Negotiations continuing with China and US on other reactor projects Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom is “ahead” in a bid to build Turkey’s second nuclear power station Rosatom already has experience in Turkey’s nuclear sector through the construction of four Russia-supplied units at the nation’s first commercial nuclear power station at Akkuyu on the Mediterranean coast in southern Turkey That makes it well placed to also build the Sinop station energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in an interview “This is the main reason why they’re naturally keen and in this sense I and many others think they’re ahead,” he said Rosatom is “a company that’s invested in Turkey and has gained experience.” South Korea is the other country that is known to have held talks on the planned four-reactor Sinop facility on the Black Sea coast in northern Turkey The Sinop station could involve a joint venture between the public and private sectors and licensing is expected to take two or three years Turkey currently aims to add over 20 GW of nuclear capacity to its energy mix by 2050 but it could reach that target in the 2040s if the Sinop site and another planned nuclear plant in the Thrace region of western Turkey are expanded to their maximum capacity of eight reactors each plus four under construction at Akkuyu is an ambitious target that would give 22.28 GW of net capacity if all 20 units were of the same type as those under construction at Akkuyu Negotiations are continuing with China on the Thrace project and with the US on small modular reactors US nuclear technology giant Westinghouse Electric Co is interested in both small and conventional nuclear projects in Turkey with executives from the company scheduled to visit Turkey later this month The $20bn (€18.1bn) Akkuyu nuclear power station will have four Generation III+ VVER-1200 units with the first expected to come online in 2025 and a further unit starting every year afterwards Construction of Akkuyu-1 began in April 2018 and was initially planned for completion in 2023. Rosatom said in April that the “full-scale” commissioning phase has begun for Unit 1. Reports have said that Akkuyu will meet 10% of Turkey’s electricity demand when fully operational in 2028. Turkey wants to generate slightly over 11% of electricity from nuclear energy by 2035, and 29% by 2053 to reach its climate goals, Turkish officials have said. Volume 4 - 2025 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fearc.2025.1525886 cultural attitudes toward leprosy often involved the exclusion of infected people from general society People suffering from leprosy were often moved to live in separate places such as a specific district Such actions are social implications of how the disease and its sufferers were viewed and dealt with This study aims to investigate whether Kovuklukaya was inhabited by segregated lepers Methods: This was conducted by examining diet of individuals using stable isotope analysis of bulk bone collagen and compound-specific amino acids and integrating these results with osteoarchaeological Results: The stable isotope values reveal a terrestrial C3 diet with little inclusion of C4 plants The probable source of the animal protein would appear to be sheep and/or goat Although there is a broad range of available and potentially exploited and consumed food resources in the Black Sea region the narrow range of the isotopic values would suggest a similarity in the availability or choice of food resources at the different sites in the region Discussion: A wide diversity in consumed food resources of ostracized people from different dwellings may be expected the isotopic values suggest that the people of Kovuklukaya consumed a narrow range of food resources This similarity may arise from the mountainous environment which may restrict the range of available food resources but is more probably due to common dietary habits such as the regular consumption of the same kinds of foods The homogeneous characteristic of the dietary habits at Kovuklukaya supports the premise that Kovuklukaya was a small mountain village or hamlet rather than a leper colony After a lengthy incubation period (sometimes years) that often spreads to the nasopharyngeal area Concentric destruction of tubular bones in infected phalanges of the hands and feet is also observed and in severe cases almost all fingers and toes can be lost Considering the remote location of the settlement among the mountains together with a high incidence of leprosy relative to the population size raises questions about what kind of population structure was in place at Kovuklukaya Was it a community of ostracized people or simply a small and isolated insular population It is therefore important to understand the structure of the population to determine whether the existence of leprosy in the Kovuklukaya community originates from within itself as a result of it being an isolated mountain village or from the gathering or relocation of individuals with leprosy that were excluded from their original settlement One of the best ways to understand this is to obtain data on mobility in, and of, the community, which can be analyzed in different ways. Archaeogenomic analysis of humans and also microbes are one method. aDNA studies in the populations of Anatolia and beyond have demonstrated that there are generally very few genetic outliers in prehistoric populations (Altınışık et al., 2022; Skourtanioti et al., 2020) in homogeneous or similar genepools aDNA analyses do not allow for sufficiently focused examination of individual life histories as can be observed in individual osteobiographies Isotopic analyses provide the opportunity to address the presence of residential changes throughout the life course of an individual Dietary differences inferred from δ13C and δ15N analyses can therefore contribute to broader discussions of the social and economic status of leprosy individuals as well as potential evidence for geographic origin or mobility particularly when considered alongside other archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence linking it to genetic and environmental factors including dietary habits and masticatory stress their 2008 study situates Kovuklukaya within a broader Anatolian context demonstrating how subsistence strategies and dietary shifts influenced oral stress patterns over time These pathological conditions help us to understand occupational activities the genetic familial relationships among the individuals and the population structure of the Kovuklukaya agropastoralists the size of the cemetery and the number of people buried there have broadened our understanding of Byzantine life and mortuary practices by providing a comprehensive body of evidence for the osteoarchaeoloigcal analysis By evaluating the values from stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis obtained from bulk human bone collagen and compound-specific amino acids together with osteoarchaeological findings this study aims to determine whether the Kovuklukaya community is merely an isolated mountain village with a close relationship between individuals or whether it is a settlement founded as a result of the segregation of individuals with leprosy from other settlements and from society as a whole The basic principles behind the technique are that the stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) vary between both different food types and different consumers and accumulate in human bodies with some fractionation due to their trophic levels δ13C is represented as the stable carbon isotope ratio of the sample to relative to a standard; in the case of carbon this is limestone (belemnite) from the Pee Dee Formation in South Carolina called PDB and the values are usually presented by per mil and calculated using the following formula are represented relative to the standard AIR (Ambient Inhalable Reservoir) which is atmospheric N2 and the values are also presented per mil and calculated using the following formula When the TP is estimated with compound-specific nitrogen isotope analysis of individual amino acids, a TPter of 2 indicates a hypothetical terrestrial herbivorous diet, whereas a TPter approaching 3 indicates a diet that is more purely carnivorous (i.e., almost exclusively input of animal protein). In previous studies, it was shown that herbivorous livestock such as sheep, goats, and cattle in Neolithic Turkey had a TPter of 2 (Itahashi et al., 2019, 2021) Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis from bulk bone collagen and compound-specific nitrogen isotopes analysis were combined in this study to allow for a better comprehension of dietary patterns and how individuals with leprosy compare to other members of the community Kovuklukaya is one of the best-studied Byzantine cemeteries in the Black Sea region. Located 300 m northeast of the modern village of Çulhalı, 10 km from the town of Boyabat in Sinop Province (Figure 1) The village (of Kovuklukaya) is 650 m above sea level and situated among high mountains The nearest Black Sea coast is approximately 100 km away A branch of the Kızılırmak River General map of Turkey with the Anatolian sites mentioned in the text A rescue excavation was carried out in 2002 by Sinop Museum. This rescue excavation revealed that the western side of the mound was inhabited during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. A Byzantine cemetery was located at the top of the mound, which measures approximately 70 x 80 m (Özcan et al., 2003; Dönmez, 2005) Only individual SK20/1 produced a high coverage of the leprosy genome (Monot et al., 2009; Rubini et al., 2014; Donoghue et al., 2015a,b; Sevkar, 2023) Individual SK 24/1 had skeletal lesions associated with leprosy PCR genomic analyses of this individual were not conclusive for the disease Rib fragments were sampled from twenty-one individuals of different ages and sexes (Table 1). Samples were prepared and measured for stable isotope and compound-specific amino acid analyses at the Laboratory of Radiocarbon Dating of the University Museum at the University of Tokyo, Japan. Bulk bone collagen samples were extracted from the bones based on improvements of previously established protocols (Longin, 1971; Yoneda et al., 2002) the bone fragments were cleaned of external contaminants by brushing and ultrasonic cleaning Humic acid and fulvic acid were removed by soaking in 0.2 M NaOH for 8 h and the samples were then washed with Milli-Q water The cleaned and freeze-dried bone samples were then ground to a fine powder Hydroxyapatite was removed from the powdered bone by reacting with 1 M HCl in cellulose tubes overnight at 4°C The remains were heated in Milli-Q water at 90°C for 12 h to extract the gelatine and the dissolved gelatine was then filtered and freeze-dried to obtain bulk bone collagen samples Description and stable isotopes values of Kovuklukaya samples When a bulk bone collagen sample meets these quality criteria it is considered to be unaffected by diagenesis and acceptable for further analysis Seventeen of the bulk bone collagen samples (from the same number of distinct individuals) were derivatized for compound-specific nitrogen isotope analysis of individual amino acids. Amino acids were extracted from ~ 2 mg of the bulk bone collagen sample by hydrolysis with 12 M HCl at 110°C for 12 h. After this, derivatization was performed for isotopic analysis following the method outlined previously in Chikaraishi et al. (2010) The hydrolyzed samples were reacted with 1:4 (v/v) thionyl chloride:2-propanol at 110°C for 2 h followed by treatment with 1:4 (v/v) pivaloyl chloride:dichloromethane at 110°C for 2 h The δ15N values of the amino acids were determined by gas-chromatography–combustion–isotope-ratio mass spectrometer (GC-C-IRMS; GC IsoLink II coupled to a Delta V advantage IRMS, Thermo Fisher Scientific) at the University Museum of the University of Tokyo (Itahashi et al., 2019) Standard mixtures of amino acids (SI Science Co. Ltd) with known δ15N values were analyzed after every five runs The analytical precision (1σ) for replicate analyses of the reference amino acids was < 0.5‰ for samples containing amino acids While these proxies provide valuable comparative data it is important to recognize the limitations of using non-local faunal sources If our aim was to demonstrate intra-population diversity the lack of faunal remains would be a significant limitation as human dietary diversity is usually inferred from the diversity of domestic species consumed the lack of local faunal analysis is not a significant limitation The main problem for this study is that the small sample size analyzed by stable isotopes may affect the wider applicability of these results Statistical analysis includes descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and a t-test (p < 0.05) to detect differences in subgroups such as between leprosy and non-leprosy individuals and between males and females The Shapiro-Wilk test was used for evaluation of normality Only one (SK12/1, a young adult female individual, C/N atomic ratio of 3.8) individual out of the 21 sampled individuals did not produce well-preserved collagen (DeNiro, 1985; however, see also Guiry and Szpak, 2021) and this individual was excluded from further analysis (Table 1). The results of the analysis are reported in Table 1 and plotted in Figure 2 Figure 2. Human bulk bone collagen δ13C and δ15N values from Kovuklukaya, categorized by sex, age groups, and associated pathology (leprosy). The mean stable isotope values, along with standard deviations, for faunal materials from Sagalassos (Fuller et al., 2012) and Çamlıbel Tarlası (Pickard et al., 2016) are also included for comparison The adult δ13C values from human bulk bone collagen samples in the Kovuklukaya population (n = 20) range from−19.4‰ to−18.5‰, with a mean value of−19.0‰ ± 0.2‰ (Table 2, Figure 2). The δ15N values for adults range from 8.0‰ to 10.2‰, with a mean value of 9.0‰ ± 0.5‰ (Table 2, Figure 2) Published mean stable carbon and isotope ratio values There is no statistically important difference between the means of the leper group (n = 