Ankara, the capital city of modern Turkey, was the most important Roman and Byzantine metropolis on the central Anatolian high plateau. In the past, knowledge and understanding of the city's archaeology has been rather poor. Monuments have been badly damaged by modern development, and earlier scholarly attempts to reconstruct and date them made little sense, particularly in light of the emerging evidence for the Byzantine settlement of the surrounding region, with which they appeared to disagree. This situation has now been put right by Urs Peschlow, with his new and holistic treatment of the archaeological evidence for Roman and Byzantine Ankara, incorporating unpublished material from the archives of the German Archaeological Institute on the early twentieth-century excavations of the church of St Clemens, as well as Peschlow's own observations during his regular visits to the city over the last 50 years.
The result of this synthesis is that Peschlow is able to present convincing new building sequences, reconstructions and dates for St Clemens, for the church inside the Temple of Augustus and Roma, for a massive terrace wall next to the latter, and for the fortress. All of these structures date from the ninth century AD, the period following the devastating Arab raid of 838, which reduced Ankara from a city to a fortress (kastron) and a few outlying churches. Prior to this, during the invasion period of the seventh–ninth centuries, Ankara had maintained the extensive Late Antique city walls for its defence, dating back to the third century. Similarly, a bath-gymnasium, also built in the third century, probably under the emperor Caracalla, may have remained in use throughout the invasion period, surviving until the Arabs cut the water supply in 838.
Much of the evidence for Roman Ankara is to be found recycled into the fabric of the Byzantine city. Dismantling of the stadium started around the middle of the third century, when its parts were reused for the building of the Late Antique city walls. In contrast, the theatre was repeatedly remodelled throughout Late Antiquity and the early Byzantine period, until it was taken apart and its components reused during the rebuilding campaign of the ninth century.
This recycling makes it harder to evaluate the earlier phases of the city. For example, although the so-called Nymphaeum housed a spring, the function of the associated tall and massive building remains unclear. Nonetheless, advances are still possible; for example, the early Roman Temple of Augustus and Roma appears to have had Corinthian columns throughout, and—contra earlier suggestions—the interior was not gilded. A poorly documented complex in the city centre may have been the praetorium, that is, the seat of the Roman governor; and the river was regulated during the Roman period by a dam.
Moving into later phases, two of the city's cemeteries have yielded, in addition to numerous Roman sarcophagi, an important ensemble of Late Antique tombs or hypogea with ornamental frescoes, one of which is located within a walled-off, early Christian burial ground (area) that also included wooden coffins. At least one of several of the known Roman streets and porticos was renovated during the early Byzantine period, around AD 500, and an honorific column can be assigned to the sixth century on the basis of its impost capital.
The emerging picture is in keeping with Ankara's history as a Roman foundation that prospered during the imperial period and that continued to play an important role during Late Antiquity and the early Byzantine era. Most importantly, Peschlow's results lead to the conclusion that Ankara remained a sizeable settlement within the confines of the Late Antique city walls throughout the invasion period and up until the Arab conquest in 838. The subsequent reconstruction, during the later ninth century, was on a much-reduced scale, and Peschlow has nothing to report in relation to the middle Byzantine period, extending through to the Turkish conquest in the eleventh century. The dearth of middle Byzantine evidence is reflected at other Anatolian cities and contrasts with a wealth of contemporary finds in rural contexts. This situation suggests that, once the Arab threat was over and urban defences were no longer needed after the later ninth century, settlement activity shifted from town to countryside.
Ankara during the Turkish period is poorly documented due to the instability caused by various short-lived conquests: the Crusaders, the Danishmendids, various Seljuk lines, the Mongols and, finally, the Ottomans. Peschlow dedicates an appendix to the Ottoman-period city walls, which date from the seventeenth century; they reused much ancient spolia, but were entirely unrelated to the Late Antique city walls, which were partially dismantled during the ninth-century reconstruction of the city, and which seem to have vanished completely by the Ottoman period. A final chapter by Wolfram Brandes summarises the textual sources for Ankara's history during the invasion period (seventh to ninth centuries).
Volume 1 concludes with substantial English and Turkish abstracts that recount the contents of each chapter, making them accessible to non-German readers. Volume 2 is dedicated to plates, including many new colour photographs, numerous hitherto unpublished archival images, and new drawings and reconstructions. The Temple of Augustus and Roma, the fortress and St Clemens are particularly well documented.
Peschlow's opulent book replaces all earlier publications as the standard reference work on the archaeology of Roman and Byzantine Ankara. The lasting value of this volume lies in the way that Peschlow—both through archival material and his own long-term personal observations on the ground—has been able to piece together and document evidence that is now in many cases irretrievably lost. The publication thus also records Ankara's rapid urban development during the twentieth century and the history of Turkey's evolving heritage policy as indicated by the preservation and presentation of the archaeological monuments of its capital city.
