Location BIAA, 154 Atatürk Bulvarı, and online
Date and time
Tuesday 28 March 2023
16:00 - 17:30 (London GMT)
19:00 - 20:30 (Ankara UTC+3)
Speakers
Bilge Hürmüzlü
Isparta Süleyman Demirel University
Seleukeia Sidera is located in the north of the Pisidia region in SW Türkiye. It was founded under the Seleucids as a military colony to secure one of the main east-west arteries running through northern Pisidia. The ancient settlement was surrounded by agricultural and pastoral fields, and strategically dominated the road networks due to its location overlooking the Kuleönü Plain. The area fell into Roman hands in the 2nd century BCE, and the site continued to grow in the Late Roman period when it extended to the lower slopes and onto the plain. Finds from the site point to a continuous habitation from the Iron Age to Late Antiquity, with the city walls and a theatre dating from the Hellenistic period. This talk will present the results of the latest research activities conducted in and around Seleukeia Sidera and provide new information about this little-known settlement of Pisidia.
Bilge Hürmüzlü was born in 1970 in Baghdad. She obtained her BA, MA, and PhD in Classical Archaeology from Ege University. During her PhD, she was awarded a German Academic Exchange (DAAD) Scholarship to conduct research at Bochum Ruhr University, as well as grants from the Alexander S. Benefit Foundation, British School at Athens, and American Research Institute. Her PhD thesis was on the Klazomenai Akpınar Necropolis (7th-4th centuries BC) and Ionian burial traditions. In 2008, she was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship for Experienced Researcher and conducted her post-doctoral research in Martin Luther Halle-Witenberg University between 2008-2010. Currently, she is working as the head of department for Archaeology in Süleyman Demirel University, and as the director of the Seleukeia Sidera excavations since 2019. Prior to the survey projects she has conducted in the Pisidia region between 2008-2019, she has done fieldwork in the Klazomenai, Miletos and Katophana (Chios) excavations. Alongside her archaeological excavation and research projects, she has also started the ‘Isparta Intangible Cultural Heritage Project’ at Süleyman Demirel University.