4) and adult individuals with no signs of leprosy (n = 15); t = −2.111 Although the stable isotope values are generally clustered together and have an observably narrow range, two individuals, SK18/2 (an old female) and SK7/2 (a middle adult male) have slightly higher values for δ13C and δ15N than the others (Table 1, Figure 2) Individual SK10/1 belongs to a child (around 4 years old) who has a bulk bone collagen δ15N value of 8.0‰ which is lower than the population mean Following compound-specific amino acid stable isotope analysis, the δ15NPhe values for the 17 sampled humans from Kovuklukaya range from 10.3‰ to 12.0‰, and the δ15NGlu values range from 12.8‰ to 15.0‰ (Table 1, Figure 3) The TPter values of the humans range from 2.3 to 2.5 with the average value being 2.4 ± 0.1 The δ15NPhe and Δ15NGlu − Phe of humans from Kovuklukaya It can be said that the ethnographic and environmental data obtained from Boyabat are also consistent with the results from the isotopes of the human bulk bone collagen from Kovuklukaya if there was any difference in diet according to sex/gender different proportions in meals or priority in eating) and not detectable by bulk bone collagen stable isotope analysis Considering the results of the stable isotope values from the bulk bone collagen and osteoarchaeological evidence together could suggest the raising of goats and sheep as a subsistence strategy probably also resulting in these animals (or their ante-mortem food products—i.e. dairy) as a source of animal protein in dietary habits The same data also supports the idea that the residents of Kovuklukaya were a group that engaged in daily argora-pastoral activities for subsistence and survival rather than going to nearby settlements and begging to obtain food—as may be the case if they were lepers and can therefore be seen as providing indirect support for previous inferences that values may reflect the previous living conditions of forcibly relocated lepers The absence of skeletal evidence of leprosy in 31 of the 36 individuals buried in the Kovuklukaya cemetery refutes the hypothesis that this settlement was a burial site for individuals marginalized by the disease The absence of pathological markers supports the interpretation that the site was not intended to isolate leprosy patients This suggests that their diet was comparable to that of the general population Figure 5. Box plot graph for δ13C (Kovuklukaya: this study; Çamlıbel Tarlası: Pickard et al., 2016; Sagalassos: Fuller et al., 2012; Ephesus: Lösch et al., 2014; Bogazköy: Pickard et al., 2017; Hierapolis: Wong et al., 2017; Næstved and Odense: Brozou et al., 2019, 2021) Figure 6. Box plot graph for δ15N (Kovuklukaya: this study; Çamlıbel Tarlası: Pickard et al., 2016; Sagalassos: Fuller et al., 2012; Ephesus: Lösch et al., 2014; Bogazköy: Pickard et al., 2017; Hierapolis: Wong et al., 2017; Næstved and Odense: Brozou et al., 2019, 2021) Alternatively, the similarities in the Kovuklukaya stable isotope values and results might be related to the size of the sample, and/or may indicate regular consumption of less diverse food resources as a result of the surrounding mountainous ecosystem of the inland Black Sea region. However, based on present-day statistics (Başoğlu, 1972) and an ethnographic study (Erdal, 2008) together with the geographical characteristics it is possible to say that the modern inhabitants living in a rich ecology exploit various resources (see above discussion) for their subsistence activities The osteological and dental data reveal that the subsistence activities that can be seen practiced today were also practiced by past populations in the region and suggest the existence of an ecologically rich environment in the past as well it is possible to consider that other dynamics are related in conjunction with population structure to produce the observed homogeneity in stable isotope values rather than factors such as small sample size or a scarcity of resources The fact that a 4–5-month-old infant at Kovuklukaya suffered from leprosy (as determined by aDNA analysis) offers additional evidence of close relations among the individuals The archaeological evidence indicates that the cemetery belonged to a small group and the burial customs suggest that members of the Kovuklukaya group were closely related to each other osteological and pathological data suggest that the small community was genetically closed/isolated it can be possible to consider the isotopic similarity among the individuals as a reflection of their affinity to the closely related group or the family unit The homogenous diet of such a group sharing a similar lifestyle (such as eating from the same pot regular consumption of the same kinds of foods etc.) likely contributed to the observed isotopic similarity among the individuals at Kovuklukaya While familial or kin-based subsistence practices provide one explanation for dietary homogeneity alternative interpretations should also be considered to provide a more balanced perspective dietary uniformity could result from resource constraints rather than familial connections Despite the ecological richness of the surrounding environment access to diverse food resources may have been limited by seasonal availability subsistence practices rooted in shared social norms or communal food distribution systems could also produce dietary homogeneity reliance on staple crops or a narrow range of domesticated animal products may have constrained dietary variation The bulk bone collagen δ13C and δ15N values from the ribs of adults from the Byzantine cemetery of Kovuklukaya indicate that the diet of this small group relied predominantly on terrestrial sources namely C3 plants and animals and/or animal products The more positive δ13C values of some individuals (together with relatively low δ15N values) suggest that the direct consumption of C4 plants also took place to a small extent There is no indication of an input of marine foods resources terrestrial animal proteins were as important for the Kovuklukaya diet as C3 plant sources and relatively high δ15N values in comparison with the faunal values from Çamlıbel Tarlası and Sagalassos indicate that the possible source of the animal proteins were goat and sheep Although the osteological and dental data support a sex-based division of labor no sex-based distinction was detected in dietary habits according to the isotopic data The lower δ15N and the slightly more positive δ13C values of the child in comparison with the adult and female means suggest that the child had already been weaned The narrow range of the stable isotope values from bulk bone collagen and compound-specific amino acids points to the same animal protein intake in the diet situated near a forest on one side and both the inner plains and the sea on the other provided its inhabitants with access to an ecologically rich environment and diverse food resources it could be hypothesized that the population would exhibit a heterogeneous nutritional pattern reflective of the increasing human mobility and dietary diversity characteristic of the medieval period if the settlement were primarily inhabited by individuals with leprosy relocated from various regions and excluded from society one might expect to observe greater variability in stable isotope values and inferred dietary habits due to differing nutritional backgrounds our findings reveal a rather homogeneous dietary pattern among the Kovuklukaya population This homogeneity likely reflects shared dietary habits shaped by a closely related social group or family structure the results of this study refute the hypothesis that Kovuklukaya was a settlement designated for the relocation of individuals with leprosy following segregation it is more appropriate to interpret Kovuklukaya as a mountain village where leprosy may have originated within the population itself among individuals living in close familial or social relationships The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author Permission for analysis was obtained from the appropriate authorities and efforts were made to ensure that the remains were treated with care and cultural sensitivity throughout the study Writing – review & editing The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research This work was partially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Nos and 22H00734) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and SOKENDAI (Graduate University for Advanced Studies) With gratitude to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of the Republic of Türkiye for granting all permits and permissions related to the sampling and analysis of the skeletal materials The authors would like to thank Musa Özcan and Fuat Dereli from Sinop Museum for permitting access to the skeletal materials The authors wish to thank Takayuki Omori for his valuable help in the IRMS analysis of the samples Benjamin Irvine is also thanked for his help with editing this paper The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Kameray Özdemir, a2FtZXJheS5vemRlbWlyQGhhY2V0dGVwZS5lZHUudHI= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish About  .  Contact  .  Donation During archaeological excavations at Balatlar Church in Sinop a male skull inscribed with the Greek words “Pilgrim Dimitrakis” was discovered uncovered in the church’s ossuary section led by Professor Gülgün Köroğlu from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University has revealed that the skull belonged to an Orthodox cleric who traveled to Jerusalem for pilgrimage This conclusion was drawn after detailed examinations including 3D tomography and paleopathological analysis conducted at Hitit University Erol Olcok Training and Research Hospital These studies identified a tumor and various pathologies in the skull Associate Professor Mustafa Tolga Çırak Head of the Department of Anthropology at Hitit University said: “This is the first instance of such an inscribed skull being discovered in Anatolia.” While similar examples exist in Greece and Egypt “Pilgrim Dimitrakis,” indicates its owner’s status as a cleric who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem Originally constructed as a Roman Imperial bathhouse in the second century it was converted into a church by the late 4th or early 5th century The structure continued to serve as a church until the late 20th century and became an Orthodox burial site during the Ottoman period Extensive burials were carried out in the church’s yard and interior with the site becoming a prominent cemetery for the Orthodox community The practice of inscribing names on skulls and displaying them is part of ancient Orthodox burial traditions “The tradition of writing on the skull was not found in Anatolia before this discovery,” Çırak stated inscribing it with the deceased’s name using a hard object and then displaying it on a shelf within the church The skull of “Pilgrim Dimitrakis” was determined to date back to the 19th century supported by the presence of archaeological objects and coins found alongside it Professor Köroğlu’s team has been conducting comprehensive studies of the Byzantine period in Sinop since 2010 with Balatlar Church being a focal point due to its well-documented usage phases The site is notable for its transformation from a Roman bath complex “The historical building is known among the public more as a church than a bath,” Çırak explained serving various purposes over the centuries Hitit University and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()) Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) Leave empty if the image is purely decorative The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) has released its latest happiness rankings for cities across Turkey placing it first among the country’s 81 major cities Following Sinop is Afyonkarahisar in the western Aegean region ranks fourth with a happiness rate of 75.48% Other cities in the top rankings include Kutahya in the Aegean region while Usak in the Aegean region follows with 72.34% The report highlights the Black Sea region as the happiest in Turkey with cities in the Aegean region also showing strong levels of happiness Central and southeastern Anatolia regions also reflect significant contentment successfully conducted the first live-fire test of its GÖKTAN system in Sinop This test marked a significant advancement in ground-based precision strike capabilities The GÖKTAN system was developed in collaboration with DELTA-V to enable ground-to-ground engagements by adapting air-launched munitions for ground launch the system successfully launched ASELSAN’s TOLUN munition deployed its wings and transitioned into guided flight before striking its designated target with high precision The Göktan system is an advanced defense solution integrating cutting-edge command-and-control and fire-control systems It supports mission planning and optimized firing sequences the system can engage critical targets without requiring platform maneuvering making it highly versatile in combat situations Additional features include waypoint-defined targeting independent and centralized operation modes enhancing its adaptability on the battlefield developed by Aselsan with a warhead designed by Tübitak Sage is a precision-guided weapon in the 100+ kg class it delivers accurate strikes with a circular error probable (CEP) of less than 10 meters The munition has a range of 55 nautical miles (approximately 102 km) and can reach a maximum altitude of 40,000 feet (MSL) It is designed to penetrate up to one meter of reinforced concrete from a 30-nautical mile distance making it highly effective against both soft and hardened targets The Tolun is deployed using the Smart Pneumatic Quad Rack (Sadak-4T) allowing simultaneous engagement of multiple targets further enhancing its battlefield effectiveness The recent test confirmed the Göktan system’s ability to neutralize critical targets using its advanced hybrid rocket motor independently This validation highlights its platform-independent precision strike capability The system also features an inclined launch option making it highly effective in fast-changing combat