Hitherto these articles have been concerned with texts which were at least partially known to Assyriologists from other sources. The composition now presented is not only new but unique in character, and it gives me great pleasure that the translation of this, in some ways the showpiece of the Sultantepe collection, should appear in a volume which is planned as a tribute of admiration and gratitude to the founder and President of the Institute.

It has been said that “the man of Mesopotamia was a stranger to laughter: never, it seems, did he learn to relax”. The present text belies this statement, for it is nothing less than a humorous tale, recognizable as the prototype (at least in part) of one actually preserved in a manuscript of the Arabian Nights.

The work presented here is the result of visits to the site of Comana Cappadociae, at Şar, in the kaza of Mağara, in the vilayet of Adana, on a number of occasions in the years 1963–65. In 1963 I was assisted with a grant by the University of Durham; in 1964 I was Scholar, and in 1965 Librarian, of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. In the course of these visits I have been able to copy a number of previously unrecorded inscriptions and also to check, and sometimes correct, the reading of a number of others that have survived since the major activity of copyists at the site in the 1880's and 1900's. It seemed useful, while publishing these new and corrected inscriptions, to collect together from their various places of publication and republication what I hope are all the known inscriptions of the “Holy City” of Cappadocia. I list here the publications which contain inscriptions from Şar, preceded by the abbreviations used to refer to them in this article.

During the summer of 1999 members of the Upper Tigris Archaeological Research Project (UTARP) conducted archaeological excavations and surveys at two sites in the upper Tigris river region of southeastern Turkey. This article presents the results of that research. At the site of Boztepe excavations yielded four Halaf period burials, all of which contained grave goods, and an Iron Age house dated by C14 to the Assyrian Imperial period. Intensive surveys at Talavaş Tepe and Boztepe have refined the chronology and size of both sites. Although the exposures of the Halaf period are very small, these data add important insights into Halaf mortuary practices, while evidence from both Boztepe and Talavaş Tepe supplements our understanding of the upper Tigris river region during the Iron Age.

Sites of ceramic production have been discovered throughout the area that was once the Roman Empire; as a result, it is becoming increasingly clear that this industry was, in the Roman and late antique worlds, organised in numerous ways. In consideration of the organisational diversity in ceramic production attested during the period, this article presents some of the findings from the excavations of a late antique complex of ceramic workshops at the site of Sagalassos in order to consider archaeological evidence in terms of, not only the organisation of the manufacturing process, but also structures of workshop decision-making. Several lines of archaeological evidence are outlined, and argue for a model of independent work units integrated into a larger organisational structure of decision-making, and possibly even ownership, across the complex. In addition, the motivation to invest in a multi-workshop complex during the late antique period at Sagalassos is contextualised within the wider history of local and regional economic development.

Scholars have recently investigated the efficacy of applying globalisation models to ancient cultures such as the fourth-millennium BC Mesopotamian Uruk system. Embedded within globalisation models is the ‘complex connectivity‘ that brings disparate regions together into a singular world. In the fourth millennium BC, the site of Çadır Höyük on the north-central Anatolian plateau experienced dramatic changes in its material culture and architectural assemblages, which in turn reflect new socio-economic, sociopolitical and ritual patterns at this rural agro-pastoral settlement. This study examines the complex connectivities of the ancient Uruk system, encompassing settlements in more consistent contact with the Uruk system such as Arslantepe in southeastern Anatolia, and how these may have fostered exchange networks that reached far beyond the Uruk ‘global world‘ and onto the Anatolian plateau.

This paper presents the initial results of an epigraphic survey of a Roman imperial estate, carried out in 2014 in northern Choria Considiana, today encompassing the area of Mihalıççık in Eskişehir, located between the Sakarya (Sangarios) river to the north and the Porsuk (Tembris) river to the south. The paper focuses on ten funerary inscriptions found in situ in the Çalçak Roman necropolis, 4km distant from Dinek village in Mihalıççık. All these inscriptions, found on the northern edge of the Choria Considiana, contain information relating to the social and economic status of the inhabitants of the estate, and also offer evidence about stone quarries and stonemasonry in the region. The paper begins with a presentation of the historical geography of the region, and then evaluates the new inscriptions against the existing evidence about the Choria Considiana with reference to the social and economic infrastructure of the area; important questions about the social, economic and cultural life of the region are posed. The article concludes with a catalogue of the inscriptions.

