Since the inception of our research in the region, we have actively engaged in non-invasive approaches to understanding regional landscapes and individual sites. From historical aerial photographs (HAPs) from the mid-twentieth century and relatively low-resolution Landsat satellites to high-resolution multispectral QuickBird (now Maxar) and Planet satellites, we use images from above to help guide ground-truthing, ground-based work. Since 2013, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, have enabled even higher-resolution imagery production and have enabled fine-scale topographic mapping — or microtopographic modeling – as well. Non-invasive subsurface prospection since 2007 has tested a variety of methods, including magnetometry, electromagnetic conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, ground-penetrating radar, electrical resistance tomography, and resistivity. Ongoing work focuses on the last of these methods, which continues to produce the best results for Kaymakçı’s specific conditions, revealing the locations of walls and other features with sub-meter precision.
Regional Interactions
To know a region, to experience a place is an integral part of how archaeologists participate in presenting cultural and natural heritage. Since our work began with the Central Lydia Archaeological Survey (CLAS), we’ve invested a lot in how archaeologists may be part of this perspective. We focus on positive outcomes, seeing communities as integral participants in achieving wider goals to understand, to present, and to preserve the region’s resources.
To get out and see places is extremely important. Here you meet people, you enjoy the views, and you understand what it feels like to have the wind at your back or the heat of the mid-day sun on your face, and you know the urgency of rushing to take cover from sudden thunderstorms.
To engage with people of all ages and their perspectives on where they live, watercolor and ebru (“marbling”) workshops brought community members together to explore local cultural and natural heritage through art. Art allows creative approaches to individual perspectives, and such workshops are nice opportunities for community gatherings. The natural and cultural foci of these workshops included local archaeology, landscapes, and, especially, the birds of the Marmara Lake basin.
Related projects focused on exploring the full trajectory of food production, preparation, marketing, and consumption. A later continuation of similar work took form in the SOFRA Project.
This earlier work led to the first-ever “field to table” dinner in the heart of Bin Tepe.
In 2012 CLAS proposed a selection of bike routes through Bin Tepe with different levels of difficulty for bikers of differing experience. We tested the routes, prepared maps, and submitted the concept to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This innovative concept may finally be coming to fruition: in 2025 it was proposed to be adopted and adapted as part of the “Heritage for the Future” project (Geleceği Miras Projesi); happily it also complements the ongoing nomination process to inscribe The Ancient City of Sardis and the Lydian Tumuli of Bin Tepe on the UNESCO World Heritage list, also supported by members of Gygaia Projects. We are very pleased by this recognition!
More recently, we’ve expanded our approach to getting out and around the Marmara Lake Basin to enjoy nature-culture spheres. In 2020 we proposed to the Gölmarmara Kaymakamlık a selection of hiking routes that connect the Asphodel Research center to the primary Bronze Age sites that surround the lake basin. It is the beginnings of a “Lydian Way” akin to the well-known “Lycian Way”!
Ottoman Studies
Intensive “digging” into the Presidential Ottoman Archives and Robert College-Boğaziçi University Archives in Istanbul has proved to be extraordinarily interesting for the historical importance of Lake Marmara, the Gediz River, and early archaeology in the region (Bin Tepe and Sardis). Current archival research relates to the period between the late 16th and early 20th centuries. The Middle Gediz Valley is a rich territory for Ottoman narratives on climate change, agricultural production, wetland management, and property relations throughout the period under Ottoman rule. Waqfs (pious foundations) controlled major areas of the region. Princes residing in the palace of nearby Manisa from the 15th to the 17th century played major roles in the waqf management of agricultural land in the valley as well as of the waters and surrounding wetlands of Lake Marmara. Unique historical trajectories define land and lake basin management in the face of dramatic climatic shifts during the Little Ice Age. Current research focuses on the Halime Hatun waqf, which included major components of agricultural and lake resources (fishing, reeds, leeches, etc.). Revenue from taxes collected by the waqf funded the Halime Hatun complex in Gölmarmara, including a mosque, medrese, soup-kitchen, and hammam. These places are today part of Gölmarmara’s Ottoman heritage. The dynamic landscapes of the lake basin offer a hub for exploring the varying scales of global climate shifts among local, imperial, and inter-imperial actors.
In fact this research also gives us the opportunity to place this region firmly within the networks of 18th century Izmir, a major commercial port that connected the middle Gediz Valley to the wider world. This entry triggered increasing competition over land and lake management in the late 18th and thru the early 20th century. Here our work explores Ottoman and non-Ottoman merchants; tax-farmers who competed to gain access to revenues from Lake Marmara, the fertile land, and mines; Cossack refugees who settled in the region as early as the 1830s and made good use of their expertise of socio-ecological knowledge on wetland ecologies to compete with the predominantly Orthodox Greek fishing communities; and local ayan families like the Karaosmanoğlu, who held economic as well as political power in the region. While trying to access and control the resources in the valley, and especially of Lake Marmara, lake communities (intentionally as well as unintentionally) negotiated the micro-climate of the valley and the natural history of Lake Marmara within the context of changing climate and property relations, notably the Tanzimat shifts. This eventually resulted with the emergence of lake management policies.
Finally, another important and emerging part of our archival work focuses on the narratives of early archaeologists, from Bin Tepe to Sardis. We’re interested in their agendas, their engagement with modernity, their relationships with Ottoman officials, and the role of conservation and presentation in Turkey, from the late 18th through the mid-20th century.
Landscapes
When the Central Lydia Archaeological Survey (CLAS) began, the backbone of the research focused first and foremost on the concept of landscape – a holistic vision of place-making by those inhabiting this region. Change over time, from conceptual understandings to the physical transformation of the landscape, has resulted in shifting ideas for how communities referred to concepts of home and territory. From settled communities to transhumance, rich narratives of the ebbing and flowing of human heritage define this region. From the forests and lakes of the Bozdağ Mountain range, the vast Gediz River plain, the various rivers (Gediz and Alaşehir), the extensive Lake Marmara, and the uplands of the western and northern mountain ranges, our holistic interest continues to be the layers of legacies embodied across these landscapes.
Lake Marmara – Gygaia Limne
Much of the research conducted by Gygaia Projects pivots around Lake Marmara. Afterall, it is the project namesake. Our approach to the study of the lake covers an extensive period, from its initial formation around 10,000 years ago to the current climatic crisis. Nearby natural springs along the northern edge of the lake basin, especially the Akpınar spring, would likely have sustained a small body of water throughout history. Winter rains and runoff enhance this body of water. Even so, hot, dry summers lead to massive fluctuations in the boundaries of the lake, and throughout its history it was known to dry up, at least partially.
To be sure, the lake is shallow (6 meters at its deepest point), and it is also extremely broad. This dynamic body of water, thus, has received considerable attention as a spiritual component of the region, vacillating with seasons and climatic regimes. This fragile natural landscape, however, has been and continues to be modified by human hands. The first intervention into the lake is the subject of current research, as are the most recent interventions, including both the Gördes and Demirköprü dams.
Ongoing research projects that concern the lake include study of the flora and fauna from the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological collections from the Bronze Age site of Kaymakçı, an ongoing assessment of biological diversity, legacies of ritual associated with the lake, coring programs for paleotopographical, sediment DNA, and climate reconstructions, and a detailed look at Ottoman archives, which demonstrate not only its local significance, but also its regional importance for 18th century and later policies towards wetland management in the Ottoman world.
Food and Society – SOFRA
How and what we eat defines much of who we are as individuals and communities. The SOFRA project explores and celebrates food traditions in the Marmara Lake Basin and beyond from past to present. Gygaia Projects partners with SOFRA in its exploration of the archaeological contexts, village courtyards, family fields, and women’s cooperatives that are all part of this story. Please enjoy the book on histories and recipes as well as links to photographs and videos here: https://sofra.ku.edu.tr.