scenarios Aselsan President & CEO Ahmet Akyol emphasized the significance of this development stating that equipping the Tolun munition with ground-launch capability marks a major milestone He highlighted that Aselsan continues to develop force-multiplying systems that enhance Türkiye’s precision-strike capabilities and expand operational flexibility strengthening its defense technology advancements This successful test represents a major step in Türkiye’s efforts to develop platform-independent precision strike solutions further strengthening its defense industry’s ability to deliver cutting-edge indigenous technologies for modern battlefield operations Tags: , , , The page you're looking for does not exist Please enable JavaScript to view this page correctly A group of archaeologists recently made a remarkable discovery during archaeological excavations in the Sinop province of northern Turkey, where they unearthed a large mosaic believed to date from the Hellenistic era, the period of history between the death of of Alexander the Great was found in the remains of an old building in a room that could correspond to a dining room which would indicate that the ruins correspond to what was the home – more than two millennia ago – of a wealthy family “Sinop is of great importance in terms of mosaic remains Previous excavations have already revealed several magnificent mosaics in different places current excavations in the Balatlar building complex (during the last decade) have now shown us a remarkable mosaic created with pebbles These mosaics date back to the Hellenistic period and offer a fascinating glimpse into the city’s ancient past,” explained Metin Süren director of Sinop’s Office of Culture and Tourism a leading expert from Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts also underlined the great importance of the newly discovered mosaic in Sinop: “These intricate mosaics are a testament to Sinop’s relevance as a flourishing settlement which was a commercial and religious center at that time The mosaic designs show a great diversity of motifs including religious symbology and images of daily life; unique patterns have also been discovered in various sections of the mosaic.” “It is worth noting that this somewhat rare and exceptional Hellenistic mosaic (dated after the death of Alexander the Great) makes a contribution to the mosaic heritage of Turkey and stands out as an archaeological discovery of which few similar examples exist in the whole world that can be compared” As a history lover, Pablo Gómez was captivated by Turkey from the first day he visited it in 2006: he got married there has a house there… and has since become an expert on Turkey’s current affairs he has been at the helm of hispanatolia.com since 2011 (Leia essa matéria em português no The Intercept Brasil. You can also read Mongabay’s series on the Tapajós Basin in Portuguese at The Intercept Brasil) The Tapajós River Basin lies at the heart of the Amazon and at the heart of an exploding controversy: whether to build 40+ large dams turning the Basin into a vast industrialized commodities export corridor; or to curb this development impulse and conserve one of the most biologically and culturally rich regions on the planet Those struggling to shape the Basin’s fate hold conflicting opinions but because the Tapajós is an isolated region Journalist Sue Branford and social scientist Mauricio Torres travelled there recently for Mongabay and over coming weeks hope to shed some light on the heated debate that will shape the future of the Amazon Visitors to the Amazon community of Sinop are greeted by a sign proclaiming: “Sinop capital of the North.” It’s no empty boast: the well-planned city of 125,000 with its broad tree-lined avenues and green spaces dominates the local economy and is fast becoming the de facto capital of the northern part of the state of Mato Grosso Sinop’s citizens say the town’s founders modelled it on Maringá a “garden city” in Paraná state (originally designed by the British) Auto showrooms shine with expensive new vehicles able to handle the rough dirt roads that lead to surrounding soy plantations and other large-scale farms The stores — some flanked by Greek columns almost as large as the ones in the Parthenon and even a replica of the Statue of Liberty — are not coy in broadcasting their message: we have great ambition and a lot of money to go with it very surprising on a first visit — is that Sinop is only four decades old A frontier town carved out of the rainforest it has a fascinating history that many young sinopenses know little about where the region’s natural riches are incrementally culled year-by-year and where the rainforest and indigenous people give way slowly to highways and small settlements that grow into cities indigenous people — particularly the Kayabi and Apiaká Indians — were among the only inhabitants of the plain where Sinop now stands That’s when the government forced them to move to the National Park of Xingu in a resettlement process orchestrated by the Villas-Bôas brothers Though criticized today for their paternalism and their willingness to make concessions to the authorities these three brothers were responsible for getting the whole of the upper Xingu River turned into a legally protected area — the first huge indigenous area in all of South America told us that they recalled unearthing clay pots and indigenous axe heads when first clearing their land in the 1970s but noted that they only occasionally encountered Indians Under the Brazilian military government (1964-85) — which was obsessed with national security and fearful of a foreign takeover in the Amazon Basin — the trickle of non-indigenous families to Mato Grosso state became a torrent The nation’s top generals adopted the slogan “ocupar para não entregar” (occupy so as not to relinquish) and took a raft of measures to ensure that the Amazon basin got populated with “true Brazilians” The generals also took seriously a 1960s assessment by the Hudson Institute of New York proposing that much of the Amazon basin be flooded by dams to make mineral wealth accessible a political inclination that has remained strong down to the present The military government provided tax incentives to encourage big companies (including such as Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz) to slash-and-burn the rainforest and establish cattle ranches They also funded the gigantic Transamazônica Highway project which crossed the Amazon basin from east to west and then got a recently formed government institute INCRA (the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) to settle landless families (brought in from the impoverished Northeast) along the highway The government also invited in businessmen from Brazil’s South men with experience running private land settlement schemes to set up similar operations in Mato Grosso Vast swathes of forest gained “owners”: Zé Paraná in Juara; Ariosto da Riva in Alta Floresta; and Ênio Pipino in Sinop All that stood in the way of these entrepreneurs and a relentless wave of settlement and development the indigenous communities and traditional populations — seen by the new landowners as mere obstacles to be overcome Many of the big projects initiated by the government The most successful were the private land settlements pushed by the newly arrived big landowners the military turned a blind eye to their crimes which ranged from the violent eviction of peasants and Indians to large-scale land theft Énio Pipino got exceptionally good treatment Born into a family of Italian immigrants in 1917 he set up the Northwestern Paraná Real Estate Society He bought large areas of land in the state of Paraná dirt cheap who has studied the colonization of Paraná it was a violent epoch: “Paraná was like the American Wild West in the 19th century when all conflicts were resolved by the bullet,” said Duarte The level of violence used to drive out Indians and peasant families was so intense that it drew a response in the Brazilian press and from the National Congress Pipino himself developed a reputation for ruthlessness as he carved out an empire in northern Paraná said the journalist: “From the middle of the 1940s to the beginning of the 1960s Sinop’s band of gunmen were very active in the region Under the command of Marins Belo and other famous gunmen they evicted entire families of squatters and assassinated many people throwing their bodies into the Piquiri River this became the hallmark of the Sinop’s hired guns.” By all accounts The businessman then began planning how he could replicate his Paraná settlements on a bigger scale in Mato Grosso told Mongabay that in 1970 Pipino and his wife Pipino bought some land from an absentee landowner and opened rough roads to make it accessible He carved out plots to sell and opened real estate offices in the state of Paraná promoting his Mato Grosso land with newspaper advertising and radio jingles According to one academic study Pipino sent in gunmen to evict peasant families from land he claimed in Paraná and it seems likely that he used similar methods in even more lawless Mato Grosso Erardi confirmed that Pipino evicted peasant families in the Amazon according to Sinop residents who remember him and he had a salesman’s knack for putting people’s minds at rest told Mongabay that people felt re-assured when Pipino guaranteed them a plot “with a legal land title.” Though his right to issue such titles was the first settlers made the arduous seven-day trip from Paraná to Mato Grosso saying how difficult life was in the heart of the Amazon rainforest Then came 1975 and a severe frost in Paraná that wiped out the coffee harvest “That frost ended forever coffee cultivation in Paraná,” said Luiz Erardi “Many families began to think seriously about moving Big landowners were arriving with tempting offers: ‘I’ll give you so much for your land!’ Many say that with [the sale of] their tiny plot in Paraná they bought a sizeable farm in Mato Grosso.” everyday life on the Amazon agricultural frontier remained arduous The soils underlaying the forest were infertile There was no technical support and settlers found that the farming skills they knew from the South didn’t transplant to the Amazon “They came penniless and went back doubly so” they often had to find a neighbor with a truck and persuade him to transport them paying him in the only thing they had left — their land and today the children and grandchildren of the truck drivers have grown rich Luiz Erardi and his wife arrived in 1982 to work as teachers and found life very hard Their diesel generator broke often; they didn’t have hot water; there was no stove in the kitchen and saw that everything around us was flooded I went to make coffee and the sugar had turned to syrup I said to myself: ‘This isn’t land for people but for frogs.’” The floods were the final straw “I told my wife we had to leave that morning She said she hadn’t wanted to come but now she was here she wasn’t giving up She stamped her foot and said: ‘I’m not leaving’ who arrived in 1985 (and died of cancer in December 2016 After a few weeks in Sinop he had had enough: “One day ‘Even if I have to work as a washerwoman and you have to till the land for others though the legality of his claims was often dubious At one point he is known to have laid claim to at least 645,000 hectares (1,616,000 acres) The request seems to have been partially granted: Gleba Celeste was registered in Pipino’s name though covering just a third the requested size Pipino founded many new towns for his settlers Pipino also used his influence to garner government favor “Who got this region to prosper was President João Baptista Figueiredo,” declared Geraldino Dal’Mazo The visiting President made a commitment to paving the recently-built BR-163 highway proclaiming “he would bring asphalt.” Figueiredo contracted five construction companies from Cuiabá and two years later he came and personally opened the road “And we didn’t have a television signal or telephones… And he sorted that out on the plane Sinop took off.