Paolo Maranzana | Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey (original) (raw)

Papers by Paolo Maranzana

Deep Blue (University of Michigan), 2018

This dissertation considers the end of Antiquity through the lens of urban change in the Roman Pr... more This dissertation considers the end of Antiquity through the lens of urban change in the Roman Province of Galatia in Central Anatolia. It is based in part on fieldwork carried out from 2011 to 2014 at Pessinus (150 km west of Ankara), which represents the main case study of this work. The dissertation examines the urban development of Pessinus in the Late Roman Period (4th – 7th centuries CE) and compares it with that of other cities in the same region (Ankara and Amorium), examining both the cities themselves and their rural environs. This regional investigation represents a new trend in scholarship, as traditional studies have tended to focus either on excavation of individual cities or on surveys of their hinterlands, but seldom on both. Additionally, my focus on the development of Late Roman Central Anatolia, a region that has often been neglected by modern studies despite the fact that it became the heartland of the post-7th c. Byzantine Empire, is an important addition to the scholarship on the end of Antiquity. Contrary to the western and eastern coasts of Anatolia, cities in this region developed for the first time at the end of the 1st c. BCE, and thus this study also examines Late Roman urban change in the light of its long-term regional tradition. This research demonstrates that both cities and rural settlements in Galatia experienced their maximum expansion between the 4th-5th centuries and the 7th c. CE; the cities thus represent some of the last flourishing examples of Classical urbanism. Contrary to what has been observed on the better known western and southern coasts of Asia Minor, the unraveling of the Roman settlement pattern in Central Anatolia was more sudden and later, ultimately precipitated by a period of military, demographic, and economic crisis that peaked with Arab invasions after 650 CE. Although the Arabs did not destroy these cities, they destabilized the demographic and economic foundations on which they were based. By the later 7th century, only the central administration had the resources to support large settlements, such as provincial capitals (Amorium and Ankara); among rural communities, only those in the vicinity of important religious centers like Germia or in isolated, mountain sites in northern Pisidia proved capable of maintaining independent existence. Crucial to the continuity of occupation in rural and urban communities into the 7th c. CE was the progressive regional economic independence that began in the 4th-5th centuries CE. This process is well-attested by the production and circulation of Red Slip ware, a common type of high quality tableware. During the Roman Period, Central Anatolia was part of a larger international commercial network, as shown by the presence of imports from the rest of Anatolia and the Mediterranean world. In the Late Roman Period, these commercial ties broke down, and a series of local production centers emerged in order to fill this market. The development of ceramic workshops went hand in hand with an increase in agricultural production, which is well-attested in regional palynological data. By the 6th c. CE, Central Anatolia was the most agriculturally stable and productive region in Anatolia, and was therefore exceptionally well-equipped to support substantial urban life. Eventually, however, even this unusually resilient local network unraveled in the face of continuing instability and repeated invasions in the mid-9th centuryPHDClassical Art & ArchaeologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146020/1/maranzap\_1.pd

Palgrave studies in ancient economies, 2021

Connecting the Ancient West and East. Colloquia Antiqua, Peeters Publishers

Colloquia Antiqua, Peeters Publishers, Mar 27, 2019

Colloquia Antiqua, Peeters Publishers , Dec 9, 2019

Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies

American Journal of Archaeology

The Archaeology of Anatolia Vol. 2, 2017

The Sinop Regional Archaeological Project (SRAP) conducted its first two seasons of excavations a... more 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 (Doonan et al. 2016) 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.

Drafts by Paolo Maranzana

pp. 155-69 in S. Steadman and G. McMahon (Eds.), Archaeology in Anatolia vol. IV. , 2021

The Sinop Regional Archaeological Project conducted three seasons of excavations and remote sensi... more The Sinop Regional Archaeological Project conducted three seasons of excavations and remote sensing and one study season at the site of Sinop Kale in July-August 2015-17 and July 2019. 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. Excavations at the Sinop kale site are projected to continue for at least ten years, and encompass an extensive pre-colonial settlement and monumental structures from Archaic through Roman horizons. The expanded excavation area includes the former bus station and Milli Savunma complex to the east of our recent excavations and the historical prison garden to the south.

The previous report by Sinop Kale Excavations in this series (vol. 2, published in 2016) sketched the evolution of the site in broad strokes: preliminary assessments of major architectural featuresn and illustration of a limited subset of finds from 2015-16. This proposed report will cover findings from the 2017 season, including a rich deposit of early Iron Age ceramics beneath the Archaic structure in Op.1; detailed consideration of stratigraphy based on closer analysis of ceramic finds; discussion of significant floral and faunal finds; and synthesis of the results from Sinop Kale with a new study of the Sinope ancient city plan. Significant finds to be discussed in detail include a group of three Early Bronze Age figurines from the fills to the west of the glacis in Ops. 1 and 4; Iron Age closed vessels found with evidence of pre-colonial fish processing; a conclusive re-dating of the monumental wall a century earlier than is commonly believed. In addition, we discuss the results of remote sensing at the site including GPR carried out in the area west of our excavations (former Sinop Otogar) and a LIDAR scan of the Hellenistic city wall. We present the results of the 2019 study season including pXRF analyses of Bronze Age and Iron Age hand-made ceramics from the excavation and the regional surveys (1996-99; 2010-12). The team is currently preparing a monograph on the 2015-17 excavations at Sinope kale, leading to a much clearer understanding of the stratigraphy and interpretation of major features of the site. The results of the 2017-19 field seasons at Sinop kale build on the preliminary findings of the 2015-16 seasons and are highly significant for our understanding of maritime interactions in the early Black Sea and Northern Anatolia and demonstrate the outstanding promise the Sinope Kale excavations hold for future research.

