Table Of ContentTRADE IN BYZANTIUM
PAPERS FROM THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL
SEVGİ GÖNÜL BYZANTINE STUDIES SYMPOSIUM
ISTANBUL, 24–27 JUNE 2013
TRADE IN BYZANTIUM EDITORS SYMPOSIUM HONORARY CHAIRMAN
Paul Magdalino Ömer M. Koç
PAPERS FROM THE THIRD Nevra Necipoğlu
INTERNATIONAL SEVGİ GÖNÜL with the assistance of SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
BYZANTINE STUDIES SYMPOSIUM Ivana Jevtić Prof. Dr. Engin Akyürek
ISTANBUL, 24-27 JUNE, 2013 Dr. Vera Bulgurlu
BOOK DESIGN Prof. Dr. Melek Delilbaşı
© KOÇ UNIVERSITY’S RESEARCH CENTER Burak Şuşut, FİKA Prof. Dr. Sema Doğan
FOR ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS Assoc. Prof. Koray Durak
(ANAMED), 2016 PRE-PRESS PRODUCTION Prof. Dr. Zeynep Mercangöz
Beste Miray Doğan, FİKA Prof. Dr. Nevra Necipoğlu
HISTORY | ART HISTORY | Prof. Dr. Ayla Ödekan TRADE
ARCHAEOLOGY | PUBLICATION COORDINATION Prof. Dr. Scott Redford
BYZANTINE STUDIES Buket Coşkuner
Çiçek Öztek EXECUTIVE BOARD
Koç University Suna Kıraç Library Prof. Dr. Nevra Necipoğlu IN BYZANTIUM
Cataloging-in-Publication Data PROJECT ASSISTANTS Prof. Dr. Ayla Ödekan
International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Alican Kutlay Prof. Dr. Engin Akyürek
Studies Symposium (3rd : 2013 : İstanbul, M. Kemal Baran Assoc. Prof. Koray Durak
Turkey) Dr. Buket Coşkuner
Trade in Byzantium : papers from the PRODUCTION COORDINATION Hülya Bilgi
third international Sevgi Gönül Byzantine
E. Esra Satıcı Melih Fereli PAPERS
Studies Symposium, İstanbul 24-27 June,
Seçil Kınay
2013 / edited by Paul Magdalino, Nevra
Necipoğlu with the assistance of Ivana PRINT Erdal Yıldırım FROM THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL
Ofset Yapımevi
Jevtic.-- İstanbul : Koç University Research
Yahya Kemal Mahallesi
Center for Anatolian Civilizations,2016. SEVGİ GÖNÜL BYZANTINE STUDIES
Şair Sokak, No. 4
548 pages ; 19,5 x 25 cm. -- Koç
Kağıthane, İstanbul
University Research Center for Anatolian
SYMPOSIUM
Certificate No: 12326
Civilizations. History/Art History/
Archaeology/Byzantine Studies
ISBN 978-605-9388-05-4 FIRST EDITION
1. Byzantine Empire--Commerce- Istanbul, June 2016
-Congresses. 2. Byzantine Empire-- EDITED BY
Commerce--History--Congresses. ISBN 978-605-9388-05-4
3. Byzantine Empire--Economic conditions- KOÇ UNIVERSITY PAUL MAGDALINO
-Congresses. 4. Byzantine Empire-- Certificate No: 18318
History--Congresses. I. Magdalino, Paul. II. NEVRA NECİPOĞLU
Necipoğlu, Nevra. III. Jevtic, Ivana. IV. Title.
with the assistance of
HF405.I58 2016
IVANA JEVTIĆ
Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolion Civilizations (ANAMED), gratefully acknowledges the valuable support of the Vehbi Koç
Foundation and cooperation of the following institutions in organizing the Third International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium:
Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism
General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums
Istanbul Archaeological Museums
© 2016. All rights reserved. All rights of the images and texts published in this volume belong to the person and institutions concerned.
No part of it, or all, may be publihed, printed, reproduced, using any mechanical, optical or electronic means including photocopying
without prior written permission by the publisher.