… President Figueiredo was marvellous We made him an honorary citizen of Sinop,” remembered Dal’Mazo Locals say that it was the “pig-headed” who stayed and reaped the rewards but to become a millionaire on the frontier generally required more than stubbornness was given a plot at one of the land settlements “It was difficult for settlers who arrived without capital,” she said “Forty years later my father is just as poor as when he arrived He’s always had to work on someone else’s land to make ends meet.” Both Geraldino Dal’Mazo and Luiz Erardi were happy they stayed who got a series of good municipal government jobs is proud to have a granddaughter who has trained as a medical doctor Geraldino Dal’Mazo made a lot of money in the early years and became mayor during the military government Then he lost his fortune when the Brazilian economy went through a difficult period in the early 1980s Sinop has carved out a key role for itself as a service provider to a vast area stretching north from Cuiabá in the south of Mato Gross state People send their children to Sinop’s colleges and university after experimenting and failing with various crops (including cassava for a large alcohol distillery Geraldino Dal’Mazo’s brother was the first to try growing soybeans which until the 1980s was little known in Brazil “He planted 1,500 hectares in 1987 and had a marvellous harvest,” recalled Dal’Mazo complementing that crop with corn and cotton in the off-season and those who paid a heavy price for the city’s success — indigenous nations and undercapitalized settlers — are largely invisible The cost to the Amazon biome is more obvious: the continuous blanket of rainforest that covered the Sinop region until the 1970’s is largely gone, replaced by heavily fertilized and hyper-managed soy plantations. Where once rainforest stood untouched, today only a third of the area of the Sinop Municipal District is still covered with trees or a great rainforest and indigenous homeland devastated by modern development Travelling further north along the BR-163 is like traveling into Sinop’s past one reaches the current agricultural frontier where the battle over the land is still being waged — and where fragile indigenous cultures and ecosystems are daily being consumed in smouldering violence (Leia essa matéria em português no The Intercept Brasil. You can also read Mongabay’s series on the Tapajós Basin in Portuguese at The Intercept Brasil) FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met on Wednesday to discuss bilateral and global issues in Astana where leaders have gathered for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization including the latest situation in the Ukraine war Israel's current attacks on Palestinian territories efforts to find a solution to the crisis in Syria Türkiye’s Communications Directorate said in a statement Erdogan said Türkiye will continue to strive for the establishment of peace in its region and the world He said Türkiye can lay the groundwork for a consensus to end the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine with a cease-fire adding that a fair peace that can satisfy both sides is possible The Turkish leader stressed that Israel's attacks on Palestinian territories and threats against Lebanon target regional and global peace as well as stability and the spread of conflicts will cause the greatest harm to the countries in the region He the international community to focus on stopping Israel which has killed nearly 38,000 Palestinians in Gaza since an Oct Erdogan asserted that Türkiye is determined to prevent the formation of a terrorist state along its borders The Turkish president also underlined the importance of ending instabilities in its region particularly the Syrian civil war that started in 2011 saying “Türkiye is ready to cooperate for a solution.” "We have discussions [with Russia] on the Sinop Nuclear Power Plant I believe we can take serious steps on that matter," Erdogan said referring to a planned power plant in Türkiye's Black Sea region It would be Türkiye's second nuclear plant and its second plant built through a partnership with Moscow The Turkish president expressed confidence in reaching the ambitious trade volume goal of $100 billion citing strong potential for growth in bilateral relations Erdogan invited Putin to visit Türkiye and the Russian leader affirmed his intention to make the trip in the near future The Sinop plant is set to be the country's second nuclear project after the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Mersin CommoditiesCreditors Struggle to Seize Land in Brazil as Bankruptcies SurgeBy Cristiane Lucchesi and Giovanna Bellotti AzevedoPublished: August 26, 2024 at 10:00AM EDT (Bloomberg) -- A court decision in the Amazon rainforest city of Sinop that shielded a corn and soybean producer’s land from seizure by creditors is reverberating through Faria Lima Avenue, the Brazilian equivalent to Wall Street.  The ruling is raising concerns among lenders that it may be harder than anticipated to take control of acreage pledged as backing for agribusiness receivables certificates, or CRAs, a class of relatively new fixed-income securities used to finance grain and oilseed growers. As bountiful harvests and anemic crop prices drive a surge in Brazilian farm defaults, creditors are facing the prospect of costly, drawn-out legal fights to take possession of the collateral. The impact could be significant. As recently as July 31, Brazilian investors held roughly 145 billion reais ($24 billion) in CRAs, according to data provider Uqbar. The notes often offer farmers better terms than traditional bank loans, while retail investors covet their tax-exempt status. CRAs are typically backed by real estate and other assets in a structure that allows creditors to hold ownership of collateral until the debt is fully repaid.    However, that assumption was turned on its head when a Sinop court denied demands from creditors that corn and soybean grower Agropecuaria Tres Irmaos Bergamasco Ltda. surrender real estate pledged as backing for 36 million reais in CRAs. The company successfully argued that because the land is essential to its recovery efforts, it should be shielded from seizure for the duration of bankruptcy protection.  The initial 180-day period of bankruptcy protection has since expired, prompting creditors including funds managed by Galapagos Capital and SFI Investimentos to put the land up for auction. But Tres Irmaos still has the option of petitioning the court for another six months of protection, which could block any sale. Other cash-strapped farming companies including North Agro Agropecuaria Ltda. are pursuing the same strategy. Neither Tres Irmaos nor North Agro replied to requests for comment.   “If it will take more time for creditors to seize land than what was expected and if they will have more legal costs to deal with, they will include those additional costs in the price of credit,” said Alfredo Marrucho, head of research at Uqbar, a consultancy that specializes in securitization data. “They will also seek in the future to use other types of collateral that are more easy to access.”  More than 100 individual rural producers sought bankruptcy protection during the first quarter, more than double the final three months of 2023 and a sixfold increase from a year earlier, according to Serasa Experian.  Even more are on the way as “climatic factors” and robust harvests in Argentina and the US harry Brazilian growers, said Allison Sousa, an attorney and restructuring specialist at ERS Consultoria & Advocacia.  Those failures have battered CRA investors. Galapagos Recebiveis do Agronegocio and SFI Investimentos do Agronegocio have fallen 35% and 69%, respectively, in the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Galapagos declined to comment for this story. SFI didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry. Before the advent of CRAs late in the last decade, the Brazilian agricultural sector traditionally borrowed from banks, which were more accustomed to renegotiating loans and extending maturities. Farmers also were funded by traders and crop-input companies through barter transactions. Those bankers, traders and seed companies rarely seized collateral.    But because accounting rules require CRAs to be marked to market on a daily basis, any hiccups in repayment can trigger immediate paper losses, panicking holders of publicly traded funds. “Events like that are important for the market to gain maturity and adjust,” said Daniela Gamboa, head of credit at SulAmerica Investimentos, the fund management arm of one of Brazil’s biggest insurance companies. The CRA market still has room to grow “where the industry is so important for the economy.”  Twitter feed ©2025 BellMedia All Rights Reserved was the birthplace of philosopher Diogenes who challenged those he met to enjoy what they had and care nothing for what they didn’t have I stepped off the bus on Turkey’s northern coast where the forest meets the Black Sea On that July morning I was on a quest: to discover why residents of Sinop province are the happiest in the country And no-one interferes with anyone else,” my taxi driver explained as we drove east from the bus station towards Sinop city –  Bhutan's dark secret to happiness –  The truth about Icelandic happiness –  The world's happiest country? The road ambled through gentle hills and fields dotted with cows; out of one window narrow beaches sprawled parallel to the road allowing myself to be soothed by the landscape the roads aren't so good,” Balcı added with a shrug According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, Sinop province ranks poorly compared to the rest of the country in health and infrastructure. And yet Sinop has come in top for happiness in the institute’s Life Satisfaction Survey several years in a row Sinop is famous as the birthplace of the Ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes who lived a beggar’s life on these streets around 300BC His lifestyle earned him the nickname ‘the Cynic’ a word derived from the Ancient Greek word for ‘dog’ The philosopher is often credited with the founding of Cynicism – the belief that social conventions impede personal freedom and hinder one’s path to the good life while living according to nature is the quickest way to satisfaction “[Diogenes] found happiness in a life of simplicity in accord with nature ‒ a life of challenging those he met to enjoy what they had and care nothing for what they didn’t have,” explained Professor Stephen Voss at the Department of Philosophy at Boğaziçi University Diogenes found happiness in a life of simplicity in accord with natureDiogenes chose to live with nothing but the clothes on his back and a barrel in which he slept and used humour to critique religious practitioners political leaders and others who adhered to what he believed were unnatural social orders Alexander the Great went to visit Diogenes and found him sitting outside When asked whether he wanted anything from the king “You can stand aside and stop blocking the sunlight.” The 15-minute taxi ride brought me to the heart of Sinop city which occupies the narrowest part of a tiny peninsula that stretches out into the Black Sea A statue of Diogenes in the city centre – erected in 2006 – was an indication that his approach to life had not been forgotten here but compared with the chaotic streets of Istanbul the pavements were crowded with people who chose to walk rather than drive; there was no apparent hurry to get anywhere It's even said that no-one in Sinop's bureaucracy works after Wednesday (I couldn't find a bureaucrat who would admit to doing so little work though it’s likely Diogenes would have praised them if it were true.) It's even said that no-one in Sinop's bureaucracy works after WednesdayBalcı’s taxi rounded a corner and disappeared from sight and I found myself in a small town square where a mosque and a pub sat side by side The proximity of the two appeared to be at odds with the Turkish government’s 2013 ban on the sale of alcohol within 100m of a mosque It seemed the city had its own approach to religious and cultural matters “As a woman, you can walk around in shorts and no-one bothers you,” said Aylin Tok, manager of Teyze'nin Yeri small bundles of dough and meat boiled and topped with walnuts “You can go out at 3am and no-one says a word.” When I asked her the key to Sinop’s happiness Tok’s answer sounded quite Cynical – whether she meant it to or not “There's no feeling that some people are rich and others are poor,” she told me “People from all sections of society go to the same cafe to eat a simit [a Turkish-style bagel covered in sesame seeds] and drink tea or coffee.” Key elements of Cynicism &ndash; particularly its emphasis on living the good life &ndash; still echo throughout the cityTime has not stood still in Sinop since the days of Diogenes; the Turks have arrived and the Greeks have gone But while there is a ring of modern housing around the old city there are no skyscrapers to spoil the skyline and residents prefer a simpler way of life Neighbours lean out of their windows to chat and shop at locally owned bakeries and produce shops It seems that although Sinop’s residents aren’t as extreme as Diogenes was key elements of Cynicism – particularly its emphasis on living the good life – still echo throughout the city I made my way to the Castle Tower Cafe Bar housed in a tower along Sinop’s ancient city wall bathing the harbour and tree-lined avenues in a tranquil glow Small fishing boats brought their catches to shore couples strolled arm-in-arm along the seaside promenade and wedding musicians spread the good news from the back of a van evergreen-laden hills marked the place where the peninsula met the mainland the city’s happy reputation no longer seemed such a mystery Join over three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". 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At the end of January a Smartphone onboard a small boat captured a disturbing video on the Teles Pires River in the Brazilian Amazon near the city of Sinop close to the Mato Grosso and Pará state borders Murky brown water near the shore was clogged with large shoals of dead fish A witness on the scene mourned: “it’s something one cannot believe Look at the size of the pacus and piaus.