In the summers of 1994–1998 a rescue excavation took place at Kilise Tepe, an archaeological site occupied from the Early Bronze Age to the Byzantine period, located in the Göksu valley in Cilicia in southern Turkey. This article analyses the shell finds from environmental and archaeological perspectives. Three categories of molluscs are identified: terrestrial, freshwater and marine. The first two are the remnants of local fauna that lived on or near the site; the marine shells came from the Mediterranean shore adjacent to the Göksu delta and the delta itself. There are indications that freshwater mussels served as tools. Marine shells were worn as ornaments.

The only substantial collection of decorated chalcolithic pottery discovered in Central Anatolia by Ian Todd during his survey in the years 1964–6 is described here. Background to the survey is given by Todd (1980: 9–12) who recognized the importance of these sherds (Todd 1967: 12; 1980: 56, 151 n. 37). They are of sufficient interest to merit presentation here, in advance of the full publication of Todd's survey pottery which is being prepared by the author. I must express my thanks to Ian Todd for generously passing on his notes and encouraging me to work on the material, to Helen Boyd for the drawings, Tuǧrul Çakar for the photographs and David French for his invaluable advice.

Among the many tombs still to be seen in the necropolis surrounding the site of Oinoanda, in northern Lycia, the mausoleum built by Licinnia Flavilla for her parents and ancestors enjoys a special distinction, which it owes both to its size and to the vast genealogical inscription, comprising twelve generations of the ancestors and connexions of Licinnia Flavilla and her younger kinsman Flavianus Diogenes, which once covered its eastern façade. The aim of this paper is to present new epigraphic evidence which indicates a second major genealogical inscription on the west end of the mausoleum, and to consider the relation of the inscriptions to the underlying building, to each other, and to the aims of Licinnia Flavilla and her kinsman Diogenes.

The mausoleum of the Licinnii lies in rubble (Pl. XV (a)) amid a group of smaller tombs at the southern end of the site, in square Lr of the B.I.A.A.'s site-plan (AnSt XLV (1995) 74, Fig. 1) about 40 m. below an isolated stretch of the Hellenistic southern wall overlooking the saddle at the southern end of the ridge on which stand the main buildings of the city. There is an easy ascent to this point from both the western and eastern sides of the ridge, and thence to the city; the mausoleum will have been conspicuous to visitors and travellers. Since antiquity all the tombs in this area have been plundered or overthrown, especially close to the wall. Three types of tomb are visible: rock-cut tombs, some with lion covers; large, free-standing sarcophagi of various designs; and sarcophagi on high, stepped platforms. An example of this last type (Pl. XV (b)) stands close by the east end of the mausoleum, a few metres to the north.

Field surveys carried out within the upper Kızılırmak region have shown that the natural route-ways passing through the area have connected central Anatolia to eastern Anatolia throughout the ages. The route from north-central Anatolia reaches the Kızılırmak river by passing through the plains of Çekerek, Yıldızeli and Yıldız. The Kızılırmak river can be crossed on horseback where the road ends. A second route connects south-central Anatolia to Sivas by passing through the plains of Gemerek and Şarkışla, and leads to eastern Anatolia by passing through the Kızılırmak valley after Sivas. A third route reaches Altınyayla by passing through the Kızılırmak valley, the Şarkışla plain and reaches the plain of Malatya by travelling through a pass of the Kulmaç mountains running along the Balıklıtohma valley. A fourth route connects Sivas with Malatya via Taşlıdere, Ulaş, Kangal and Alacahan. Fieldwork has shown that these routes have been almost continuously used since the middle of the third millennium BC.

The study lasted two months during the summer of 1972 (19th July–14th September) and was approached by means of three techniques:

1. participant observation;

2. observation;

3. interviews.

The first consists in the researcher entering the household, establishing contact with the family, and then studying the everyday life by direct observation and participation in the activities. This technique allows freer access to the household than would normally be possible utilizing other techniques, and thus facilitates the collection of detailed data. This technique was applied to one household (referred to as the “study household”) in the village. Although data were collected on many aspects of daily life, special emphasis was placed on obtaining information about those activities which it was felt would have some relevance to archaeological problems in general.

