From Royal Tumuli to Urban Necropoleis; A Modern Approach of Funerary Archeology for the Study of Social Stratification and Local Identites in Pergamon and in Aeolis during the Hellenistic Period. – NekroPergEol

The project aims at developing a common strategy in order to enhance the exploitation of scientific data by combining the most innovative aspects of French and German research in funerary archaeology. Our goal is to constitute an interdisciplinary French-German team that will be capable of intervening throughout this three-years project based on different sites of the region and that will also be able to develop collaboration with the other Turkish and foreign archaeological missions.
The case studies are the urban necropoleis of Elaia and Kyme, as well as the large tumuli of Pergamon and Kyme. A series of common methods will be applied by the main French-German team, including but not limited to:
- Remote sensing, geophysical and geoseismic survey;
- Excavation of strategic areas, chosen after the result of the surveys, in the necropoleis and among the large mounds;
- Double program of funerary anthropological studies (archaeo-thanatology and biological anthropology) and archaeometry analyses (physico-chemical and paleo-genetical) on unearthed remains;
- Concerted archaeological, epigraphic, iconographic and architectural studies;
- Global and joint archaeological and historical processing and interpretation of the achieved results.
Fieldwork and laboratory analyzes will be accompanied by an interdisciplinary practical and theoretical training program for French, German, Turkish and foreign PhD students. The collaborative work will result in annual interdisciplinary meetings. The dissemination of the results will be carried out through joint publications of the preliminary reports and monographies, an international colloquium at the end of the program and a specific website dedicated to the ANR/DFG project. The conservation and the long-term presentation of the data will be operated by the iDAI-field system.

Terrain :
- Géophysique : expérimentation des méthodes géosismiques au plus grand tumulus hellénistique de l’Asie mineure, le Yigma Tepe de Pergame et affinement des résultats par des sondages ciblés visant à comprendre les techniques de construction ; prospection extensive dans la nécropole d’Aigai.
- Prospection pédestre : reconnaissance de la topographie de la grande nécropole d’Aigai dans une optique d’archéologie du paysage sur la longue durée et mise en évidence des transformations propres à l’époque hellénistique ; inventaire systématique des structures funéraires avec élaboration d’une base de données multilingue, expérimentation dans la grande nécropole d’Aigai.
- Fouille archéothanatologique d’un tumulus d’Aigai et mise en évidence de dépôts votifs d’époque hellénistique.
Laboratoire :
- Etude anthropologique : étude paléopathologique de restes humains provenant de tombes de Pergame, Kyme et Aigai.
- Etude des assemblages funéraires : étude de mobiliers funéraires des nécropoles de Kyme et d’Aigai ; étude pluridisciplinaire de la tombe centrale du tumulus II de Pergame, d’un membre de la haute aristocratie pergaménienne du temps de la première époque de développement de la capitale hellénistique ; prise d’échantillons pour les analyses chromatographiques.
- Etudes d’architecture funéraire : fouille et restitution préliminaire d’un monument funéraire hellénistique inscrit le long de la voie funéraire principale de la nécropole d’Aigai.
- Epigraphie : découverte d’une grande inscription funéraire du monument d’une grande famille d’Aigai au IIe s. av. J.-C.
Etudes d’histoire culturelle :
- Cultures funéraires : deux journées d’études internationales à Istanbul consacrées aux recherches récentes dans les nécropoles de l’Eolide et de Pergame et aux tumulus dans le domaine égéen oriental.
Formation :
- Stages interdisciplinaires de terrain à Pergame et à Aigai avec participation d’étudiants spécialisés turcs, français, allemands et italiens.

