Ancient Turkey: A Traveller's History | Seton Lloyd | A Fine Study of Ancient History of Turkey

Ancient Turkey: A Traveller's History | Seton Lloyd | One correction

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Ancient Turkey: A ...

	Ancient Turkey: A Traveller's History Seton Lloyd University of California Press, 1999 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Seton Lloyd's lively account of Turkey's early history is for the ever-increasing number of people visiting the ancient sites of this fabled land. Written by an archaeologist who has spent much of his life in the Near East, the book is not a conventional "guide" to the antiquities of Anatolia, nor is it a textbook. It is instead Lloyd's attempt to share his profound interest in an antique land, its inhabitants, and the surviving monuments that link the present to the past.
Lloyd traces the many different cultures that have been a part of Turkey from prehistoric times to the Christian era. He recounts the exploits of the Hittite kings, the confrontation of Croesus and the Persian king Cyrus, the conquests of Alexander the Great, and Mithridates' epic resistance against Rome. Archaeological landmarks discussed include the discovery of the Alaca Hüyük tombs, the attempts to establish the location of Troy, and the opening of the Tomb of Midas. Lloyd shows how each successive culture has left its mark on an astonishing variety of sites, from the shrines of Çatal Hüyük to the temples of Ephesus and the churches founded by St. Paul.

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A Fine Study of Ancient History of Turkey

Seton Lloyd is known to American public by his commentaries on Public Television documentaries about Turkey. He is a well informed scholar, and trustworthy. Therefore I was offended by the Amsterdam, Holland reviewer who, trying to push his own political agenda, tries to kick dirt on Seton Lloyd. Seton Lloyd writes what is Turkey most famous for: its Greco-Roman, ancient Hittite, and Mesopotanian heritage. Most Americans I know want to go Turkey to see the earliest churches of Christianity, likewise many Europeans enjoy discovering their Christian-Greco-Roman heritage as well. There are a lot of Armenian relics in Turkey, a country with the history of many peoples and cultures. Visitors to those regions know where they are and they go to visit them as well.

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One correction

Apologies to genuine readers who think politics has no place in this column.But I could not help add a very simple fact. If only this Dutch fellow who has spent years as an archeologist visited Istanbul to find Armenian churches all over the place as the Armenian community who were left intact in Istanbul after the so-called genocide (!). Oh, if it was Asia Minor where he could not find anything left Armenian, he only needed to as far as Erzurum, Erzincan, Kars (eastern provinces of Turkey) to see mass graves of Turks still being uncovered today as the legacy of Armenian gangs.

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Interesting, but not exhaustive

The book gives a good introduction to the history of Anatolia up to the time of the early Christian Church. It can seem at times to be a little dry or shallow in its coverage. While it is on some sense a historical account, the author is an archeologist, and the narrative heavily leans on this direction. This is not necesarily bad since I read the book as a prelude to my trip to Turkey, but one should be aware of it before buying the book. All in all, I would recommend buying it.

Good source on ancient history in Asia Minor

I bought this book as background reading for an upcoming trip to Turkey. It is a comprehensive and well-written overview of ancient history, from the Hittites up through the beginnings of Christianity in what is now Turkey, with context relating to the influence of adjacent areas as needed. It puts things in context and provides maps to help locate cultures and events geographically. I would recommend it for anyone interested in the subject, or reading up for a visit.

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Writing could be better

I picked up this book in preparation for a class trip to Turkey to look at architecture and landscape. I have found it to be exhaustive in details pertaining to archeological discoveries and sequence. I wish that it would leave off some of these details, and spend a little more time painting the bigger picture. The book reads as if you are listening to a one-sided conversation with a very specialized and opinionated professor. It is almost casual in tone, and spends too much time and emotion on issues that don't really aid understanding of the history of Turkey. Having said that, if you can struggle through the dense parts, and keep refering back to the maps, you can get a pretty good idea of the progression and significance of events.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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