… That’s all there is: a lot of dead fish.” Between January 30 and February 4 more than 13 tons of fish were found dead in the river The operation was authorized by the Mato Grosso Environment Secretariat despite opposition from environmentalists the dam creates a choke point on the Teles Pires River where tropical waters stagnate and lose oxygen — becoming anoxic — within the 337 square kilometer (83,274 acre) reservoir saying high sedimentation created in error was the cause of the die-off Conservationists also say that the problematic Sinop dam is emblematic It is just one of many such projects in the Amazon basin of Brazil that poses major environmental threats to aquatic ecosystems riverine traditional and indigenous communities According to Brazil’s National Electric Energy Agency there are at least 80 hydroelectric plants planned for Mato Grosso state’s Juruena / Teles Pires basin alone — one of the Brazilian Amazon’s most important watersheds Both the Juruena and Teles Pires Rivers are tributaries of the Tapajós River one of the Amazon basin’s most biodiverse and pristine regions The total number of hydroelectric power plants that may eventually be built in the Juruena / Teles Pires basin could be even higher: according to local NGOs there are at least 125 small and large power plants in the planning rivers great and small suffer flow reductions and ecosystem imbalances due to hydropower projects The Sinop HPP fish kill could have been avoided if the Mato Grosso Environment Secretariat had heeded the critiques found in environmental studies for the project The state agency is responsible for licensing the dam which was built via a partnership between the Brazilian and French governments Dam expert and Amazon National Research Institute Professor Philip Fearnside was one of those who denounced the project and who questions hydroelectric environmental viability in the Amazon only 30 percent of original vegetation was removed from the Sinop dam reservoir area “instead of the 100 percent demanded by law — a law which has been widely ignored” in Mato Grosso In tropical dams “the decomposition of litter leaves and other organic material of easy degradation leads to a decrease of the oxygen in the water especially during the filling of the reservoir This can cause fish deaths inside the reservoir while the release of oxygen depleted water from turbines and spillways can kill fish downstream from the dam” This environmentally irresponsible behavior isn’t quite new. In late 2014, local newspapers had denounced the same practice on the same river and scientists have been unable to determine the specific cause something which many researchers find alarming As the recent Sinop disaster unfolded the MPE a government group of independent public prosecutors intervened to investigate environmental violations Experts traveled 27 kilometers (around 17 miles) along the river measuring fish impacts — evidence used to request a discontinuance of activities by Sinop HPP “We filed a request to stop the filling [of the reservoir] The Environment Secretariat fined the [firm] but it was too late — as we had anticipated,” explained State Prosecutor Marcelo Vacchiano “We have joined specialists on a case-by-case basis: we create a workflow that seeks to understand the socio-environmental impacts of the [projects But our] surveys often diverge from reports submitted by [the companies own assessments] which have been accepted by the Mato Grosso Environment Secretariat,” Vacchiano said Vacchiano said that Public Ministry attempts to question the inadequacy of past environmental studies has had a somehow opposite effect As courts have granted injunctions authorizing licenses the company has become more legally empowered against the criticism it has faced makes it even more difficult to challenge future socio-environmental impacts on this project and in others disputes over such projects should be resolved [during] the environmental licensing [process] what we see [instead] are problematic processes; they often end up in court,” explained the Mato Grosso public prosecutor The Sinop hydroelectric plant was built and is operated through a partnership between the Brazilian government and Electricité de France (EDF) — a French state-owned transnational company — the world’s largest energy producer and distributor through its Brazilian branch Norte Fluminense while minority shareholders include two Brazilian public companies The Mato Grosso justice system has raised legal alarms regarding the company since the January fish die-off. In February the MPE filed a request to monitor Sinop Energia directors via electronic anklet Among the monitored directors is the Sinop HPP president the French engineer Jean Christophe Marcel Delvallet The electronic anklets are being used to prevent his and other executives escaping from the country while investigations continue the Federal Public Ministry is holding $20 million Reals (nearly US$5,2 million) of the company’s assets to bear the costs of compensation for damages That fine has been added to another of $50 million Reals (US$13,1 million) No matter what fines are leveraged against Sinop HPP Fearnside says that lessons learned from this disaster can help prevent similar mistakes elsewhere “The case of Sinop HPP is important not only because of the impacts but also as a lesson for [solving] problems in decision-making and licensing systems in other [hydroelectric] plants hydroelectric Castanheira being the next to have state licensing,” he warned auction and construction will advance despite problems pointed out so far The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) has been investigating the project since 2014 the company has minimized the cumulative socio-environmental impacts caused by the multiple HPPs building dams on the Juruena basin This is a common complaint among researchers who say that dams should not be assessed singly for harm but rather as multiple projects within a river system the MPF advised the Mato Grosso Environmental Secretariat not to license Castanheira (DOC: 710-2017-48 RPA – TAPAYUNAS – RECOMENDAÇÃO UHE Castanheira) That recommendation cautions that the licensing process will go to litigation if it continues to proceed as planned without correction EPE plans to build the Castanheira dam on the Arinos river including a reservoir covering 94.7 square kilometers (23,400 acres) in the cities of Juara and Novo Horizonte do Norte The Arinos is one of the main tributaries of the Juruena one of the most important rivers of the Amazon basin in Mato Grosso state The planned dam will destroy the primary fishing grounds and food supply of several indigenous groups The Castanheira HPP dam will block fish migration routes risking the destruction of fishing grounds along the entire river upstream and downstream of the dam The project also threatens the indigenous lands of the Apiaká/Kayabi and Japuíra — these three territories are less than 40 kilometers (around 24 miles) from the hydroelectric plant site and Rikbaktsas are actively resisting this federal government project “We have already seen what happened with Belo Monte [a mega-dam on the Xingu River] and [on the] Teles Pires river complex [where several dams have been built] Our tribes are united: we don’t want this hydroelectric plant here We have suffered a lot with the action of the white man we only want our land to be in peace,” said Orengô one of the few Tapayuna Indians living in the region and for whom the dam poses a severe danger — their disappearance a federal indigenous reserve created during the Brazilian dictatorship more than 300 miles away from their original territory and the nearby Castanheira dam site To obtain the dam’s environmental licenses EPE was required to provide an Indigenous Component Study (ECI) a report that was only delivered after major delays and with serious gaps an analysis of the study was delivered by FUNAI advising against the hydroelectric project the region’s local population would swell significantly as laborers arrived from outside the Amazon to build the dam This influx would cause negative impacts to Tapayuna lands and greatly increase the risk of their group’s and other indigenous groups,’ exposure to alcohol and drugs It is “already known that incomprehension rules the relations [between] the indigenous with the nonindigenous One of the possible misunderstandings is related to the [potential shared] use of the territory outside the [demarcated] indigenous land which causes conflicts over the use of natural resources,” highlights the report Civil organizations have made a cost-benefit analysis of the Castanheira dam a report used as a reference in Public Ministry decisions made against this federal project the projects estimated socio-economic costs come in at around 558 million Reals (US$142 million) which includes greenhouse gas emissions economic losses due to the flooding of productive lands “As in other processes here, in the Juruena basin, decisions about hydroelectric plants have a much more political rather than technical character. Because of this, our resistance is very challenging,” explained researcher Ricardo Carvalho with the Operação Amazônia Nativa (OPAN) an NGO that is investigating the Castanheira dam the current president of the Energy Research Company gave signs that Castanheira will advance — and soon Barral said recently that the Bolsonaro administration aims to slate the hydroelectric plant for the upcoming energy auction scheduled in the second half of 2019 It remains to be seen how the Mato Grosso Environment Secretariat will respond to this expectation via the licensing process and if indigenous groups will be able to effectively resist the project BANNER IMAGE: Dead fish collected as evidence of the fish kill from the Teles Pires River Image courtesy of the Mato Grosso State Public Ministry In the past two decades the centre of political and economic gravity has started shifting from the humid coasts to which Brazilians were said to cling “like crabs” Its soundtrack is sertanejo (country music) This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “A land of roughs Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents Just as in the United States, working-class and immigrant voters swung right The Conservatives suffered one of the most astonishing falls from popularity in political history An interview with Evo Morales in his tropical highland stronghold MAGA bombast has upended Canada’s political universe and given Mark Carney’s Liberals an edge Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau’s toxic legacy have pushed Canadians to the centre Art history professor Owen Doonan discusses archaeological survey strategy with colleague Alexander Bauer of Queens College Archaeologist Owen Doonan, a professor of art history at California State University has spent the past 15 years exploring the history of the Sinop region of Turkey on the southern side of the Black Sea Doonan has already documented more than 400 historic sites ranging from the Paleolithic to Ottoman eras across the rugged Sinop promontory He has proposed to take his project one step further next summer when he leads a team of researchers including CSUN students and possibly a couple of local public middle and high school teachers on an excavation of what he believes is the acropolis of the earliest Ionian Greek colony to settle in the area more than 2,000 years ago and maybe the remains of the precincts of an early town that pre-dates the Greeks this will actually be a very revolutionary development for the understanding of the Black Sea going back 200 years of excavation to the time of Catherine the Great,” he said Doonan said he believes that fishermen who lived in the northern regions of the Black Sea follow the currents and fish to temporarily relocate to the Sinop region to continue their trade He expects the excavation this summer of an area under the parking lot of an old bus station to confirm his theory “When we peel off the pavement I already know that on the top we will find items from the Byzantine period and we know that because the Sinop Museum has done digging nearby and already found items that were about 1,000 years old,” Doonan said and these belonged to the culture of people who lived in the northern ports of the Black Sea some spawn up north and then circulate around the sea and by the summer they are down by Sinop it seems that there were fisherman who established seasonal camps—coming down and going back home with the fish,” he said “Much of the understanding of the development of the area places an emphasis on the Greeks settling near the Black Sea then suddenly our understanding of the area changes We will be able to show that the Black Sea people made these long voyages before the Greeks showed up and that the Greeks actually learned from them Doonan’s Sinop Regional Archaeological Project and his related research has received support from the National Geographic Society the United States’ National Endowment for the Humanities and the Alexander von Humbolt Foundation He will be a Fellow at the Getty Villa this coming spring where he will contribute his research to their “Connecting Seas” program He proposes to partner with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and local government culture and business organizations to conduct the excavations of the Sinop kale Art history professor Owen Doonan at the site of ancient Sinop Doonan said the project has two goals: establish the archaeological importance of the home of the philosopher Diogenes the Cynic and Mithridates Eupator an arch rival of Rome; and create a set of monumental public spaces that will benefit the quality of life and cultural pride in the area Underlying all of this is a secondary goal those of us in academe did research for other academics,” he said we should help tell the story of place in a way that people can understand and that will encourage interest of the right kind and an appreciation of what history can tell us.” Doonan said that work can’t be confined to archaeological specialists He said he wants to encourage students in disciplines across the CSUN campus from art and history to Islamic studies and filmmaking “True archaeology crosses disciplines and taps into a broad range of skills to tell a story,” he said “Our project is an ideal place to expose students to a rich new culture and new ideas.” He said he hopes to extend that opportunity to local primary and secondary teachers as well they can go to their classrooms in the new ideas for teaching the sciences and social sciences in the fall,” Doonan said To learn more about the Sinop Regional Archaeological Project, visit the website http://www.nml.cuny.edu/srap/ , , , , It’s been more than a year since the Sinop hydroelectric dam started operations in the northern part of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso But residents say the business consortium responsible for building the dam has still not met many of its social and environmental obligations They’re fighting to make Companhia Energética Sinop (CES) majority-owned by French public-listed utility Electricité de France (EDF) pay fair compensation for the loss of their land and the protection of the natural resources in the region the development company has not begun restoration of the permanent preserved areas around the plant’s reservoir,” says the group Movement of those Affected by Dams The area has been affected by a drought that has caused the level of the water in the reservoir to drop compounded by a landslide on one of the riverbanks because of changes to the water table and fires that razed most of the forest that had remained standing on the banks of the Teles Pires River The environmental damage to one of the main rivers in the Amazon Basin has had dramatic consequences for the rural riverbank and Indigenous populations that depend on the Teles Pires River which today is choked off by three other hydroelectric plants even for us to eat,” says Irma Vicente Rodrigues