Origins and Development of the Black Sea Colonial System: Excavations in the Early Greek Colony of Sinope, Turkey

FAIN: RZ-51768-14

California State University, Northridge, University Corporation (Northridge, CA 91330-8316)
Owen Patrick Doonan (Project Director: January 2014 to present)

Archaeological excavation and analysis at the Black Sea port of Sinop, Turkey. (36 months)

The Sinop Regional Archaeological Project will carry out three seasons of excavation and restoration in the heart of the ancient city of Sinope (modern Sinop), the most strategic port in the Black Sea region from the early first millennium BCE until the Crimean war. The site preserves a unique pre-colonial to early colonial sequence in one of earliest and likely best-preserved early Ionian colony sites in the Black Sea (Pontic) region. The purpose of these three seasons of excavation is to test the proposition that a highly developed system of trans-Pontic interaction was active before the arrival of the Ionian colonists in the seventh century BCE by stratigraphic excavation of a pre-colonial Iron Age settlement featuring intrusive North Pontic ceramics and architecture at the site of the early colony of Sinope. The excavation is designed to integrate with the systematic archaeological survey carried out by our team in the hinterland of Sinope from 1996-2000 and 2010-12.

Associated Products

Sinop Kale Excavations, 2015 Field Season (Article)
Title: Sinop Kale Excavations, 2015 Field Season
Author: Owen Doonan
Author: Huseyin Vural
Author: Andrew Goldman
Author: Alexander Bauer
Author: Jane Rempel
Author: E. Susan Sherratt
Author: Krzsysztof Domzalski
Author: Anna Smokotina
Abstract: The Sinop Regional Archaeological Project (SRAP) conducted our first season of excavation at the Sinop kale during July and August 2015 with support from the National Geographic Society (CRE grant no. 9318-13), the National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant no. RZ-51768), CSU Northridge, Queens College and Gonzaga University. Sinop (ancient Sinope) was one of the earliest Ionian Greek colonies in the Black Sea and the earliest colony on its Anatolian coast. The site is ideally located for fishing and defensive purposes, and has little access to a terrestrial catchment more suited to a diversified agricultural economy. Fishing in this region is determined by the annual migrations of the major Black Sea fish species. These spawn in the shallow waters along the north coast and migrate in highly predictable cycles around the sea. The seasonal mobility patterns of Black Sea fish populations appears to have been a powerful determining factor that drove fishing communities to adopt mobile settlement strategies that led to incipient trade networks in the region.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/578
Primary URL Description: Antiquity Project Journal web site
Secondary URL: https://www.academia.edu/28925565/
Secondary URL Description: Owen Doonan Academia.edu page
Access Model: open access on-line
Format: Other
Periodical Title: Antiquity
Publisher: Antiquity

"Evaluating Archaeological Evidence for Demographics, Abandonment and Recovery in Late Antique and Byzantine Anatolia” (Article)
Title: "Evaluating Archaeological Evidence for Demographics, Abandonment and Recovery in Late Antique and Byzantine Anatolia”
Author: Owen Doonan
Author: Marica Cassis
Author: Hugh Elton
Author: James Newhard
Abstract: Archaeological evidence, particularly that deriving from systematic regional surveys, offers great potential for understanding social and demographic change in Anatolia between 300 and 1200 CE. We first consider major factors inherent to regional archaeological data sets that complicate simple synthesis and generalization between projects. We then provide a synthesis focused on longue durée questions relevant to cross-disciplinary examination of the relationship between environmental and societal change and examine potential connections between major changes in settlement patterns observed in the seventh- and eighth- century archaeological data and larger questions of systemic collapse and resilience in the face of climate change. To conclude, we assess current archaeological evidence for the processes of agricultural adaptation at the transition associated with the end of the ancient economy.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-018-0003-1
Primary URL Description: Journal web site
Secondary URL: https://www.academia.edu/36873229/
Secondary URL Description: Doonan Adademia.edu page
Access Model: open access for viewing only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Human Ecology 46.3
Publisher: Springer

Sinop Kalesi Archaeological Excavations, 2015-2016 Field Seasons (Book Section)
Title: Sinop Kalesi Archaeological Excavations, 2015-2016 Field Seasons
Author: Owen Doonan
Author: Huseyin Vural
Author: Andrew Goldman
Author: Alexander Bauer
Author: Jane Rempel
Author: E. Susan Sherratt
Author: Ulrike Krotschek
Author: Paolo Maranzana
Author: Emine Sokmen
Editor: Sharon Steadman
Editor: Gregory McMahon
Abstract: The Sinop Regional Archaeological Project (SRAP) conducted its first two seasons of excavations at the site of Sinop Kalesi in July-August 2015 and 2016. The excavation builds on more than a decade of survey and environmental research in Sinop and ties in with the longer-term regional project through ongoing environmental studies, ceramic analyses, and regional scale archaeological research. Sinop (ancient Sinope ) was one of the earliest Ionian Greek colonies in the Black Sea and the earliest colony on its Anatolian coast. The goals for these initial field seasons were to clarify the Iron Age and early colonial phases of settlement investigated by SRAP in 2000 (Doonan 2007), and to establish the stratigraphic relationship of the defensive wall to early colonial and pre-colonial phases of the site. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) investigations of Sinop Kalesi, carried out in December 2012, suggested that early strata should be accessible beneath a paved modern surface to the west of the city wall, so we concentrated efforts there in our initial season (Doonan et al. 2015).
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-archaeology-of-anatolia-volume-ii
Primary URL Description: Cambridge Scholars Press page
Secondary URL: https://www.academia.edu/35175058/
Secondary URL Description: Doonan Academia.edu page
Access Model: ms. available on academia.edu
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Press
Book Title: The Archaeology of Anatolia: Recent Discoveries Vol. 2
ISBN: 978-1-4438-795

Sinope, new understandings of the early colony based on recent research at Sinop Kale (Book Section)
Title: Sinope, new understandings of the early colony based on recent research at Sinop Kale
Author: Owen Doonan
Editor: Manolis Manelodakis
Abstract: This overview is intended to synthesize the current state of archaeological and historical evidence for the early colony of Sinope and its precolonial antecedents up to the 5th c. BCE. Attention is focused primarily on urban Sinop and Boz tepe and does not consider the countryside, which is discussed in detail in other publications.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/black-sea-in-the-light-of-new-archaeological-data-and-theoretical-approaches-proceedings-of-the-2nd-international-workshop-on-the-black-sea-in-antiquity-held-in-thessaloniki-18-20-september-2015/oclc/994027206
Primary URL Description: worldcat
Secondary URL: https://www.academia.edu/34903927/
Secondary URL Description: draft available on Doonan Academia.edu page
Access Model: print volume
Publisher: Archaeopress
Book Title: The Black Sea in the light of new archaeological data and theoretical approaches
ISBN: 9781784915100

Rural hinterlands in the Black Sea during the fourth century BCE: Expansion, intensification and new connections. (Article)
Title: Rural hinterlands in the Black Sea during the fourth century BCE: Expansion, intensification and new connections.
Author: Owen Doonan
Author: Jane Rempel
Abstract: This paper takes a holistic approach to the data for rural hinterlands in the Black Sea region in the fourth century BCE to reveal pan-Black Sea patterning, importantly including the southern coast and the territory of ancient Sinope. During a period of dynamic mobility and prosperity, the rural hinterlands of Greek settlements around the Black Sea expanded in ways that demonstrate significant regional commonalities in terms of increased settlement, intensified agricultural infrastructure, new connections via road and path networks and the inclusion of dependent territories beyond the traditional chora. Decisions to expand rural territory and intensify agricultural production were taken at the local level, but this patterning demonstrates that such developments were also a response to the dynamics of Black Sea economic and political networks. The associated increased density of occupation and connectivity in these rural hinterlands made them key facilitators of social networks, creating stronger ties between Greek settlements and other local communities, and ultimately enmeshing a more diverse group of people within Black Sea networks.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/anatolian-studies/
Primary URL Description: Journal page for Anatolian Studies
Secondary URL: https://www.academia.edu/42026678
Secondary URL Description: Owen Doonan Academia.edu page
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Anatolian Studies
Publisher: Anatolian Studies, Cambridge University Press