CONTENTS
ix
Abbreviations
xv
Preface
ÖMER M. KOÇ
xvii
Editors’ Foreword
PAUL MAGDALINO and NEVRA NECİPOĞLU
xix
Opening Speech
ZEYNEP MERCANGÖZ
3
PAUL MAGDALINO and NEVRA NECİPOĞLU
Introduction
1. COMMERCE AND CONTROL
11
PETER SARRIS
Merchants, Trade, and Commerce in Byzantine Law from Justinian I to Basil II
25
JEAN-CLAUDE CHEYNET
Quelques nouveaux sceaux de commerciaires
(Some New Seals of Kommerkiarioi)
55
MICHEL KAPLAN
Monks and Trade in Byzantium from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century
65
KOSTIS SMYRLIS
Trade Regulation and Taxation in Byzantium, Eleventh–Twelfth Centuries
2. COMMODITIES AND CERAMICS
4. CENTERS AND NETWORKS IN ANATOLIA
91
257
JOHANNES KODER
YAMAN DALANAY
Salt for Constantinople
Communications and Trade in Western Asia Minor during the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine
Periods: The Case of Ephesos
105
CÉCILE MORRISSON
267
Trading in Wood in Byzantium: Exchange and Regulations
MEHMET KAHYAOĞLU
Portolan Charts and Harbor Towns in Western Asia Minor towards the End of the Byzantine
Empire
129
YOUVAL ROTMAN
Byzantium and the International Slave Trade in the Central Middle Ages
279
ANDREAS KÜLZER
Byzantine Lydia: Some Remarks on Communication Routes and Settlement Places
143
VÉRONIQUE FRANÇOIS
A Distribution Atlas of Byzantine Ceramics: A New Approach to the Pottery Trade in Byzantium
297
SCOTT REDFORD
157 Caravanserais and Commerce
JOANITA VROOM
Byzantine Sea Trade in Ceramics: Some Case Studies in the Eastern Mediterranean
(ca. Seventh–Fourteenth Centuries) 313
ECE TURNATOR
Trade and Textile Industry in the State of Nicaea through the Romance of Livistros and
Rodamne (Thirteenth Century)
3. MERCHANTS AND THE MARKET IN CONSTANTINOPLE
323
181 ASLIHAN AKIŞIK-KARAKULLUKÇU
PAUL MAGDALINO The Empire of Trebizond in the World-Trade System: Economy and Culture
The Merchant of Constantinople
337
193 MURAT KEÇİŞ
DAVID JACOBY Trabzon İmparatoru III. Aleksios’un Khrysoboulloslarına Göre Venediklilerin Trabzon
Constantinople as Commercial Transit Center, Tenth to Mid-Fifteenth Century Ticareti Hakkında Gözlemler
(Observations on the Trade of the Venetians with Trebizond, Based on the Chrysobulls
of Alexios III, the Emperor of Trebizond)
211
BRIGITTE PITARAKIS
The Byzantine Marketplace: A Window onto Daily Life and Material Culture
233
AYGÜL AĞIR
Bizans Başkentinde Müslüman Tacirler İçin Mimarlık: Mitaton
(Architecture for Muslim Merchants in the Byzantine Capital: The Mitaton)
ABBREVIATIONS
5. SHIPS AND HARBORS: NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
AA Archäologischer Anzeiger [note: before 1962, part of JDAI; 1963–84, issued as
363
supplement to JDAI]
UFUK KOCABAŞ, IŞIL ÖZSAİT-KOCABAŞ,
EVREN TÜRKMENOĞLU, TANER GÜLER, and NAMIK KILIÇ AAA Athens Annals of Archaeology
The World’s Largest Collection of Medieval Shipwrecks: The Ships of the Theodosian Harbor
AASS Acta sanctorum (Paris, 1863–1940)
AB Analecta Bollandiana
379
ACO Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, ed. E. Schwartz and J. Straub (Berlin, 1914– )
MEHMET ALİ POLAT
Yenikapı’nın Yükleriyle Batmış Gemileri AF Archäologische Forschungen
(Yenikapı Shipwrecks Found With Their Cargoes)
AIPHOS Annuaire de l’Institut de philologie et d’histoire orientales et slaves
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
399
AM Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung
NERGİS GÜNSENİN
Ganos Limanı’ndan Portus Theodosiacus’a Anat.Ant. Anatolia Antiqua
