The Port of Sinop
historical and archaeological overview
The port-city of Sinop can be seen spreading up the headland
of Boz tepe from the low isthmus connecting it to Anatolia.
 
"(Sinope) is the most noteworthy of the cities in that part of the world ... Sinope is beautifully equipped both by nature and by human foresight, for it is situated on the neck of a peninsula, and has on either side of the isthmus harbors and roadsteads and wonderful fisheries... Furthermore, the peninsula is protected all round by ridgy shores... Higher up, however, and above the city, the ground is fertile and adorned with diversified market-gardens..."
Strabo, Geography 12.3.11. (Jones ed., trans., Loeb Classical Library)
 
More ancient literary sources on Sinope

For thousands of years the site of Sinop has been a strategic point in the cultural and trade systems of the Black Sea. The port has been host to many civilizations, including Bronze Age, Greek, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman. Sinope was the first Black Sea colony founded by the great Greek city of Miletus on the west coast of Turkey. Archaeological evidence for Greek settlement here goes back to the seventh century B.C., although the Bronze Age remains show people lived at the "best port on the South coast of the Black Sea"  thousands of years earlier. 

Sinope, in turn, founded many colonies of its own along the Black Sea coast: Amisos (mod. Samsun), Cerausos (mod. Giresun) and Trebizond (mod. Trabzon) have remained important settlements through the ages, in some cases eclipsing the fame and fortune of their mother city. The Hellenistic king Mithradates IV was born here, as was the philosopher Diogenes the Cynic (412-323 B.C.), famous for dismissing Alexander the Great's offer of anything his heart desired with the remark: "Get out of my light." Following the defeat of Mithradates VI by the Roman general Pompey the Great, the Romans took over administration of the region. Julius Caesar founded a colony at Sinop in 46 BC. 

Following centuries of relative obscurity, Sinop regained prominence under Seljuk and Ottoman rule. The Ottoman Sultan Selim I rebuilt the Imperial fleet of several hundred ships at Sinop after the disastrous battle at Lepanto in 1571. Workers were brought from around the Empire to complete the project. Many chose to settle in the region, contributing to the ethnic diversity of the province. Greeks, Circassians, Georgians, Bulgarians and Turks settled around Sinop, continuing the ancient Black Sea tradition as a great cultural melting pot. Many villages in the area still maintain distinctive ethnic and cultural traditions.
 
 
 
 		 Since the end of the Second World War, Sinop has attracted the attention of archaeologists on account of its well-preserved city walls and other extant structures.
The walls of Sinop
 
 
The first excavations at Sinop were conducted by Prof. Dr. Ekrem Akurgal, for many decades a leader in Turkish Classical Archaeology. Professor Akurgal's excavations in the city center and the surrounding cemeteries established beyond any doubt the importance of the city in Classical and Hellenistic times.
 
 
Among Professor Akurgal's important discoveries were a Hellenistic Temple of the Egyptian god Serapis and a rich cemetery, including one monumental tomb adorned by a remarkable fourth century sculpted group of a lion and stag.
Temple of Serapis, Sinop
 
 
Lion and stag pedimental sculpture from a monumental grave in Sinop
 
 
Pasha Tabya, showing gun emplacements used in the Crimean war.
Garden of the Pervanne medrese, a
religious school built in the 13th century.
 
 
The possible remains of a Roman bath complex and several Roman settlements along the shore to the south of Sinop attest the continued importance of the region during these periods. Seljuk and Ottoman monuments abound, like the "Pasha Tabya," and a the beautiful Pervane medrese, a religious school built in the Seljuk heyday of Sinop (13th c. CE).  Unfortunately, man and the sea are ravaging many monuments around Sinop. The Sinop Regional Museum in collaboration with the University of Warwick are attempting to save a fifth century church at Çiftlik, one of many threatened monuments along this fragile coast.
 
 
This Roman bridge to the north of the Sinop-Warwick excavations is another example of a monument being covered by the rising sea level. The bridge serves as a symbol for the Black Sea Trade Project's goal: to join land and marine environments under a comprehensive research design.
Byzantine stone bridge at Ciftlik
 
 
Two linked goals of the Black Sea Trade Project survey are to document what remains of these sites on land and to reconstruct what has already been lost to the sea.  By a combination of intensive survey and high-tech remote sensing on both land and sea, we hope to develop comparable sets of data that will show us how the people of Sinope and its hinterland used land, coastal and underwater resources to flourish at the center of the Black Sea. 
 
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