one of the communities affected by the dam’s construction but I’m having a really hard time,” says José Moreira who has lived in Gleba Mercedes for 23 years He says he had a piece of land with a spring on it that produced plenty of water but today he doesn’t know where to take his animals to drink As he points to the dead plants at the edge of the reservoir Moreira questions the idea that the landscape of this dry lake could be the product of “clean energy,” as the consortium had advertised “Sinop could be making money for a half-dozen people The quality of the water in the reservoir has also become a public health problem There have been four mass fish die-offs in the Teles Pires between February 2019 and August 2020 Dropping water levels in the reservoir have also allowed mosquitoes to flourish some of them carrying malaria and leishmaniosis only 500 meters (1,640 feet) from where families live The results of tests carried out by health experts point to the risk of outbreaks of these diseases More than 20 people in Gleba Mercedes may already be infected with leishmaniosis a biologist who has worked at the Ministry of Health in the region for 40 years He says the diagnosis is still imprecise and some people are not being treated for the disease because of difficulty in getting to the nearest city which only multiplies the chain of transmission “Our greatest challenge now is to implant a leishmaniosis and malaria treatment program as well as an environmental health prevention program to keep infectious breakouts from spreading.” “Sinop Energia promised us heaven and earth but none of the things they promised us were given,” says Mauro Freese a Gleba Mercedes resident whose family was affected by the construction of the dam “It was a negotiation in which we had no choice They gave us about five days to think and if we didn’t accept the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) filed a civil action suit (ACP) against CES in June 2018 to demand new a appraisal of the land and report the many irregularities in the definition of indemnities The consortium had unilaterally calculated the amount to be paid each family without an open appraisal of the land and under coercion “They said that if we didn’t accept [the amount they were offering] we would have to go to court and receive only 30% without knowing if we would receive the rest,” says dairy farmer Carlos Becker “This for us was really unpleasant and today we keep hoping that we’ll get a fair price.” Three appraisals were subsequently carried out to put a value on the properties affected by the project The first was done by the National Institute of Rural Settlement and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) in August 2017 the second by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in 2018 and the third was a judicial appraisal resulting from the public action suit That last appraisal was completed in 2019 and put the value of the land at an average 23,724 reais ($4,720) per hectare instead of the average 3,900 reais ($776) per hectare that CES had paid the families The dispute could have ended at the conciliation hearing scheduled for December 2019, but the consortium refused to participate. On Aug. 10 this year, it filed a motion for an embargo against the experts responsible for the last appraisal the families published an open letter together with MAB on Aug calling for “an urgent and fair decision or [to] correct and repair the damages caused.” In the letter they said that “we understand that the professional appraiser followed all the technical norms in arriving at the said value even though the market value of land in the region is higher than the appraisal value keeping in mind that the price of land appraised is the price from two years ago it should be higher than the appraisal value prohibiting them from protesting in front of the company offices or accessing areas of the plant a European member of parliament looking to regulate investments by European companies in other continents “There was a complete breach of what the company promised the communities even the public agreements with the state and the secretariat of the environment,” Nascimento says “That was what led the families to really organize themselves and carry out the protests.” called “The Amazon in debate — Teles Pires the most impacted river in Amazonia.” It was meant to give affected people the opportunity to describe the difficulties they have undergone to hold the developers responsible for their actions The event also featured artists like the graffiti artist Jessé de Souza Companhia Energética Sinop did not respond to requests for reply sent by Mongabay by the time this article was originally published in Portuguese This article was first reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and published here on our Brazil site on Dec. 2, 2020. The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa, as protected areas become battlegrounds over history, human rights, and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss. Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins, and trying to forge a path forward […] The page you're looking for does not exist! we can't find the page that you are looking for Don't let that stop you from visiting some of our other great related content protected by reCAPTCHA.css-trhdh3::after{background-color:#fa9000;}EXPLORE MOREblinking-dotLive updatesLive updates, ‘Blackmail tool’: Hamas rejects Israeli plan to bypass Gaza aid agenciesUN and humanitarian aid groups say Israel proposed ‘dangerous’ ration ‘scheme’ after nine-week siege Francis-era reforms that saw a diverse group of cardinals join the mix make his successor nearly impossible to call The attack comes as Moscow prepares to welcome foreign leaders from China and Brazil Reports say Israel now eyeing occupation of entire enclave control of aid and possible expulsion of Palestinians the California federal penitentiary has been shut for more than six decades A study gives clue to cosmic origin of gold and heavy elements and they were created earlier than we thought Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe says the ‘ongoing’ discussions are ‘still in the early stages’ Attack claimed by Houthis temporarily halts air traffic at Israel’s busiest airport and triggers air raid sirens Hopes that last year’s vote would lead to their release crushed since April 22 killings and crackdown by Indian forces A small city on Turkey's northernmost tip with stunning scenery Sinop is also home to the highest proportion of the country’s elderly population Away from the hustle and bustle of big cities seniors spend their time on the quiet shores of the Black Sea resting at a popular park or chit-chatting at local cafes Sinop is among the few cities without traffic lights It also attracts thousands of nature lovers Ships sail in the beautiful Black Sea in Sinop The city of Sinop’s civil aviation authority suspended all flights between Sinop and Unyem to the east at altitudes of 7,600 meters (25,000 feet) and lower in preparation for the tests that are to be conducted at the Sinop test field The civil aviation authority’s decision aligns with the reports from officials stating the rockets would be fired eastwards during the tests, which will involve a batch of 10 Banshee drones manufactured by the UK for the purpose of serving as targets in air defense drills hoping to co-produce them or acquire a technology transfer While Turkey initially planned to activate the S-400 over its airspace this past April it faced pressure from fellow NATO members which threatened to impose sanctions on Turkey if it activated the air defense system “When to activate … such a critical air defense system …that is a matter not to be disclosed to the public,” said Turkey’s chief defense procurement official “How much of the system has been activated Such questions do not comply with a country’s geo-strategic deliberations.” Tags: , , , , is being praised as the main driving force behind an impressive ecological achievement – turning a barren hill in Sinop city into a green oasis of million trees During his 24-year tenure as Head of Afforestation at Boyabat Forestry Operations Department in Sinop’s Boyabat district planting over 25 million saplings on a barren hill overlooking Sinop and turning it into a green oasis and focused on afforestation in the steppe areas of Boyabat relying both on specialized teams and the local community to transform inhospitable land into a green oasis for both humans and animals and today he is regarded as somewhat of a local hero after being invited to Sinop to celebrate his great work Photos of him holding up a before-and-after picture of the area he helped transform recently went viral in Turkey as they show just how much of a difference his work has done in a country where deforestation and desertification are huge issues “The transformation of those areas into forests has been my biggest source of pride,” Kaya told reporters we have ensured that our district has more forest assets compared to those days Although not many remember what the area afforested by Hikmet Kaya used to look like a few decades ago it’s worth pointing out that around 30 million saplings were planted during his tenure The before-and-after images he was recently photographed holding show exactly what a huge number that is “Everyone should protect the forests with care,” Kaya said when asked about the future Already a member? Log in Not a member? Sign up Explore our Food Tours → no money.” Mert Kanal hoses down empty Styrofoam containers and surveys the leftover catch in his market in Sinop fighting over scraps on the dock while fishermen tidy their nets for another night of fishing moving up the coast in dwindling numbers as hulking factory ships chase them While mackerel, turbot and whiting are all fair game for fishmongers, hamsi holds a special place in Turkish cuisine. Unlike the slimy, salty canned form of the fish reserved for eccentric pizza toppings in North America, anchovies are eaten fresh in Turkey quickly fried and served with a slice of lemon as in ancient times – for countless generations fisherman here have pointed their personal boats out to sea in search of hamsi The crumbling old city walls no longer guard an important trade hub along the Black Sea but seemingly serve to contain apartments and vacation rentals from falling into the sea Most of the traders at the market now only come on Mondays and Thursdays dozens of small wooden boats are moored next to giant industrial behemoths painted the colors of their fleet when the fish migrated along the Black Sea coast toward Russia But with changing weather patterns and overfishing sometimes old Turkish adages are no longer applicable the fish were gone before the first snowflakes hit Sinop small batches of hamsi will crop up off the Turkish coast and come on the market but the vast majority of fresh fish is gone by springtime hamsi should be eaten the same day they leave the boat but given Turks’ appetite for hamsi year-round Massive factory ships catch as much fish as they can flash-freeze the fish while on the open water and haul it back to ports like Sinop and Trabzon the several-day-old fish is boxed in Styrofoam containers with ice and sent to major hubs like Istanbul and Ankara Kanal sells between 100 and 200 containers of fresh fish to customers in Sinop alone The presence of fresh hamsi in the markets drives prices down because local fishmongers receive so much that they often cannot sell it all needlefish and Norwegian salmon drop in price as well Fishmongers like Kanal buy from both small-time fishermen and large companies A complicated ledger system records how many boxes are dropped are off by the respective fishermen allowing Kanal to pay out according to how much fish was deposited in the early hours of the morning The overabundance of hamsi on the market is tied directly to introduction of factory ships in the 1990s which flooded the market with inexpensive fish While traditional fisherman would catch what they could sell and release the rest as he weighs a bag of sea bream for a customer “The hamsi season used to be from November to June; now it is only one month.” Kanal’s family business has expanded over the years after he started out as a small fishmonger tucked into the base of Sinop’s castle walls serving locals and tourists flocking to the city during summer months The passion he has for his business and his family members many of whom work in the fishmonger’s on the first floor His uncles are often on the front lines slinging fish while Kanal’s mother holds down the fort at the cash register If you don’t encounter Kanal chatting with customers or restocking the day’s catch he is in the kitchen or zipping off to the daily fish auctions on his moped Everything at the restaurant is made in-house massive jars of pickled produce stacked on the stairs leading to the restaurant looking like liquidy vibrant-green depth charges Okyanus features incredible fare that is hard to find outside of the Black Sea region No meal here would be complete without an order of the restaurant’s special fish soup mixing a bite of mustard with dill and fatty white fish making a hearty yet refreshing brew to warm the coldest bones and whet the keenest appetite we asked what was fresh off the boat and had the fish prepared according to the chef’s preference Washing down the sumptuous morsels was best accomplished with either şalgam deep-purple beverage made from the juice of black carrots and turnips the potent anise seed pomace brandy often called the national drink of Turkey Crunchy pumpkin desserts cured with limestone and soaked in a sweet sauce are relatively common in Turkey but Kanal’s family recipe has a completely different texture hearkening back to our childhood pumpkin pies The deep umber flesh of the pumpkin dissolves in your mouth immediately fatty texture of the kaymak (clotted cream made from water buffalo milk) that graces the top It’s the perfect dish to round out a meal of salty fried fish and vibrant arugula salads topped with fresh garlic the number of cruise ships has been dwindling limiting Kanal’s potential to expand his business although he has plans to add aquatic artwork and further improve the restaurant While fresh fish is still headed for the restaurants and kitchens of Turkey the shift of the hamsi season to earlier in the year may signal problems to come With changes in fishing techniques and an ever-increasing population salivating for the delicious bounty of the sea the coming years may begin to see less and less hamsi on the market the delicious little fish are still with us but you might get a glimpse of why hamsi are so important and worth protecting for growling stomachs in the years to come loading map - please wait...Map could not be loaded - please enable Javascript!