Highlights from the Project Paphlagonia survey

Pottery from site PS178, Höyük Tepesi, on the Eldivan Plain. These sherds are all so-called Phrygian Grey Ware, of Iron Age date.

Project Paphlagonia was directed by Roger Matthews in post as Director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara (hereafter BIAA). Almost all funding toward the fieldwork was generously provided by the BIAA, for which I am extremely grateful. Financial support from the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies in the 2001 season was also greatly appreciated. Post-fieldwork processing, analysis and publication preparation have been kindly supported by grants from the BIAA, the Mediterranean Archaeological Trust, the Graduate School of UCL and the Institute of Archaeology UCL, to all of whom sincere thanks are here given.

Sincere and heartfelt gratitude is due to the many individuals who provided assistance to the project at some stage through its life. In particular, I wish to thank all staff at the Directorate-General of Monuments and Museums of the Republic of Turkey, including successive Directors-General (Engin Özgen, Mehmet Akif Işık, Ender Varinlioğlu, Alpay Pasinli) and especially our official Turkish government representatives (1997 Cevdet Sevinç, 1998 Gülay Aslan, 1999 Zehra Taşkıran, 2000 Gülcan Demir, 2001 Nilgün Sinan), all of whom played integral and much appreciated roles within the execution of the project. In the field we received friendly advice and assistance from all officials of the Governorates of Çankırı and Karabük and especially from successive Directors of Çankırı Museum (Erol Özen, Yücel Kiper and, for the 2005 study season, Yusuf Demirci), as well as from other staff of the museum, the cultural directorate, the jandarma and the villagers of the region. Staff of the BIAA were tremendously helpful in a broad range of ways, in particular in London Gina Coulthard and in Ankara Gülgün Girdivan, Yaprak Eran, Yiğit Erbil, and Zeynep and Ali Koç. At the initiation of the project, discussions with Jim Coulton, Jim Crow, Wendy Matthews, Stephen Mitchell, Neil Roberts and Mark Whittow were especially helpful. Sincere thanks also to David French for a memorable day investigating ancient routes and roads of the region.

I am above all grateful to members of the Project Paphlagonia field teams, who shared the journey of fieldwork with me and whose company made the experience all the more rewarding and stimulating: