From Troy to Constantinople: cities and societies of ancient Turkey

by Jennifer Tobin

Descript 7 sound discs (ca. 8 hr.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 course guide (80 p. : ill., maps ; 22 cm.)
Playing Time 080000
Series The modern scholar : great professors teaching you!
Modern scholar.
Performer Lecturer: Jennifer Tobin, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Note In container (26 cm.).
Compact discs.
Bibliog. Course guide includes bibliographical references (p. 77-79).
Contents Palaeolithic and neolithic Turkey -- Troy and the Trojan War -- The Hittites -- The Phrygians -- The Greeks -- The Lydians -- The Persians -- The Lycians -- The Carians -- Alexander the Great in Anatolia -- The kingdom of Pergamon -- Nemrud Dag and the kingdom of Commagene -- The early Roman Empire : Ephesus and Perge -- The later Roman Empire : Zeugma and Constantinople.
Summary Professor Jennifer Tobin discusses the history of Turkey, from the time of the Trojan War through Alexander the Great.
Subject Historic sites -- Turkey -- Sound recordings.
Turkey -- Antiquities -- Sound recordings.
Turkey -- History -- Sound recordings.
Turkey -- Civilization -- Sound recordings.
Alt Title Cities and societies of ancient Turkey

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook

80 pages, Audiobook

First published August 1, 2011

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly fascinating. So much history, so many facts. Very well presented

[Jesse Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enthralling series of lectures, perfect for a relative beginner like myself. In lieu of a review, I try to organize some of my notes into a multimedia presentation, mostly for my own reference. Unless I mention otherwise, every single image here is from Wikimedia Commons, licensed for this sort of use under the Creative Commons. (I guess all of us who travel and take photographs should consider uploading here and linking to the appropriate Wikipedia entries.)

Lecture 1: Paleolithic and Neolithic Turkey


This pillar from one of the enclosures in the Göbekli Tepe excavation site was part of a set of temples. "First came the temple, then the city," says Klaus Schmidt, one of the excavators. (Photo by Peter Simon Klaus).




This model in the Museum für Ur- und Frühgeschichte Thüringens in Weimar shows a reconstruction of Çatalhöyük, the earliest known settlement site complete with residences (as opposed to a temporary urban site that possibly grew up around a temple, as Göbekli Tepe appears to be). (photo by Wolfgang Sauber)


Lecture 2: Troy and the Trojan War



Sophia Schliemann, Heinrich's wife, wearing the so-called 'treasures of Priam,' found by Schliemann at the site of Hisarlik, near the Aegean coast. Schliemann caused destruction to much of the evidence, as he cut through the multiple layers of this site, now labeled as Troy 1 to Troy 7. Is Hisarlik the historical Troy? Answering this question is a masterful example of a critical thinking problem. These jewels were later lost, but are now known to be in Russia. Image from 1873 -- I guess Heinrich took this photo?


Lecture 3: The Hittites



Prof. Tobin describes these hieroglyphs, carved on the interior of a chamber built by Šuppiluliuma II, the last king of the Hittites. Their empire, huge and in competition with Egypt for a time, ended in destruction, perhaps a combination of climate change and internal tensions.


Lecture 4: The Phrygians


After Hittite decline, we see evidence for the rise of Phrygia, a kingdom in the northwest, one of several Prof. Tobin will discuss in relation to the coming conquests of Alexander and then the Romans. There's a lot of ongoing archaelogy at Gordion, the old Phrygian capital where Midas reigned. Phrygia had a national cult devoted to Cybele, the Mother Goddess, who would influence later Greek religion. Her lover, the boy, Attis, is shown here in a later Greek statue, but with the characteristic Phyrgian hat, dancing in his cult with the tombeau. (Photo by Marie Lan Nguyen.)


Lecture 5 The Greeks


Greeks probably migrated into the Western regions of Anatolia in the 10th century, founding colony cities like Miletus and Ephesus. It's quite interesting that philosophy should get its start out here, and not back at Athens. Ephesus had an Artemis cult likely related to the Cybele cult of the Phrygians, with a temple to Artemis that was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. (Diagram by cmglee, Juandamec, Kirill Borisenko, Flappiefh, and map from Nicolas M. Perrault - Mediterranean Basin and Near East before 1000 AD.

Lecture 6 The Lydians



The Lydians were famous for their gold production, and introducing coinage. This rather primitive drawing was the best I could find in a quick set of searches -- "foils (lower left), cementation (top), and cupellation (bottom)foils (lower left), cementation (top), and cupellation (bottom)." This image not under Creative Commons, but copyright President and Fellows of Harvard College, on sardisexpedition.org. Prof Tobin notes that American teams are still working out there.