(From Ganos Harbor to Portus Theodosiacus)
AnatSt Anatolian Studies
Annales H.S.S. Annales Histoire Sciences Sociales
403
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
VERA BULGURLU
Yenikapı’daki Theodosius Limanı Kazılarından Bizans Kurşun Mühürleri AnzWien Anzeiger der [Österreichischen] Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien,
(Byzantine Lead Seals from the Theodosian Harbor Excavations at Yenikapı) Philosophisch-historische Klasse
APF Archiv für Papyrusforschung
431 ArchIug Archaeologia iugoslavica
GÜLBAHAR BARAN ÇELİK
Ἀρχ.Δελτ Ἀρχαιολογικὸν δελτίον
Yenikapı Theodosius Limanı Kazısı Zemberek Biçimli Fibulaları
(Crossbow Fibulas from the Yenikapı Theodosian Harbor Excavations) ArtB Art Bulletin
AST Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı
445
LALE DOĞER and HARUN ÖZDAŞ BCH Bulletin de correspondance hellénique
Adrasan: Ceramic Finds from a Byzantine Shipwreck
BDIA Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts
BHG Bibliotheca hagiographica graeca, 3rd ed., ed. F. Halkin, SubsHag 47
465 (Brussels, 1957; repr. 1969)
T. ENGİN AKYÜREK
Andriake: The Port of Myra in Late Antiquity BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies
BMGS Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
489 BNJ Byzantinisch-Neugriechische Jahrbücher
B. YELDA OLCAY UÇKAN BNumRoma Bollettino di Numismatica
Olympos’ta Ticaret
BSA The Annual of the British School at Athens
(Trade in Olympos)
BSl Byzantinoslavica
Byzantine Constantinople, Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography and Everyday Life,
ed. Necipoğlu ed. N. Necipoğlu (Leiden-Boston-Cologne, 2001)
503
Indices
x TRADE IN BYZANTIUM ABBREVIATIONS xi
Iviron, 1 Actes d’Iviron. I. Des origines au milieu du XIe siècle, ed. J. Lefort, N. Oikonomidès,
ByzF Byzantinische Forschungen
D. Papachryssanthou, collab. H. Métrévéli (Paris, 1985)
BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift
Iviron, 2 Actes d’Iviron. II. Du milieu du XIe siècle à 1204, ed. J. Lefort, N. Oikonomidès,
D. Papachryssanthou (Paris, 1990)
CahArch Cahiers archéologiques Ivirion, 3 Actes d’Iviron. III. De 1204 à 1328, ed. J. Lefort, N. Oikonomidès,
D. Papachryssanthou, V. Kravari, collab., H. Métrévéli (Paris, 1994)
CahCM Cahiers de civilisation médiévale
CCSG Corpus christianorum, Series graeca
JA Journal asiatique
CFHB Corpus fontium historiae byzantinae
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
Chemins d'outre mer, Chemins d'outre mer: études d'histoire sur la Méditerranée médiévale offertes à Michel
ed. Coulon et al. Balard, ed. D. Coulon, C. Otten-Froux, P. Pagès, D. Valérian, 2 vols. (Paris, 2014) JEH Journal of Ecclesiastical History
JESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
Chilandar, 1 Actes de Chilandar I. Des origines à 1319, ed. M. Živojinović, V. Kravari, Ch. Giros,
JFieldA Journal of Field Archaeology
(Paris, 1998)
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies
CMRS Cahiers du Monde russe et soviétique
JJP Journal of Juristic Papyrology
Constantinople and Constantinople and its Hinterland: Papers from the Twenty seventh Spring Symposium-
its Hinterland, ed. of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, April 1993, ed. C. Mango and G. Dagron (Aldershot, 1995) JOAS Journal of Oriental and African Studies
Mango and Dagron
JÖB Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik [note: before 1969, JÖBG]