Xenophon in a Black Sea Landscape: Settlement Models for the Iron Age on the Sinop Promontory (Turkey). European Journal of Archaeology, 22.1: 91-110. (Article)
Title: Xenophon in a Black Sea Landscape: Settlement Models for the Iron Age on the Sinop Promontory (Turkey). European Journal of Archaeology, 22.1: 91-110.
Author: Owen Doonan
Abstract: Research into the Iron Age of Anatolia has seldom paid sufficient attention to settlement patterns and the social organization of space. The Anabasis by Xenophon records the observations of a Greek outsider who travelled across eastern Anatolia and along the Black Sea coast in 400 BCE, a time that was relatively early in the colonial process in this area. Xenophon's observations are used to establish a basic model for settlement in the Black Sea coastal region of Anatolia, which is then tested against the results of recent archaeological surveys and related research on the Sinop promontory. A fuller and richer model of indigenous Iron Age settlement and colonial engagement on the Sinop promontory is developed and considered in light of recent research on colonization in the western Mediterranean and northern Black Sea regions.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-archaeology
Primary URL Description: EJA home page
Secondary URL: https://www.academia.edu/37551629
Secondary URL Description: Owen Doonan academia.edu page
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: European Journal of Archaeology
Publisher: European Journal of Archaeology, Cambridge University Press

A field study of ceramics bearing pan-Black Sea decorative motifs from Sinop, Turkey, using pXRF (Article)
Title: A field study of ceramics bearing pan-Black Sea decorative motifs from Sinop, Turkey, using pXRF
Author: Nicole Rose
Author: Alexander Bauer
Abstract: Though established in the 7th century BCE as an Ionian colony, Sinop (classical Sinope) served as a hub of maritime activity since at least the Early Bronze Age (3rd-2nd millennium BCE). Located in a protected natural harbor on the southern Black Sea coast, Sinop has throughout its history been better integrated into spheres of interaction with the larger Black Sea world rather than the Anatolian interior. Recent excavations at the Sinop Kale site uncovered a stylistically diverse assemblage of handmade ceramics which raises questions about interregional interaction around the Black Sea during the pre-Greek colonial period that may be addressed through ceramic sourcing methods. This paper presents a compositional analysis of handmade ceramics from Sinop bearing a rope-like pan-Black Sea decorative technique using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) that answers specific questions of production and interaction at the site. In particular, it seeks to distinguish between non-local production and non-local technological styles produced locally, employing pXRF as a field technique. Results demonstrated that despite the visible diversity of the assemblage, handmade ceramics were primarily produced locally, as communities with distinct ceramic traditions moved through the Sinop Kale site.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103239
Primary URL Description: Science Direct link to article
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
Publisher: Ellsevier

Stone Sounds (Exhibition)
Title: Stone Sounds
Curator: Owen Doonan
Abstract: Stone Sounds is a sequential sound-based presentation of the complex history of the archaeological site of Sinop Kale (pronounced “kah-lay”, meaning ancient citadel) installed in the CSUN Art Galleries. Large format images representing four key places in the site, each with a distinctive history, are illuminated in sequence over the course of a 30-minute program. Each highlighted image is accompanied by a program (six to eight minutes) of sounds that express one or several layers of story associated with that place. The audience is invited, through a mix of sounds recorded on-site, to imagine stories of Sinop kale in the past as well as today. Visitors experience the site rather than being instructed about it: sound, image and space evoke a sense of place through the imaginative exercise of memory. Stone Sounds is a collaboration between CSU Northridge Professor Owen Doonan and artists Sven Anderson (Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media, Dublin Institute of Technology; http://www.svenanderson.net) and Erkan Akliman (Sinopale art collaborative http://sinopale.org/). The exhibition has been designed in collaboration with the CSUN ART 342 Exhibition Design class and the Sinop Kale Excavations, directed by Professor Doonan in collaboration with the SInop Museum (Director Hüseyin Vural) with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Geographic Society, the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, CSU Northridge, Sinop Governor's and Mayor's offices, and other institutional and private sponsors. This exhibition has been developed with the support of the CSUN Distinguished Visiting Speakers' Program, the Turkish Cultural Foundation (TCF), the Sinopale collaborative, the American Turkish Association of Southern California (ATASC), and private sponsors.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://www.csun.edu/mike-curb-arts-media-communication/art-galleries/events/stone-sounds-4000-years-sinop-kale
Primary URL Description: CSUN Gallery Page
Secondary URL: https://www.csun.edu/mike-curb-arts-media-communication/news/explorers-club-honors-csun%E2%80%99s-first-sound-art-exhibition
Secondary URL Description: Article for CSUN daily ewspaper

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