Ancient Civilizations and Ruins of Turkey
by Ord. Prof. Dr. Ekrem Akurgal
Our reviewer wears basic black and a string of cultured pearls to this review. Ya' know, we've alluded to her serious side before, but no one has paid any attention to us. Up 'til now, that is. So, give a listen when she says...
First of all, this book is not a travel guide. It doesn't tell you how
to get from here to there or where to eat in between. There is no
information on distances or how long an "excursion" to a site should
take. This is a book you read if you decide to spend some time in
Turkey.
And, it has been my companion at 60 of the 123 sites listed in the
Table of Contents.
For best results, I recommend you read it just before you get to
the site you intend to explore. There are many small bits of information that are hard to
assimilate while walking into holes and around bushes (personally, I
was reading it at Termessos and almost fell into a
cistern...).
This classic guide is an accumulation of forty years of scholarship.
And Professor Akurgal presents an incredible amount of information in his
small hardcover book.
For most Western readers, though, the layout of
the book is a little disconcerting. Forget the 'Table of Contents', and
the 'Index' -- they both need 'major surgery'. I mean, if you know the
name of a site, or you are visiting
and want to look it up, fine. But search tools are not the strength
of this book...
Imagine instead, starting around Troy and driving down the coast,
stopping at every one of those yellow arrows that point to an
archaeological site. Your trip would go down as far as Phaselis just
outside of Antalya. Then you would go up into the interior of Turkey to
Aizanoi south west of Kütahya. You would continue on up to Ankara and
then the central plains through Boğazköy (the ruins of
Hattusa) and down
to Kültepe near Kayseri.
The last part of the book then brings you back
to the coast and you follow the southern path through Antalya to
Antakya. There is a finale of sorts that takes you
to Nemrud Dağ in the
Kommagene.
The strength of this book is the site information. And with patience and
interest you can pull an astonishing amount of information together from
each site description. For many sites (not all) there are detailed layout
maps. For some sites there are "reconstructions" drawn to show what the
city looked like during different time periods in history. For other
sites there are lovely drawings of details of buildings; or statues of
people or animals; or just motifs on columns or parts of buildings.
The photographic plates tie in to descriptions of the sites. Each plate is not just a
postcard of "Beautiful Turkey", but provides a specific shot of information
discussed in the text. About one-fifth of them are in color, the rest
are black and white.
There is also a description of the important museums in Turkey and what
is in them. This is nice if you find yourself in, say, Afyon. The museum
there is one of the most important of Turkey. Excellent Bronze and Iron
Age finds are there, as well as archaic Greek and Lydian pottery.
For added interest,
there's even information about where you can find the statuary and 'other ancient objects of art' that have been "removed" from the
sites -- if they are not still in Turkey (e.g., the museums of Berlin, London, Paris).
Unfortunately this leads us to some of the book's drawbacks. The page listed
in the Index for the Afyon Museum is not the page it really is on... The
index says 292, but it's really on page 270. Normally this would drive
me crazy, but I so enjoy the information at each site that I forgive the
book its failings each time I stumble on them. Still there are a few,
and for the cost, one wishes for perfection I suppose...
A lot of people own this book and everyone nods quite seriously when
referring to its "classic" status. Still, I don't think all of them have
scoped out its eccentric little foibles.
So, if you just want general
site information with some simple highlights, you'll
probably be satisfied with the 'standard' guidebooks available
most anywhere. But, if you love archaeology and you enjoy the
'bits and pieces' of information, as much as the 'bits and pieces' in
museums, then you will love this book.
JS (March '97)
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