Cities and Citadels in Turkey : From the Iron Age to the Seljuks

Redford, Scott and Nina Ergin (editors). Cities and Citadels in Turkey : From the Iron Age to the Seljuks. Leuven: Peeters, 2013. First edition. Quarto (12″ x 8-1/2″). x, 346, (4)pp. Red cloth lettered in gilt. Illustrated with numerous photos, archaeological drawings and maps. An ex-library book but with minimal rubber stamps on title page & at bottom of text block, otherwise fine.

For millennia, walled citadels have served both as residences for rulers and military forces and as sacred centers embodying the power of the elite. The outcome of a symposium organized by Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, the essays in this volume are by leading scholars on the area that is now Turkey, from the first millennium BC through the fourteenth century AD. They examine the phenomenon of citadels in a comparative perspective in Anatolia and neighboring regions. Archaeology, art history, and history are brought to bear on the phenomenon of the citadel in its urban context. (Publisher)

Contents: Introduction / Scott Redford — City and citadel at Troy from the Late Bronze Age through the Roman period / Carolyn Chabot Aslan & Charles Brian Rose — The neo-Assyrian citadel city and the walled city as theme in the visual representation of imperialism / Mehmet-Ali Ataç — An intervening phenomenon in a non-urban environment: Iron Age cities in Eastern Anatolia / Özlem Çevi̇k — The Urartian city and citadel of Ayanis: an example of interdependence / Altan Çi̇li̇ngi̇roğlu — Landscapes of power: neo-Hittite citadels in comparative perspective / Timothy P. Harrison — The writing on the wall: reviewing sculpture and inscription on the gates of the Iron Age citadel of Azatiwataya (Karatepe-Aslantaş) / Asli Özyar — The kale at Kerkens Dağ: an Iron Age capital in Central Anatolia / Geoffrey D. Summers & Francoise Summers — Gordion as citadel and city / Mary M. Voigt — Sinope and Byzantine citadels and fortresses on the Black Sea / James Crow — The Blachernai Palace and its defense / Neslihan Asutay-Effenberget — The citadel of Byzantine Constantinope / Ruth Macrides — Mamālik and Mamālīk: decorative and epigraphic programs of Anatolian Seljuk citadels / Scott Redford.

Supplement 40 of the Peeters series, “Ancient Near Eastern Studies.” near fine. Hardcover. (53062) $75