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(Posted 15 May 2000) "At the moment the water is already rising. There are many
beautiful beams beside the mosaics. There are two big halls where
the mosaics stay beautifully. One was covered and was ready to
move, I saw the other one which was also [of] Dionysos. I went
into every room [in] every part of the building and all the walls
are covered with beautiful pictures and inscriptions. I visited
the [modern] villages which are going to be under water shortly.
They are all terrified and cutting their old trees for wood. It
is the green plum season now, they cut the tree and pick up the
plums. Just awful! They will move into the city, where they've
never lived before. All the children are used to play outside and
pick up the fruits themselves. Now, they will have to live in the
awful buildings and never have a chance to pick up fruit."
These are the words of Ayfer Tuzcu Unsal a Turkish friend and
local journalist who visited Zeugma in eastern Turkey this week.
The waters are already rising behind the Birecik Dam on the
Euphrates and will immerse almost all of the Graeco-Roman city of
Zeugma - a site described by the local provincial governor as a
"2nd Pompeii" (New York Times, 7 May 2000). It is certainly a
most important site - on a scale of one to ten, Zeugma would be a
7 or 8.
The lake will also drown hundreds, perhaps thousands, of smaller
sites along the valley for some 40 km to the north, and, almost
forgotten in the current hand-wringing and stone-throwing,
displace thousands of people from the villages at Zeugma and
upstream.
The media have rightly stressed the importance of the ancient
city. It was large - two or three times the size of Pompeii
(which, of course is unique - a functioning city, frozen at a
point in time). It supported the only bridge across the Euphrates
in Antiquity, carrying a major trade and communications route. It
was a cultural meeting point of East and West. Finally, it was a
Roman frontier fortress city and base of an entire legion for two
centuries. All of this sets it apart.
Contrary to the claims in the New York Times and other
newspapers, archaeologists did not "belatedly <discover>
that it was an important site" only this past winter. In 1988
some forty archaeologists visited the site as part of a
conference devoted to the Roman frontier in Turkey and discovered
that a dam was already getting under way just 500 m downstream.
The American archaeologist Guillermo Algaze did sterling work in
a rapid survey of the areas to be flooded by this (and four other
dams on the Euphrates and Tigris) in the late 1980s. Turkish
archaeologists from the Gaziantep Museum became involved in
salvage work on a small scale in 1992, and the Turkish Department
of Antiquities was already accepting the help of foreign
archaeological teams the same year. The discovery of a superb,
partially looted mosaic spurred wider efforts by Turkish
archaeologists and led to my own preliminary season of excavation
and survey in 1993.
Despite extensive publicity in Australia and an item in The Times
(London), I was unable to raise further funds either from
individuals, corporations, grant-making bodies, companies working
in Turkey or even the European Community. With great regret I was
forced to withdraw.
The publicity, however, worked to some extent. The French
archaeologist Catherine Abadie-Reynal saw my article in a French
magazine and began the first of several seasons of excavation as
did, briefly, a Swiss team.
The New York Times and now The Telegraph (UK, 11 May) make the
seemingly irresistible point: Turkey rightly claims back those
parts of its cultural heritage stolen or exported illegally; it
has a corresponding "obligation to protect that patrimony" by not
"allowing a site of priceless value to be destroyed."
Turkey is no better than rich western countries in spending too
much of its wealth on the military and too little (in my opinion)
on culture. It is in the position, however, of presiding over a
vast archaeological treasure house of sites and material of every
period. The responsibility is huge - and expensive, far beyond
the resources of the Department of Antiquities.
Several foreign countries, including the United States, Britain,
France and Germany, have long maintained institutes in Turkey to
support the activities of their nationals in archaeology there.
They knew what was happening at least 12 years ago. With a few
honourable exceptions, often individuals rather than the
organisations, they did little or nothing.
From my own experience - from a country not represented by an
institute in Turkey and no previous personal fieldwork there - I
can affirm the willingness and practical support on offer from
the Department of Antiquities and the welcome given by the
relevant provincial and sub-provincial governors.
But what of the builders of these dams and their financiers?
