A Conservation Management Plan for Gordion and its Environs

Abstract

A Conservation Management Plan for Gordion and its Environs has been developed by a multidisciplinary team within a partnership between the University of Pennsylvania (both the School of Design and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) and Middle East Technical University (Faculty of Architecture) in Ankara. The project has involved a new approach to the protection of cultural material at the site itself, as well as the survey and documentation of a 140 km² area, with Gordion as its centre, to include the village of Yassıhöyük and five nearby villages, historic sites, höyüks, or settlement mounds, and tumuli, or burial mounds. The project utilized photographs and standardized forms in the documentation of public and private buildings and areas. Based on this survey, the values of the site and its environs were reassessed, and an action plan presented for all project stakeholders. One of the primary stakeholders is the local population, who must be made aware of the damaging effects of deep ploughing to the tumuli.

Keywords:

• Turkey
• protection
• survey
• documentation
• stakeholders
• values
• action plan

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Yaşar Irak, Şinasi Kılıç, Gül Devrim Demirel, Pınar Aykaç, Gülşah Çelik, Özge Göncü, Esra Karataş, Ayşem Kılınç, and Özge Yurtsevenler for their support.

Notes

1 In the late 1930s, a group of shepherds from the northern province of Bolu trekked with their herds, to the Sakarya-Porsuk plain, following routes used in antiquity, for a seven- to eight-month stay in winter months, and returned to Bolu in early May.

2 Gürsan-Salzmann conducted interviews of varying lengths with more than 30 women, ages ranging from 40–60 years old.