CSHB Corpus scriptorum historiae byzantinae
JRGZM Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz
JSav Journal des savants
DenkWien Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch historische Klasse,
JTuS Journal of Turkish Studies
Denkschriften
ΔΧΑΕ Δελτίον τῆς Χριστιανικῆς ἀρχαιολογικῆς ἑταιρείας
Lavra, 1 Actes de Lavra. I. Des origines à 1204, ed. P. Lemerle, A. Guillou,
DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers
N. Svoronos (Paris, 1970)
DOS Dumbarton Oasks Studies
Lavra, 2 Actes de Lavra. II. De 1204 à 1328, ed. A. Guillou, P. Lemerle, D. Papachryssanthou,
N. Svoronos (Paris, 1977)
EHB The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, Lavra, 3 Actes de Lavra. III. De 1329 à 1500, ed. P. Lemerle, A. Guillou, N. Svoronos,
ed. A. E. Laiou, 3 vols. (Washington, D.C., 2002) D. Papachryssanthou (Paris, 1979)
EI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden-London, 1960– ) LBG Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität, ed. E. Trapp (Vienna, 1994– )
EpAnat Epigraphica Anatolica LexMA Lexikon des Mittelalters
LSJ H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones et al., A Greek-English Lexicon
(Oxford, 1968)
Génois de Péra Actes des notaires Génois de Péra et de Caffa de la fin du treizième siècle (1281-1290),
et de Caffa ed. G. I. Bratianu (Bucharest, 1927)
GJ Geographical Journal McCormick, Origins M. McCormick, Origins of the European Economy. Communications and Commerce,
A.D. 300–900 (Cambridge-New York, 2001)
GRBS Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
MélRome Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, École française de Rome
MGH Monumenta Germaniae historica
HTS Harvard Theological Studies
MHR Mediterranean Historical Review
MLR The Modern Language Review
IJNA The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology
MM Acta et diplomata graeca medii aevi sacra et profana, ed. F. Miklosich and J. Müller,
IRAIK Izvestiia Russkogo arkheologicheskogo instituta v Konstantinople
6 vols. (Vienna, 1860–90)
IstMitt Istanbuler Mitteilungen
MÖNumGes Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Numismatischen Gesellschaft
xii TRADE IN BYZANTIUM ABBREVIATIONS xiii
NC The Numismatic Chronicle [and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society] Trade and Markets, ed. Trade and Markets in Byzantium, ed. C. Morrisson (Washington, D.C., 2012)
Morrisson
NomKhron Nomismatika Chronika
Trav.Rech.Turquie Travaux et recherches en Turquie
TT Urkunden zur älteren Handels- und Staatsgeschichte der Republik Venedig, ed. G. L. F.
ODB The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. A. Kazhdan et al., 3 vols. (New York-Oxford, Tafel and G. M. Thomas, 3 vols. (Vienna, 1856–57; repr. Amsterdam, 1964)
1991)
TürkArkDerg Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi
OHBS The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, ed. E. Jeffreys, J. Haldon, and R. Cormack
(Oxford, 2008)
OJA Oxford Journal of Archaeology WBS Wiener byzantinistische Studien
ÖJh Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Instituts in Wien
ZpapEpig Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik
Πάτμου, 1 Βυζαντινὰ ἔγγραφα τῆς μονῆς Πάτμου, Α. Αυτοκρατορικά: διπλωματική έκδοσις, ZRVI Zbornik radova Vizantološkog instituta
Γενική εισαγωγή, Ευρετήρια, Πίνακες, ed. E. L. Vranousis (Athens, 1980)
Πάτμου, 2 Βυζαντινὰ ἔγγραφα τῆς μονῆς Πάτμου, Β. Δημοσίων λειτουργῶν, ed. M.