Western companies, agencies and governments have been involved in
such projects regularly. In Western countries it would be a
requirement of any such project that a detailed survey would be
carried out with extensive excavation and conservation as
necessary. And it would be built into the budget and not left to
the modest resources of the Turkish Department of Antiquities or
any foreign institute.
As someone who diverted his research interest from Jordan to
Turkey for three years and failed to obtain adequate support, the
present outcry is exasperating and unimpressive. There are many
culprits in this unhappy episode but Turkey should not be at the
head of the list.
Zeugma is not about to be destroyed. The greater part of it will
disappear beneath a lake. We don't really know what half a
century of flooding will do: we may guess it will do no harm to
some items (mosaics?), damage others (wall paintings?) and
preserve some things rather well (if sealed away from oxygen).
More immediately worrying is the damage that will be effected
daily at the water's edge as it rises and falls where the lake
cuts those a very large site. Some of that should certainly be
investigated now before the lake has fully formed.
Any work is important - especially after the disappearance of the
equally important Graeco-Roman city of Samosata under the Ataturk
Dam just a short distance upstream. Ignorant of the effects of
inundation, both sites should have been the focus of major
programmes of research designed explore that question, determine
the character of the sites themselves, and rescue evidence of all
kinds that might otherwise be lost. Part of the problem is that
even now, after many lakes on the great rivers of Western Asia,
we still do not know what it is we may be losing.
(David Kennedy is Professor of Roman History and Archaeology
at the University of Western Australia. He published his findings
in an academic book, The Twin Cities of Zeugma on the Euphrates,
Portsmouth, RI in 1998 and in a popular magazine article "Drowned
cities of the Upper Euphrates", Aramco World, Sept/Oct 1998:
20-7.
His Zeugma web page.)
ZEUGMA PUBLICATIONS
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The Twin Towns of
Zeugma on the Euphrates. Rescue Work and
Historical Studies,
1998, Portsmouth, RI (Journal of Roman
Archaeology, Supplementary Series 27). (14 chapters in 247
pp) (ISBN 1-887829-27-X; ISBN 1063-4304 (for the
supplementary series))
-
"Zeugma. Une ville antique sur l'Euphrate."
Archéologia 306 (1994): 26-35.
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"Drowned cities of the Euphrates", Aramco World
Magazine , Sept/ Oct. 1998: 20-7
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(With R. Ergec and P. Freeman) "Mining the mosaics of
Roman Zeugma." Archaeology, 48.2 March/ April
(1995): 54-55.
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"Zeugma Archaeological Project, Turkey." In C. E. V. Nixon
(ed) Chronicle of Excavations, Mediterranean
Archaeology 8 (1995): 127-129; pl. 13.1-4.
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"Zeugma Archaeological Project: Preliminary Season 1993."
XVI Kazi Sonuclari Toplantisi, Ankara, 1995: II,
207-215.
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(With P Freeman) (a) "Zeugma 1993." British Institute
of Archaeology at Ankara, Forty Fifth Annual Report,
1993, 1994: 36-38 (b) "Zeugma 1993" Anatolian
Studies 44 (1994): 18-20.* Variations on a single
theme
- "Zeugma Archaeological Project." West Australian
Archaeology: 1994: 3-5
Articles about Zeugma
- Cribb, J. (1993) "The ancient Digger",The Australian
Magazine, 12-13 June 1993: 18-20
- Amalfi, C. (1993) "Rescue mission", The West
Australian (December 27), "Earth 2000": 4-5
- Feature on Zeugma Project: Uniview 12.3 (August
1993): 10-11
- Syndicated article on Zeugma Project (The Times
(London) Agence France Presse)
Broadcasts and Interviews
- ABC Radio (National) - interview by Sandy McCutcheon on
Zeugma Project (1992)
- ABC Radio (Perth) - interview on Zeugma Project (1993)
Zeugma Homepage
Contact
Professor David
Kennedy, BA
(Manchester), D. Phil (Oxford), FSA, FAHA
Classics and Ancient History
M205
University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Nedlands WA 6009,
AUSTRALIA
Phone: 08-6488-2150; Fax: 08-6488-1009
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