fill these lacunae through a new survey of the remains of the church and a re-examination of the evidence from the archaeological excavations of the 20th century. This new investigation of wall structures and design patterns within the remains leads to new interpretations of the evidence, and sheds further light on the history of the Church of St Mary from its late antique origins to the Dark Ages.

Dr. Richard Barnett has had a long-standing interest in Urartu, manifested most recently in his chapter in the new Cambridge Ancient History, and early represented by his article on “The Excavations of the British Museum at Toprak Kale near Van” over thirty years before, in 1950. Among the finds in the important Toprak Kale collection in the British Museum were parts of what Dr. Barnett described as a “bewigged garment of lead”, and this piece (BM. 123870) has become familiar from his illustration (Pl. XXXVa).

It was found during the excavations conducted on behalf of the British Museum at Toprak Kale in 1880 by Captain E. Clayton and Dr. G. C. Raynolds, who undertook the work at the request of Hormuzd Rassam, in whose name Sir Henry Layard had obtained an excavation permit. Clayton and Raynolds excavated two main areas on Toprak Kale, one representing the Temple of Haldi, and the other, some fifty feet to the south, where a “pavement” was uncovered and a number of ivory objects and fragments of ivory and bronze were found, in Clayton's words, “in this excavation near the level of the pavement …” Though he makes no mention of lead, the lead fragments under discussion were associated with the ivory, and were presumably mistaken by him for fragments of bronze. This group is probably to be dated in the later part of the ninth, or the eight century B.C.

A new building inscription (no. 1) from Oinoanda, found beside the baths building Ml 1 in 2011, dedicates the building to the Roman emperor Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian in AD 73. This article places the new find in the setting of the whole building complex, including the adjacent building Ml 2, which is likely to be a palaistra (wrestling-school), though rebuilt over a century later. The inscription supplies new evidence for the date of the governor of Lycia-Pamphylia, Firmus. It also points to the existence of earlier baths, which is compared to other similar indications from elsewhere in Lycia. A second, but illegible, inscription was recorded in 2012, outside a doorway leading from building Ml 1 into the peristyle building Ml 2 (no. 2). A third inscription on a statue base in building Ml 2 was also recorded (no. 3), along with two other illegible statue-base inscriptions (nos 4 and 5). The article places them in the context of the inscribed monuments found earlier at the building complex (nos 6 and 7), which may have included the small building Ml 3, and discusses them in the light of the broader phenomenon of Julio-Claudian and Flavian baths buildings in the region, and the role of the provincial governors and procurators in overseeing such building projects. This allows us to draw some conclusions about the nature and impact of Roman rule in first-century Lycia, which brought within the reach of many Lycian cities piped water, Italian-style bathing and new, improved facilities for the regionally popular heavy athletic sports of boxing, wrestling and pankration (unarmed combat).

The Maraş and Sakçagözü valley surveys on the east side of the Amanus mountains provide new data regarding patterns of Hittite territorial management and administration. Sites dating to the Late Bronze Age II period were identified by the presence of burnished pottery, drab ware and, occasionally, by animal-shaped ceramic vessel fragments. The standardised drab ware pottery is emblematic of mass production and rigid control of labour sources and raw materials through systems designed to support the economic and political strategies of the Hittite court and to serve its interests. The settlement pattern is linked to Hittite regional needs for agricultural production, raw materials and territorial security. The distinct site location pattern indicates a strategic, restrained use of space by the Hittites. This left room for beneficial integrative features that local élites might emphasise for their own purposes, which comprise a foundation for the prestige later accorded to the Hittite legacy.

This article examines the introduction of stereotomic ablaq marble geometric interlace into the architecture of Rum Seljuq Anatolia in the early 13th century CE. It is a study of the subsequent developments and changes to the constituent motifs in the following decades, before its eventual decline. Attention starts with the Zangid and Ayyubid origins of the technique, in the mihrabs of several madrasas in Aleppo, and moves on to examine the ways in which the pattern mutated and the style of execution shifted over time. A distinctively Anatolian architectural motif emerged throughout the course of the 13th century CE, primarily on monuments built in and around Konya. The possible meanings encoded within the geometric forms, and how they changed over time, are examined, as are the uses of dragon-like forms. Related figural secular examples in Iraq are studied to demonstrate the overt use of the same symbols. The article concludes with an examination of the later uses of related forms, which look similar but do not appear to be encoded with the same semiotic meanings. Ultimately it can be seen that it was the motifs rather than the techniques, first developed in Aleppo in the 12th century CE, that were more widely used in Anatolia in the 13th century CE.

Among the works of Professor John Garstang, The Land of the Hittites (1910), with its new version The Hittite Empire (1929), will remain a classic. What makes this book most valuable is the emphasis laid upon the setting of the Hittite monuments. It therefore seems appropriate to devote these pages, which are meant as a small token of gratitude to the master, to problems of this kind.