Nystazopoulou-Pelekidou (Athens, 1980)
PG Patrologiae cursus completus, Series graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris, 1857–66)
Protaton Actes du Prôtaton, ed. D. Papachryssanthou (Paris, 1975)
RAC Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum
RBPH Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire
RDAC Reports of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus
REArm Revue des études arméniennes
REB Revue des études byzantines
REG Revue des études grecques
REJ Revue des études juives
RESEE Revue des études sud-est européennes
RH Revue historique
RN Revue numismatique
RSH Revue suisse d’histoire
SBS Studies in Byzantine Sigillography
SC Sources chrétiennes
Settimane Settimane di studio del centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo
SOsl Symbolae Osloenses
StVen Studi veneziani
TIB Tabula imperii byzantini, ed. H. Hunger (Vienna, 1976– )
TLG Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
TM Travaux et mémoires
PREFACE
ÖMER M. KOÇ
Symposium Honorary Chairman
Since 2007 the International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium is organized
every three years in memory of my late aunt Sevgi Gönül (1938–2003), who supported the
development of awareness about cultural heritage and the growth of Byzantine Studies
in Turkey.
The Scientific Advisory Board selected “Trade in Byzantium” as the theme of
the Third International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium which was held on
24–27 June 2013. In the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople served not only as an
administrative, military, and religious center, but also as one of trade and commerce.
The city was selected as the new imperial capital due to its geographical advantages,
its vast hinterland, its situation as an ideal vantage point for travel by land and sea,
and its safe natural harbors, making it a perfect location for trade. Considering that
medieval Anatolia, and especially Constantinople, was located at the center of a broad
trade network and was a center of both production and consumption, trade is rightfully
a continuing subject matter of Byzantine studies. In addition, since 2004, the Directorate
of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums has carried out archaeological research
in Üsküdar, Sirkeci, and Yenikapı, as part of the Marmaray and Metro projects. The
excavations have revealed spectacular artifacts and new knowledge on Byzantine trade,
ship-building technology, and ships and their cargo. In light of harbor excavation results
and information accumulated from other ongoing research, it was the right time to re-
evaluate trade in Byzantium. New findings and knowledge arising from the Yenikapı
excavations, in particular, gave reason to revisit issues of trade in Byzantium again.
As with the first symposium held in 2007, the Istanbul Archaeological Museums
once again supported the third symposium with an exhibition. The exhibition “Stories
from the Hidden Harbor: Shipwrecks of Yenikapı” opened in the Istanbul Archaeological
Museums on 24 June 2013. It was a great honor and joy to facilitate the exhibition
and its accompanying catalogue carrying the same title. We hope that the exhibition
xvi TRADE IN BYZANTIUM
and its catalogue shed more light on the history of Istanbul as a major trade center.
EDITORS’ FOREWORD
The proceedings of the Third International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium,
too, contributes significantly to revealing original new research on aspects of trade in
Byzantium. PAUL MAGDALINO and NEVRA NECİPOĞLU
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Vehbi Koç Foundation; to Koç
University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, for all the material and moral
support it contributed towards establishing the symposium; to the Scientific Advisory
Board and the Executive Board members of the symposium, for their devoted work;
and, last but not least, to both the symposium participants, who made the “Papers from
the Third International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium” a reality, and to the
editors of this volume, Paul Magdalino and Nevra Necipoğlu, for their meticulous work
in bringing this volume to publication.
The articles collected in this volume derive from papers presented at the Third
International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium on “Trade in Byzantium,” held
in Istanbul on 24–27 June 2013. The symposium was made possible with the generous
financial and moral support of the Vehbi Koç Foundation, and the editors would like
to thank especially Ömer M. Koç, who has been the principal driving force behind the
establishment of this symposium series organized every three years since 2007. Unlike
the first two symposia, which were held at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, the Third
International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium took place at Koç University’s
Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED). We are grateful to the then
director of ANAMED, Scott Redford, and to its entire staff, particularly Buket Coşkuner,
for their help and support in the organization of the symposium. We also would like to
extend our thanks to the Scientific Advisory Board for having entrusted us with editing
the symposium proceedings.