The second approach involves general observations of the village women at work, and in particular, observations of five other village households with which other members of the project co-operated.

The third approach involved questioning the “study household” and the other five on general topics, such as the length of time taken to perform certain activities.

This second article on ancient roads around Zeugma deals mainly with navigation along the river itself and north-south routes on both banks of the Euphrates. Like its predecessor (Comfort et al 2000), this one is based on extensive survey work in the years 1996 to 1999 during the excavations carried out at Zeugma by a Franco-Turkish mission. It discusses sites located in the region surrounding the ancient city on both east and west banks of the river Euphrates and seeks to identify the principal roads of the region used in antiquity. Maps to complement those prepared for the preceding article are included.

In Comfort et al 2000, ancient crossing points of the river Euphrates in southern Turkey were discussed in the light of survey work conducted with the help of satellite photos in and around the reservoir created by the Birecik dam. This dam was completed in summer 2000. The lake created behind the Birecik dam stretches north about 100km as far as the Atatürk dam, for the most part constrained in a narrow gorge; a second lake now also reaches for about 20km south from Birecik to the Carchemish dam, itself approximately 6km north of the Syrian border. The survey was conducted over six visits between 1996 and 1999. Given the shortage of resources and the vast area covered (about 2,500km) it can only be considered a preliminary investigation and was indeed originally undertaken with a view only to proving the usefulness of satellite photographs as an aid to archaeological survey work.

Using a variety of quantitative approaches, interactions between prehistoric sites in the Göksu valley and south-central Anatolia are modelled within their wider multi-regional and diachronic socio-economic networks to assess the prominence and influence of communities in south-central Anatolia from the Late Chalcolithic to the end of the Early Bronze Age (c. 4200–2000 BC). Since the 1950s, some have understood the valley as significant in terms of movement and communication through the Taurus mountain chain that divides the southern Anatolian plateau from the Mediterranean coast. This view is called in to question through the application of geospatial and computational methods, namely least cost pathway and social network analyses. Archaeologists use least cost pathway analysis to model movement in the past. Similarly, social network analysis is used to model contact and interaction in the past. The approach adopted in this paper seeks to combine the two methods to investigate social structure and the nature of interaction in late prehistoric south-central Anatolia. The results suggest that views of the Göksu valley as the primary or a prominent means of connecting the southern Anatolian plateau and the Mediterranean coast may need to be reassessed.

August 1992 marked the sixth season of survey and excavation at the east Phrygian site of Amorium, located 170 km. south-west of Ankara. Excavation has so far sampled only a tiny part of what was in Roman and Byzantine times an extensive urban site, but results have consistently revealed that an exciting range of data can be drawn from this largely unexplored centre. Indeed, despite evident modern robbing for stone, the trenched areas have revealed that substantial zones may remain archaeologically intact.

The ancient site of Amorium comprised two distinct fortified zones: a compact upper town, and a larger lower town, part of which is now overlain by the modern village of Hisarköy. A particular aim of the excavations so far carried out at Amorium has been to define the relationship between these two urban areas in the overall occupational sequence, with special interest placed on elucidating the transitional phase from the Early to Middle Byzantine period—a period in Amorium's long history which is fairly well documented by both Byzantine and Arab sources.

The purpose of this short article is to draw attention to a number of features presented by these well known monuments near Beyşehir which are in need of further clarification, and to offer yet another suggestion about its original appearance.

During the last decade, a number of articles from the pen of Professors H. G. Güterbock, K. Bittel, R. Naumann and E. Laroche have been devoted to the sanctuary of Eflatun Pınar and it might be thought that there is little to add. That this is not so, I trust this article will show. These remarks are the result of three visits to these monuments in 1952, 1955 and 1957.

The Fasıllar statue (7·40 m. in height) lies in the Roman stadium of a classical site above the village of that name. Its rough condition suggests, as Güterbock has already pointed out, that it may have been unfinished and locally quarried, roughed out for transport and for some reason left there. The material is trachyte, which occurs locally. Güterbock comments on the lack of “Hittite” sherds at Fasıllar. One can go further; there is no site there earlier than the Classical one. The nearest Late Bronze Age sites are Karahisar, Evreği and Kızılviran Hüyüks. The latter site is the largest, but it is difficult to see why anyone should want to quarry a statue at Fasıllar, 50 km. away, if the statue was meant to be erected at this site, which is surrounded by trachyte rocks within a few kilometres.