Lecture 7: The Persians



Persian control over a region involved loose administration of autonomous units, called satraps. Prof. Tobin directs our attention to tombs, like this detail relief of one from Xanthos, the Lycian capital, which shows how prosperous and strong the region was under Persian rule. Fourth century; https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tomb_of_P..., no author listed. The tomb is now in the British museum, and there are similar examples in Turkey.

Lecture 8 The Lycians



The Lycians show evidence of advanced institutions, as with the portrait coins, like this one featuring their last dynast, Perikles, in the fourth century BCE (named after the Athenian he saw as a role model). The Lycian league would go on to quite impress the Romans, in no small part because they avoided piracy.


Lecture 9: The Carians


The Carians were an especially ancient line, with a cult to Zeus perhaps related to sites at Crete. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, built by one of their kings, features historical scenes like this one, a battle against the Amazons. (Photo by Carole Raddato).

Lecture 10: Alexander the Great


It's stunning story, how the young prince of Macedonia conquered Greece and then all of these states in Anatolia, pushing all the way to the Persian heartlands. One cool scene involves the siege of Helicarnassus, which only really fell when Queen Ada, sidelined for not working with the satrap, agreed to sponsor Alexander by adopting him. One wonders what sort of relationship he had with this older woman (in her 30s, likely!). Statue from the Mausoleum, now in the British Museum. (Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen)

Lecture 11: Pergamon


One of the most interesting of the city states was Pergamon, center of the Attalid dynasty, which kept a great altar with deeply humane art, like the sculpted frieze of the war of the gods versus the giants. Professor Tobin explains that it was very unusual to have the giants, enemies of the gods, depicted with such dignity and heroism. Pergamon sculptors would similarly display admiration of their Gallic invaders, in statues like The Dying Gaul. Pergamon's origins trace to a fun story about a eunuch general guarding a money pot while two of followers of Alexander the Great battled each other for control of the region -- both of them eighty years old!

Lecture 12 The Kingdom of Commagene


This map by Caliniuc shows the position of the Kingdom of Commagene, a client state that the Romans kept as a buffer between them and the Parthians. The gods of Commagene have both Greek and Persian characteristics.(Photo by Caliniuc)



13: The Early Roman Empire



Anatolia all became the new province of Asia, a much-exploited corner of the Roman empire. Professor Tobin tells us about Plancia Magna, an example of a powerful woman patron figure in the city of Perga, during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. A wealthy woman descended from a Roman senator, Plancia Magna served as a priestess of Artemis and was responsible for many civiv improvements to that city, including a monumental gate complex that displayed women priests and leaders; the city buried her near by with highest honors. This story really gets us thinking about how civilized the area was.


14 The Later Roman Empire



The third century CE was a time of crisis and renewal. The town of Zeugma, in Commagene, was the site of the main bridge over the Euphrates river, and for many years the eastern edge of the Roman empire. In 253, the city fell to the Sassanid king, Shapur. Under siege, the great rooms that held Zeugma mosaics were turned into barracks and food storage areas. Major excavations in this area were halted by the installation of a dam which flooded part of the old city. Here, one of the surviving mosaics from a museum in Turkey. (Photograph by Dosseman) .

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had some interesting history, but the author’s delivery was a bit boring.

[Mark A · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good insight into the history of the region

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this quite by accident. I was looking for a copy of The Persian Empire on the shelf at my library, but couldn't find it. But this lecture series was in approximately the same place and seemed like it might fill my desire for history of places I didn't know as much about.

I enjoyed this series, and found that it did indeed touch on areas (physical and historical) of which I knew little to nothing. The histories of Pergamon and Cammagene were especially interesting in that regards. The downside is that since I have little knowledge of the area, it is hard to visualize where everything is and how they relate to each other, and the maps in the booklet are only so useful, and don't exist for each lecture (still don't have a clear sense of where Zeugma is/was). The structure of the lectures as a whole is interesting, since most lectures focus on just a single people/civilization that was prominent at a given time, sometimes contemporary with each other, or with larger, more well known societies. An interesting part of this is that with the amount of influence Ionia had on greater Greek culture (both the style of columns used in Greek temples and more general architecture, and especially being the region in which philosophy and rationalism first developed), it kind of raises the question of how uniquely Greek Ancient Greek culture actually was, and how much was a borrowing and adaptation of ideas from other cultures.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could I give this 3.5 stars. It was good, but did not hit the five star level. Some parts were a bit slow and like all professors in this field qualified everything she said. But the area is an amazing place rich with history.

[Avis Black]

I did get something out of it, but boy, was it ever dry.

[Benjamin Leis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audio book we listened to over the summer. Really interesting.