→ more information We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. 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SearchBrowseServicesOpen researchInstitution LoginSearchMenu links Research into the Iron Age of Anatolia has seldom paid sufficient attention to settlement patterns and the social organization of space The Anabasis by Xenophon records the observations of a Greek outsider who travelled across eastern Anatolia and along the Black Sea coast in 400 bce a time that was relatively early in the colonial process in this area Xenophon's observations are used to establish a basic model for settlement in the Black Sea coastal region of Anatolia which is then tested against the results of recent archaeological surveys and related research on the Sinop promontory A fuller and richer model of indigenous Iron Age settlement and colonial engagement on the Sinop promontory is developed and considered in light of recent research on colonization in the western Mediterranean and northern Black Sea regions Les études concernant l’âge du Fer en Anatolie ont rarement prêté suffisamment d'attention aux habitats et à l'organisation sociale de l'espace habité L'Anabase de Xénophon contient le récit du périple d'un Grec en Anatolie orientale et le long de la côte de la Mer Noire en 400 av donc relativement tôt dans le processus de colonisation de cette région On utilisera ses observations pour établir un modèle de base concernant l'habitat dans la zone côtière de la Mer Noire en Anatolie que l'on comparera ensuite avec les résultats de prospections archéologiques récentes et de projets de recherche connexes sur la péninsule de Sinope On proposera un modèle plus fourni des habitats de l’âge du Fer et des rapports entre colons et indigènes dans cette région compte tenu des études récentes sur le phénomène de colonisation en Méditerranée occidentale et dans les régions septentrionales de la mer Noire Die Siedlungsstruktur und die räumliche Organisation der Gesellschaft haben oft ungenügend Beachtung in der Forschung der Eisenzeit in Anatolien gefunden Xenophons Anabasis enthält die Beobachtungen eines griechischen Außenseiters in Ostanatolien und entlang der Küste des Schwarzen Meeres reiste also relativ früh in der Kolonisierung der Gegend Seine Beobachtungen dienen hier zum Aufbau eines Grundmodells der Besiedlung an der anatolischen Schwarzmeerküste das dann mit den Ergebnissen von neueren archäologischen Prospektionen und damit verbundenen Forschungen auf der Halbinsel von Sinop verglichen wird Es ergibt sich eine reichere Modellierung der einheimischen eisenzeitlichen Siedlungen und der Beziehungen zwischen Kolonisten und Kolonisierten in dieser Gegend die man mit neueren Forschungen im westlichen Mittelmeerraum und in den nördlichen Schwarzmeerbereichen vergleichen kann Map of Anatolia indicating the first millennium bce sites mentioned in the text The Sinop promontory extends north at the midpoint of the south coast The tribes mentioned in Xenophon's narrative are clustered near the Ionian colonies of Trebizond This article seeks to reorient the investigation of Iron Age settlement in Black Sea Anatolia more towards an understanding of economic and settlement patterns than to ever more precisely defined ceramic (read ethnic) mappings Although the approach followed here may not be suitable for all parts of Anatolia it may offer a way out of a conundrum we face on the northern side of the Pontic watershed An apparent gap in settlement following the Early Bronze Age (more correctly the absence of recognizable late second and early first millennium bce ceramic types) contradicts the historical accounts that pertain to this region Such an approach lays the groundwork for a more synthetic approach that can consider comparisons to better-established case studies in the Mediterranean This has particular relevance to the investigation of contrasting case studies in indigenous-colonial relations 1) Continuation of a handmade undecorated ceramic tradition as late as the late first millennium bce; conservative undecorated forms with few diagnostic features; probably attributable to the short duration of the Iron Age rather than to a decrease in actual settlement density at any point in time (Iron Age duration of 500 years in comparison to a Bronze Age duration of 2000 years); and 3) Settlements tend not to be readily visible in a systematic survey methodology that emphasizes cleared agricultural fields—indigenous settlements are compact tend be uncultivated and overgrown because of a preference for mounded and sloping sites and have sparse ceramic and lithic material on the surface only a limited proportion of the handmade assemblages from the Sinop promontory north of the coastal mountain watershed can be precisely connected to parallels at İkiztepe let us consider the undecorated handmade bowls and hole-mouthed jars found north of the Sinop watershed more specifically dating ‘indigenous’ wares in association with known assemblages rather than arbitrarily assigning fourth- or third-millennium dates to them The dating of these assemblages is very tenuous based on ware types and forms with minimal diagnostic features some burnished with forms ranging from shallow bowls to hole-mouthed jars are divided into categories based on distant and far-flung excavations It is clear that some of these really are Early Bronze Age: those types that show close correspondence with Ikiztepe This research project is still in its early stages and so the remarks in this article will have to be regarded as preliminary and based on a necessary degree of chronological speculation Ancient literary sources provide potentially useful contextual information relevant to the interpretation of the evidence from the Sinop promontory are considered highly reliable for the Hellenistic and early Roman periods Strabo and other later sources will not be considered here because their observations on indigenous cultures will certainly contain distortions based on the fundamental changes that took place in the region over the fourth–first centuries bce Map of the Anatolian Black Sea region from Sinop to Trapezus (modern Trabzon) Xenophon's approximate route is marked by a black line and the names of tribes mentioned in the text are written in capital letters We may thus consider the possibility of broadly similar patterns in settlement and cultural relations among indigenous communities along ecologically and topographically similar areas of this coast there is no reason whatsoever to wade into historical questions such as the naming of tribes and the identification of particular ethnic entities—often a distracting temptation when considering sources such as these We will consider three themes under the rubric of settlement and economy: settlement form and distribution; social and economic entanglement between coastal and interior and indigenous groups; and economy the Drilae set fire to those of their villages which struck them as being vulnerable to attack There was nothing for the Greeks to take except for the occasional pig or ox or some other animal that had escaped the flames was their mother city and this was where they had all congregated There was an extremely deep gully around the place and all the approaches to it were difficult to negotiate who had run five or six stades ahead of the hoplites because they had spotted plenty of livestock because the peltasts were joined by large numbers of spearmen They were unable to take the place by force of arms because a wide trench had been excavated around it and the embankment made from the excavated earth had been fitted with a palisade and wooden towers set at close intervals.’ (Xenophon The Greeks followed the Drilae along a series of riverine settlements until they found themselves trapped and unable to take a highland stronghold There appear to have been outlying farmsteads surrounding a citadel surrounded by multiple earthworks The Greeks entered the citadel believing that they had captured it easily but were put to flight by a strong force that issued out of a citadel within It appears that the large settlement included both a citadel and an outer town defended by a rampart and palisades The large and powerful force extracted itself from the town with great difficulty and had to distract the Drilae by burning their town in order to enable their own retreat who was inside the wooden tower built on top of the hill and who was maintained by contributions from the whole population while he was the resident and guard of the tower and so did the ruler of the stronghold they had taken earlier So they were incinerated along with the towers.’ (Xenophon even those associated with powerful leaders were constructed of timber and highly susceptible to fire Recognized leaders (‘kings’) seem to have been based in the highlands rather than in coastal sites ‘Towns were located at intervals of more or less eighty stades was such that the inhabitants of one town could hear people shouting to them from the next one.’ (Xenophon This passage reinforces the impression that relatively small settlements were distributed along river valleys within earshot of one another 15 km) gives a rough idea of the distances between settlements The observation that settlements were within earshot of one another suggests a more likely distance of 5–8 km between settlements given the optimal acoustical conditions along the steep Pontic ravines The discrepancy may be due to the difficulty of estimating distances over the challenging terrain whose land was far more flat and whose villages by the sea were less well fortified.’ (Xenophon they found in the houses piles of stored loaves which according to the Mossynoecians were made from the previous year's flour while the fresh grain was stored with the straw There were also jars of dried dolphin meat and pots of dolphin blubber which the Mossynoecians used for the same purposes that the Greeks use olive oil The attics of the houses contained a great many flat but when diluted it had a pleasant scent and flavour.’ (Xenophon Communities along the river valleys were not only linked by soundscapes and military strategies This passage highlights the importance of dolphins as a source of food and fat in the highland diet and illustrates that the Mossynoecians took advantage of a wide variety of resources from different environmental zones: arboreal products from the mountains (chestnuts used as flour for bread) agricultural products from the coastal plain (stores of spelt and wine laid up) and maritime products (dolphin blubber and salted meat) Xenophon describes this diverse array of foods as typical to individual highland households The overall impression is of interdependent communities that each specialized in exploitation of distinct environmental zones (highland Settlement characteristics for Black Sea Anatolia derived from Xenophon's Anabasis The coastal settlements were clearly the critical points of contact between Ionian traders and indigenous tribes since such groups were more practised at establishing productive relations with the Greeks Coastal communities like the Tibarenians were clearly familiar with passing Greeks and had experience of setting up ad hoc markets at short notice The great number of small boats raised by the Mossynoecians at a moment's notice testify to engagement in maritime activities Given the clear political and military priority of the highland settlements and the great predictability of Pontic fish migrations the possibility of seasonal occupation along the coast should be considered Since maritime products were distributed into the highlands it would not be surprising to find imported goods at highland sites although trade does not appear to have become a stable component of the indigenous economy by the time of Xenophon's journey We now turn to an archaeological case study on the Sinop promontory to consider whether archaeological evidence suggests that the features noted by Xenophon may have been present in a Black Sea coastal environment Map of indigenous (probably Iron Age) sites north of the Pontic watershed on the Sinop promontory Sites named in the text include Sinop kale (L97-122) The Kırkgeçit çayı system drains into the Black Sea about five km north of the Sarımsaklı çayı Iron Age loci in the Kırkgecit çayı highland area L96-38 (Tıngırtepe) and L11-034 are more than 6 ha in extent Stone towers and terrace walling were recorded at L11-26 (Yakadibi) and L96-38 (Tıngırtepe) The Tıngıroğlu plain is sheltered by high ridges to the north south and west and the steep-sided canyon of the Kırkgeçit çayı to the south and east View from Tıngırtepe looking north-west (along the Kırkgeçitcayı valley towards the sea) Outline plan of the settlement at Tıngırtepe Iron Age sites in the Pontic mountains of central Turkey mentioned in the text During the 2011–2012 seasons a string of sites was identified along the Kirkgeçit çayı on terraces overlooking the river (Figure 4) We have already mentioned that the Tingiroğlu sites show plentiful settlement in the areas controlling access to the highland passes The foothills also show a pattern of settlements straddling both sides of the valley: in Erikli village sites are distributed along the top of the ridge overlooking the north bank of the river; a settlement exists at Yakadibi above the south bank of the river and then further sites are located in the coastal plains Many of these sites are adjacent