Ancient literary sources indicate that Daskyleion was under the control of the Lydian kingdom from the late seventh century to the mid sixth century BC, before it was made a regional Achaemenid capital of the Persian empire. This literary evidence is supported by the archaeological data. Lydian painted pottery from Daskyleion includes examples of so-called early Fikellura, Ephesian, Ephesianising, bichrome, streaked and marbling wares. Study of this pottery and comparison with parallels from Sardis suggest that most of it was imported from Sardis between the last quarter of the seventh century and the fifth century. A little over 15% of the sixth and fifth century pottery seems to have been produced outside Sardis.

The region of Turkey whose Classical sites and monuments are discussed in this article lies wholly within the Western Taurus mountains, and consists of the eastern section of “the West Taurus Lake District”—as modern geographers now call it. The foothills of Taurus which extend around the south-western edge of the Konya Plain define both its northern and eastern limits; its western are established by the massive ranges which separate Lake Beyşehir from Lake Eğridir. Between these two mountainous regions, which join the main heights of Taurus further south, lies the rift valley occupied by Lake Beyşehir and the now partly-drained Lake Suğla.

Here is to be found the borderland of Pisidia and Lycaonia, as indicated by Strabo. To the north-west and north lies Phrygia Paroreius; to the south, the borderland of Pamphylia and Cilicia Tracheia; and to the south-east, Isauria.

In December 1981, as this paper was being composed, there came the news of the tragic death of Colin Macleod. With shocking suddenness one had lost a former tutor, colleague and friend, whose passion, seriousness and total modesty were, in themselves, a reflection of the value and importance which he attached to ancient literature, and an inspiration to those who admired him both as a person and as a scholar. Apart from his work in the main stream of Classical writings he devoted much time and study to Patristic authors, and it does not seem inept that this examination of a fourth-century Saint's Life should be dedicated, with great sadness, to his memory.

In 1901 the Vatican scholar, Pio Franchi de' Cavalieri, published excellent editions, based on new manuscript recensions, of the Lives of two Anatolian saints, St. Theodotus of Ancyra and St. Ariadne of Prymnessus. The second Life, and a supplement to it published in the following year, have provided the material for a recent study by L. Robert, who demonstrates in detail that many biographical details found in it can be traced back to inscriptions of the Imperial period, thus providing, among other things, a valuable insight into its manner of composition.

Of the Assyrian rock-reliefs in Turkey, only two long-known groups, those of the Cudi Dağ and Bırklin (“the Tigris Tunnel”) have been fully published. These groups are both accompanied by inscriptions and present no problems of dating. A further relief at Eğil has been known for some time but is somewhat inaccessible, to the extent that it is still unclear whether or not it is inscribed. It has been the subject of a recent study.

It is the purpose of the present article to make known some further Assyrian rock-reliefs, a single one from Cilicia, and a group from the Hatay. These reliefs were located by the author during surveys and travels, 1973–74. That these reliefs have remained undiscovered up to the present is a curious coincidence, and they may now take their place alongside those of the Cudi Dağ and Bırklin, as well as the rather few other reliefs discovered outside Assyria proper such as those of the Nahr el Kelb; we shall also see that they offer parallels to some of the native Assyrian reliefs such as those of the Maltai. In the absence of any identifying inscriptions the new reliefs present greater problems of dating.

The unpublished unique manuscript of the 14th century Persian work known as al-Walad al-Shafiq (‘The Compassionate Child’) held in the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul has hitherto never been studied in detail, although it is of considerable importance as a source for medieval Anatolia. This article assesses al-Walad al-Shafiq in the context of the Persian historiography of Anatolia and the historical milieu in which it was composed, arguing that the work is characterised by a sense of loyalty to the vanished Seljuk dynasty that ruled much of Anatolia from the late 11th to the early 14th century. I also examine such information as has survived about the life and background of its author, Qāḍῑ, Aḥmad of Niğde, and consider why the work was written and for whom.