Presented in this volume are twenty-eight of the thirty-three papers delivered at
the symposium. We wish to thank all the speakers who revised their papers for this
publication, as well as those who decided not to publish their contributions to the
symposium in the present volume. Among the latter, Harun Özdaş submitted only his
joint paper with Lale Doğer, while withholding from publication his general survey of the
Byzantine shipwrecks discovered on the Aegean coast of Turkey. The other contributions
missing from this volume are those by Rahmi Asal, who presented the new discoveries
from the Marmaray excavations at Sirkeci, on the site of the Prosphorion Harbor; Koray
Durak and Dionysios Stathakopoulos, who each offered the results of their ongoing
research on drugs as commodities in the trade of the eastern Mediterranean; and Chris
Entwistle, who analyzed Byzantine weights in terms of their typology and geographical
distribution, based on the extensive collections in the British Museum. Given its largely
interactive nature, it has also not been possible to include in the present volume the
xviii TRADE IN BYZANTIUM
Closing Panel, in which the participants—Nevra Necipoğlu, John Haldon, and Michael
OPENING SPEECH
McCormick—evaluated the symposium and commented on future prospects for the
study of trade in Byzantium.
In preparing the papers for publication, we received invaluable assistance from ZEYNEP MERCANGÖZ
Ivana Jevtić, which we acknowledge with gratitude. Thanks are also due to Buket
Coşkuner, Çiçek Öztek, Alican Kutlay, and M. Kemal Baran for their help with the copy-
editing. Finally, we are grateful to Burak Şuşut of FİKA, who prepared the design and
layout of the book, and to ANAMED Publications for agreeing to publish it.
Distinguished participants and guests,
It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the Third International Sevgi Gönül
Byzantine Studies Symposium. Taking place at three year intervals since 2007, the Sevgi
Gönül symposia have become the major meeting point in Turkey for Byzantine scholars
from around the world.
Considering the cultural heritage of the Eastern Roman Empire—or, to use its
conventional name, the Byzantine Empire—in Turkey, the number of congresses and
symposia held in this country that are dedicated to Byzantine studies is extremely low.
The first and only “International Congress of Byzantine Studies” that took place in Turkey
was the Xth Congress held in Istanbul on 15–21 September 1955.1 Apart from that, a limited
1 The proceedings of this Congress, including papers in Turkish, French, English and German, were
published in 1957: X. Milletlerarası Bizans Tetkikleri Kongresi Tebliğleri - Actes du X. Congrès International
d’Etudes Byzantines (İstanbul, 15–21.IX.1955) (Istanbul, 1957). Certainly, this congress owed a lot to the work
on Byzantine studies carried out by Westerners in Istanbul from the 1930s onwards. On the other hand,
whether a coincidence or not, it is noteworthy that Feridun Dirimtekin (1894–1976) was appointed as the
director of the Hagia Sophia Museum the same year that the congress took place in Istanbul. With this
commission, Dirimtekin oriented himself from his military training towards archaeology and specifically
to Byzantine studies, and participated in excavations carried out by national teams in Istanbul and other
parts of Turkey. In this context, as contributions of Turkish scholars to Byzantine research, the results
of these excavations were published in the Ayasofya Müzesi Yıllığı / Annual of Ayasofya Museum, the first
issue of which appeared in 1959. Until retiring from his post as the museum director in 1971, Dirimtekin
contributed to seven issues with forewords and articles on Byzantine subjects. Likewise, the archaeologist
Nezih Fıratlı (1921–1979), who was the director of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum during 1978–1979, is
among the first Turkish Byzantinists due to the excavations he conducted at Sebaste/Uşak, Selçikler and
around the Hagia Sophia Museum, and the catalogues he prepared of Byzantine architectural sculpture
at the museums of İznik and Istanbul. Without a doubt, Prof. Dr. Semavi Eyice (b. 1922) occupies a special
place in Byzantine studies in Turkey, given his national and international publications in the field of
Byzantine art history. Eyice’s İstanbul – Petit guide à travers les monuments byzantins et turcs (Istanbul,
1955), published by the Organization Committee on the occasion of the Xth International Congress of
Byzantine Studies, and his biographical publications about F. Dirimtekin and N. Fıratlı in the 1970s, must be
considered as pioneering works in the establishment of Byzantine studies as an academic field in Turkey.
I would also like to underline here that the early excavations carried out by Turkish archaeologists on