to or near Hellenistic-period occupations Our working hypothesis is that the Iron Age sites are earlier and that the Hellenistic material represents the economic and cultural engagement of these indigenous communities with colonists from the fourth century bce onward The Yakadibi site (L12-26) is located some 50 m above the river-bed A stone tower sits adjacent to a massive burnt lime deposit with a terrace occupied below This appears to be a very strategic location visible to the Tıngıroğlu sites and similar in overall plan to Tıngırtepe but with a commanding view of the outlet of the valley The site's proximity to the river may imply a crossing nearby A fragment of a high-footed bowl was found embedded in the rock-hard burnt lime deposit tempered with angular shell or fossilized limestone and chaff Planned luminescence analyses of assemblages from this site may help to establish whether this settlement and others in this valley have a long history or conservative ceramic traditions The Drilae then made a stand at their stronghold in the highlands where the terrain was difficult and their enemies hemmed in and disoriented the Mossynoecians had settlements along the river valleys close enough for them to communicate by calling out The series of smaller Iron Age settlements along both banks of the Kırkgeçit çayı starting quite possibly as near to the coast as Altınoğlu (L11-09) bears a striking resemblance to these general descriptions a small (<0.1 ha) scatter of handmade indigenous ceramics and daub about 400 m north-east of L12-26 may have marked the location of a related contemporary installation (isolated house?) although visibility was too poor to define the extent of this scatter About a kilometre north-east and set at a higher elevation Locus L12-31 is a dense scatter (at least 0.5 ha) of handmade Hellenistic and Roman ceramics one of the richest and most diverse assemblages of these periods that our survey has documented in the Sinop hinterland In this valley only the large coastal site at Çakıroğlu has an assemblage as varied as that Unfortunately there was insufficient visibility to determine the extent of Locus L12-31 beyond the area documented in the tract For the most part these settlements show continuity into the second half of the first millennium bce in that they often yield fourth-century bce Greek-related ceramics; it would appear that the local Iron Age communities were conducting trade with Greeks on the coast or with the port of Sinope At Ilyan’ın yeri in the district of Altınoğlu the survey documented two adjacent loci (L11-09 and L11-10) marked by a dense concentration of indigenous handmade and Hellenistic ceramics including amphora fragments and covers (Doonan et al., Reference Doonan, Bauer, Casson, Conrad, Besonen, Evren, Domzalski, Steadman and McMahon2015) The Hellenistic and indigenous assemblages appear to form distinct clusters The extent of the settled area was difficult to define because the site was partly overgrown Each of these loci is a coastal settlement of modest size (c set back 200–500 m from the coast in a location that overlooks a valley with a coastal beach landing Recall that the Mossynoecians (see above) supplied 300 log canoes (each held 3 men) to assist the passing Greeks A beach would provide a perfectly good landing for such boats and the great number of boats implies that they engaged in coastal maritime activities This observation certainly corresponds to the pattern observed at Ilyan’ın yeri and similar sites in Sinop Recall also that the Greeks discovered stores of salted dolphin meat and vessels filled with dolphin blubber in the mountains Local fishing communities like the Tibarenians to the east would have undoubtedly encountered Sinopean colonists and there would have been many opportunities to help Relations between these communities were critical for the maintenance of the colonial trade network that was essential to the economy of Sinope Clearly the history of the Iron Age in Sinop is more complex than the current models would suggest. Many of the features described by Xenophon appear to have been shared by indigenous communities on the Sinop promontory (see Table 1). The Kırkgeçit cayı valley appears to show some evidence of economic integration from coast to highland (no. 1 on Table 1) beginning at the latest in the fourth century bce while the more important centres like Tingiroğlu and Salar were clearly located at higher elevations or over the mountains (no Small settlements appear to have been strung along the banks of the river (no at distances that are consistent with Xenophon's observation that locals would call from one settlement to the next (no Many settlements show evidence of burning (no and survey finds at Tıngırtepe are consistent with the mention of ramparts It is intriguing to consider the possibility that sites like Ilyan’ın yeri were home to agricultural settlers who took advantage of the seasonal or occasional opportunities offered by their proximity to the sea (no they may have provided an arena for informal markets and fishing similar to the economy of the Tibarenians reported by Xenophon It is clear that fishing was an important activity at Sinop kale that attracted visitors from around the Black Sea Two patterns have begun to emerge in the Iron Age settlement of the Sinop promontory most probably dating from the end of the second–early first millennia bce and continuing into the Hellenistic period consists of dispersed networks of settlements in the foothills and highlands overlooking river-based communication routes We are using the broad term Iron Age to refer to these horizons as well as to the assemblages that coincide with Archaic and Classical Greek horizons and the sea appears to have attracted only marginal (possibly seasonal) interest The more important population centres may well have looked south towards central Anatolia and the north Anatolian rift valley dating from the mid to late first millennium bce (Late Iron Age) is seen in the engagement of indigenous and local communities through exchange with outsiders at near-coastal sites and continues via pre-existing indigenous networks up into the mountain communities • Stage 1 (second–early first millennium bce): continuation of dominant Bronze Age patterns: low density subsistence based on terrestrial agriculture and seasonal exploitation of maritime resources; possible symbiotic relationship between mobile fishing communities and more sedentary terrestrial counterparts; organization of communities along river valleys; • Stage 2 (ninth–seventh century bce): quickening of maritime activity at Sinope by outsiders bearing ceramics from the northwest and the east (Doonan Reference Doonan and Cobet2007a; Doonan et al. Reference Doonan, Vural, Goldman, Bauer, Sherratt and Rempel2016); This coincides with the appearance of amphorae and black-slipped fine wares in the hinterland suggesting that wine production at Sinope was specifically connected to the intensification of trade relations with its hinterland Another significant parallel between the Anatolian Black Sea coast and the western Mediterranean can be seen in the spread of defensive architecture among local groups following entanglement with colonial communities (Dietler, Reference Dietler1997, Reference Dietler2010) The military build-up is by no means merely a response to the presence of colonists but likely to reflect the intensification of local rivalries (recall the rivalries in Xenophon's descriptions of the Mossynoecians and the defensibility of their strongholds and those of the Drilae) and Tıngırtepe broadly correspond to these descriptions Clearly Xenophon's narrative indicates warlike rivalries between indigenous groups; in contrast this does not appear to be a feature of earlier periods In Pontic Anatolia this is most likely to be related to economic and political processes linked not only to Greek colonization along the coast but to relations with Persia that eventually gave rise to the Pontic dynasties The grey wares have many forms derived from local as well as imported forms; vessels related to drinking dominate among import-inspired types Not only do these examples demonstrate colonial engagement at a much earlier date than in the Sinop area but they also show economic activity at a much greater scale on the reading of a specific historical source can nonetheless form the basis for a discussion about Iron Age settlement along the Anatolian coast of the Black Sea The Sinop Regional Archaeological Project continues to expand the site-by-site analysis of ceramics within an interpretive framework that allows us to consider the organization of the economies and social order of indigenous communities It is also hoped that this discussion can reorient some interest in this region away from the identification of historically attested ethnic groups toward an interest in the geography of early Black Sea communities and the role the organization of those communities played in their engagement with Ionian colonists and the growing Black Sea economy of the first millennium bce The work described here was carried out by the members of the Sinop Regional Archaeological Project from 1996 to 2012 and between 2015 and 2017 with permission from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism I acknowledge the members of our field teams and our Turkish government representatives for their contributions to the results summarised here I would like to thank the staff of the Sinop Museum Vural for advice and assistance over many years Tosun have helped us in many ways over these years Bauer who made comments on this article while it was being developed Smokotina have greatly helped identify key Greek and Roman wares The initial draft of this article was written during the tenure of a Residential Fellowship at the Getty Villa (Spring 2014) Many thanks are due to the Getty Research Institute and my colleagues in the highly stimulating ‘Connecting Seas’ research group 1 See papers in Steadman and McMahon (Reference Steadman and McMahon2011) for discussions of the sites listed here, and Doonan, Reference Doonan, Faudot, Fraysse and Geny2013 for an overview of recent systematic survey projects in Anatolia 2 This article focuses primarily on the Sinop promontory from the watershed of the Pontic coastal mountains to the sea. Those parts of the Sinop province to the south of the mountains have been described in detail by Dönmez (Reference Dönmez2007, Reference Dönmez2008, Reference Dönmez, Öztan and Dönmez2011) who also treats some areas under discussion here. Figure 1. Map of Anatolia indicating the first millennium bce sites mentioned in the text. The Sinop promontory extends north at the midpoint of the south coast. The tribes mentioned in Xenophon's narrative are clustered near the Ionian colonies of Trebizond, Kerasous and Kotyora. Figure 2. Map of the Anatolian Black Sea region from Sinop to Trapezus (modern Trabzon). Elevations are shaded, Xenophon's approximate route is marked by a black line, and the names of tribes mentioned in the text are written in capital letters. Table 1. Settlement characteristics for Black Sea Anatolia derived from Xenophon's Anabasis. Figure 3. Map of indigenous (probably Iron Age) sites north of the Pontic watershed on the Sinop promontory. Sites named in the text include Sinop kale (L97-122), Karapinar (L98-20), and Kayanin basi (L03-01). The Kırkgeçit çayı system drains into the Black Sea about five km north of the Sarımsaklı çayı. Map produced by Matthew Conrad. Figure 4. Iron Age loci in the Kırkgecit çayı highland area. L96-38 (Tıngırtepe) and L11-034 are more than 6 ha in extent, all the others are smaller than 1 ha. Stone towers and terrace walling were recorded at L11-26 (Yakadibi) and L96-38 (Tıngırtepe), both of which showed evidence of burning. The Tıngıroğlu plain is sheltered by high ridges to the north, south and west and the steep-sided canyon of the Kırkgeçit çayı to the south and east. Figure 5. View from Tıngırtepe looking north-west (along the Kırkgeçitcayı valley towards the sea). Figure 6. Outline plan of the settlement at Tıngırtepe. Figure 7. Plan of the upper terrace at Tıngırtepe. Figure 8. Iron Age sites in the Pontic mountains of central Turkey mentioned in the text. - No HTML tags allowed- Web page URLs will display as text only- Lines and paragraphs break automatically- Attachments, images or tables are not permitted Your email address will be used in order to notify you when your comment has been reviewed by the moderator and in case the author(s) of the article or the moderator need to contact you directly. Torrential rain of more than 300mm in 24 hours hammered the provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu and Sinop in the Black Sea Region of northern Turkey on 11 August The ensuing flooding and mudslides destroyed homes water and telecommunications infrastructure were also damaged Twenty-five villages remain without power in Kastamonu and 56 villages in Sinop the disaster agency AFAD reported 49 fatalities in Kastamonu Eight people remain in hospital after serious injury Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in a statement late on 14 August that 77 people – 62 in Kastamonu and 15 in Sinop – remain unaccounted for Alongside clean-up and recovery operations search and rescue operations are continuing Around 6,000 emergency personnel have been deployed to the area AFAD said that as of 15 August 2,378 people had evacuated across affected areas many of them airlifted to safety by helicopters Student dormitories have been made available for those displaced while others are staying with friends or relatives Authorities have distributed thousands of hot meals in affected areas as well as relief supplies including tents and bedding to areas of Kastamonu Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM) warned of heavy rain on 15 August in areas of Trabzon Rize and Artvin Provinces in the Black Sea Region Çayeli in Rize already recorded 123.8 mm of rain in 24 hours to 14 August Richard Davies is the founder of floodlist.com and reports on flooding news Cookies | Privacy | Contacts © Copyright 2025 FloodList