As water mills are quickly disappearing throughout Turkey, it is becoming very difficult to collect information about this type of ancient technology. By means of an ethno-archaeological study carried out in the territory of ancient Sagalassos (Pisidia), the very limited remains of 15 water mills were recorded. Following the recent introduction of electric mills, water mills have lost their previous importance and today some of the mill houses are used as stables or shelters. Interviews with local people provided some information about the capacity of the mills and about the kind of grain that was ground in them. All the mills under discussion belong to the ‘ordinary’ horizontal-wheeled type of water mill. This type may have originated in or near Turkey during the Hellenistic period. A literary and archaeological study concerning the various types of mills showed that the type found near Sagalassos was best suited to local circumstances. Tax records confirm the presence of water mills in the area during early Ottoman times.

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.

The historic series of excavations of Hisarlik-Troy have been continued over the last 15 years by a collaboration between teams from the universities of Tübingen and Cincinnati with fruitful results. Over the year 2001 however the director, Manfred Korfmann, attracted sharp criticism from colleagues, largely through the medium of the press, for his methods and publications. He was accused of exaggerating the importance of the site in the Late Bronze Age, particularly as a political capital and trading centre of Anatolia, and more specifically of unduly inflating the results of his investigations of the lower city. A symposium was convened by the University of Tübingen in February 2002 with a view to discussing these criticisms and the defence in an academic atmosphere. The four authors of this article attended the Tübingen symposium. After listening to the contributions it seemed to us that an assessment of the issues from our respective view-points would be timely: thus a detailed consideration of the archaeological questions, a review of the notable recent progress in Hittite sources firming up the historical geography of western Anatolia, and an evaluation of Troy's position in Late Bronze Age trade. In all these areas we conclude that the criticisms of Korfmann are themselves considerably exaggerated.

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 third survey campaign of the Pisidia Survey Project at Melli took place in September 2000. Work on the remains of the small, semi-circular theatre completed the study of the monumental city centre and allowed the suggestion of a roughly Severan construction date. In addition, the remains of the early Christian period in the ancient city and in its north necropolis area were recorded, proving that older pagan buildings were partially re-used to build them and that several basilicas had a number of construction phases. A continuation of the study of the remains in the domestic areas of the city allowed a reconstruction of their organisation and showed that richer and poorer houses occupied the same quarters. Finally, work on the monumental temple tombs in the north necropolis was also completed. In general, it has become clear that the city flourished from the Hellenistic period throughout Roman times and into the early Christian period.

Following Gough, the late Roman church complex at Alahan in Isauria is usually described as a monastic site built by the emperor Zeno (AD 474–491). Recent reinterpretation of the site by Mango and Hill has suggested that it was not a monastery but a pilgrimage site. This paper argues that none of the physical evidence at the site gives good reason to think of it as built by Zeno. The usual lavish scale of imperial patronage is missing. Alahan was a rural church complex built in the late fifth or early sixth century, whose most important feature is its state of preservation.