Symposia, Conferences, Workshops by Paolo Maranzana

The new capital of the eternal Roman Empire, Constantinople, was a stage for most impressive impe... more The new capital of the eternal Roman Empire, Constantinople, was a stage for most impressive imperial processions, a site for grandiose religious and imperial buildings, and a home to vast shopping streets and fora. All these activities and places found meaning when large crowds were present, but such large crowds could not reside in cities with poor provisioning capacity. Late antique Constantinople's social and cultural activities, economic life, and the interactions between its residents and the state machinery took place in the background of a provisioning system that made possible the constant movement of commodities and people in and out of the city. 6.10 p.m.-6.20 p.m. BREAK 6.20 p.m.-7.30 p.m. MERCHANTS AND MERCHANDISE Pamela Armstrong (University of Oxford) Amphoras from the Saraçhane excavations as indicators of the provisioning of Constantinople in Late Antiquity Michael J. Decker (University of Florida) Merchants and the provisioning of Constantinople in Late Antiquity 7.30 p.m.-8 p.m. CONCLUDING REMARKS Friday,

by Paschalis Androudis, Katerina A Manoussou-Ntella, Dimitris Liakos, Alkiviadis Ginalis, Lilyana Yordanova, Evangelos A Papathanassiou, Sotiris Voyadjis, Nebojša Stanković, Elli Tzavella, Jenny Albani, Demetris Athanasoulis, Stavros Arvanitopoulos, cécile khalifa, Stephane Pradines, Mathias Piana, Fabio Coden, Jasmina S. Ciric, Sonia Gkounta, Mustafa Çağhan Keskin, Vincent Ory, Androniki Batzikosta, Georgia Graikou, Paolo Maranzana, Kerim Altug, Petra Lučeničová, Erdal Eser, Ivana Mihaljinec, Michael K Miaoulis, filippos stathoulopoulos, Oleg G . Ulyanov (Олег Германович Ульянов), and Eleni Faka

The Online International Conference devoted to the Towers in Byzantine and Post Byzantine period ... more The Online International Conference devoted to the Towers in Byzantine and Post Byzantine period (10th-16th centuries), to be held virtually via Zoom from 18 to 20 November 2022, seeks to illuminate aspects of their construction, decoration, function and evolution in time. Our Conference does not aim at exhausting the subject, but will offer an interdisciplinary forum for a selection of talks that touch upon some of the following aspects:
- Single (free)- standing towers
- Monastic Towers
- Towers in maritime forts, harbors and arsenals
- Towers in Palaces
- Donjons
- Towers with gates
- Byzantine Towers in Asia Minor (Anatolia)
- Towers of the Frankish, Venetian and Genoese rulers
- Towers of the Order of St. John
- Genoese Towers in Turkey
- Seljuk Towers
- Ottoman Towers
- Post-Byzantine Towers
- Towers with canons
- Tower Houses of the Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian and
early Ottoman Period
- Inscriptions on Towers
- Heraldry in Towers
- Buttressed Towers

Talks by Paolo Maranzana

L’Università di Bologna, in collaborazione con l’Università del Bosforo - Boğaziçi University (Tu... more L’Università di Bologna, in collaborazione con l’Università del Bosforo - Boğaziçi University (Turchia), l’Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia e il Centro di Studi sulla Romandiola nord occidentale, ha promosso nuove ricerche archeologiche nelle pianure a nord di Ravenna. Nel corso di questo evento, organizzato in collaborazione con la Soprintendenza, l’associazione Amici di Olindo Guerrini e il Museo NatuRa - Centro Visite del Parco del Delta del Po di Sant’Alberto, si presenteranno i risultati di questo progetto e delle indagini recenti condotte in questa zona dalla Soprintendenza.

Conference Presentations by Paolo Maranzana

Coastal Villas and Lagoon Landscapes from Roman Times to Late Antiquity (DAI, Rome, 17-18 October 2024), 2024

During the Roman and Late Antique Periods, the Ravenna Greater Region was largely characterised b... more During the Roman and Late Antique Periods, the Ravenna Greater Region was largely characterised by wetlands, including lagoons, marshes, and swamps. This particular landscape composition profoundly influenced the social behaviour and culture of Ravenna inhabitants, as water was an omnipresent element in everyday life. The evolution of this landscape was shaped by a complex combination of geomorphological processes, such as climate fluctuations, sea level variations, and extreme events, which all closely interacted with anthropogenic factors.
Since 2001, the University of Bologna has been conducting research in the Ravenna Greater Region, applying a multiscale approach that combines several research methods: geoarchaeological and geophysical investigations, remote sensing, site excavation, artefact survey, archaeobotanical analysis. Initially, the focus was on the abandoned site of Classe – the ancient port city of Ravenna; this endeavour was conducted with remote sensing, geophysical investigations, and excavations. Afterwards, the research also expanded to the countryside around the city of Ravenna and, recently, focused specifically on the investigation of the former wetlands surrounding the city.
Bringing together past and recent experiences, the paper presents a synthesis of the data collected, focusing on the development of wetland landscapes and their relevant settlement patterns during the Roman and Late Antique Periods. This research has yielded relevant insight into the history of Ravenna’s coastland, shedding light on the transformation of wetlands over the ages, the changes in the settlement patterns, and the dynamics of the interaction between the urban and rural communities and the coastal environment.