Three field campaigns are provided on two selected sites: Pergamon (Yigma Tepe) and Aigai (northern necropolis). During the summer seasons, different groups of French and German specialists will work together on the different sites according to a similar procedure:
- Implementation of geophysical methods (magnetic, electrical and GPR in normal conditions, innovative geoseismic).
- Multidisciplinary excavation of precise areas of the tumulus and necropoleiss. The excavation will combine traditional techniques and innovative procedures for “archéothanatologie”, analu=ysis of the organic and mineral residues.
The three field campaigns will be accompanied simultaneously and during the year by a set of traditional and innovative studies:
- Combination of “archéothanatologie” and a diverse range of biological anthropology studies;
- Traditional series of classical archeological studies for ceramics and small finds and architectural structures.
- 3D reconstruction of funerary spaces in the peri-urban landscape.
- Study of the social stratification and the definition of local identities in Hellenistic Asia Minor through the specifics of the funeral culture
- Reconstruction of he place of the funerary in the organization of the ancient urban topography.

1. Monumental grave mounds and urban necropoleis. The “Archaeology of Death” in the Hellenistic period – modern methodology, social relations and local identities in Pergamon and the Aeolian cities, Istanbul, DAI, 1er novembre 2014
2. Monumental grave mounds and urban necropoleis, the «Archaeology of Death« in the Hellenistic period – A year of research Tumuli of the Aeolis, Istanbul, DAI, 7 décembre 2015
3. S. Verger et R. Pace, New researchs in the necropolis at Kyme 20th annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, 10-14 septembre 2014, Istanbul
4. S.Verger et R. Pace, The Kelebek Tepe in Aeolian Kyme. A Late Archaic Tumulus between Greeks, Lydians and Persians, 20th annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, 10-14 septembre 2014, Istanbul

The necropoleis and the great tumuli of Pergamon and the Eolian cities of Kyme and Elaia represent a priceless archaeological heritage for understanding the political, social and cultural dynamics in a key region of Hellenistic Asia Minor. They offer a wide range of sociological and historical contexts: on the one hand they provide information on every stratum of the society, from the Attalid princes and the prosperous citizens to the more modest section of the population; on the other hand, the studied area offers a large variety of political, social and cultural situations: the residential city of Pergamon, Kyme (the heart of Eolid, which long remained under the Seleucid control), and Elaia (both an Eolian city and the naval base of Pergamon).
This situation gives an ideal background to approach a series of questions that are under discussion in the scholarly milieu: 1. The structure of the society through the funerary practices and behaviors; 2. The transformation of the forms of the urban ideological representations under the influence of the Hellenistic kingship; 3. The cultural impact of the interactions between the capital of the Attalid kingdom and the autonomous poleis; 4. The transformation of local identities and the circulation of ideological models from the Hellenistic Kingdoms in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. Following the most recent research, our aim is to approach the funerary behaviors as a subtle and complex expression of the social, cultural and religious habitus that need to be tackled through new historical problematics and considered through their great diversity, both locally and regionally.
In order to renew such approaches one first has to reconsider the archaeological documentation produced since the 1880s and create a collaborative French-German program with the teams already working in this area: the German archaeological mission of Pergamon and the French archaeological mission in Eolid.
The project aims at developing a common strategy in order to enhance the exploitation of scientific data by combining the most innovative aspects of French and German research in funerary archaeology. Our goal is to constitute an interdisciplinary French-German team that will be capable of intervening throughout this three-years project based on different sites of the region and that will also be able to develop collaboration with the other Turkish and foreign archaeological missions.
The case studies are the urban necropoleis of Elaia and Kyme, as well as the large tumuli of Pergamon and Kyme. A series of common methods will be applied by the main French-German-Turkish team, including but not limited to:
- Remote sensing, geophysical and geoseismic survey;
- Excavation of strategic areas, chosen after the result of the surveys, in the necropoleis and among the large mounds;
- Double program of funerary anthropological studies (archaeo-thanatology and biological anthropology) and archaeometry analyses (physico-chemical and paleo-genetical) on unearthed remains;
- Concerted archaeological, epigraphic, iconographic and architectural studies;
- Global and joint archaeological and historical processing and interpretation of the achieved results.
Fieldwork and laboratory analyzes will be accompanied by an interdisciplinary practical and theoretical training program for French, German, Turkish and foreign PhD students. The collaborative work will result in annual interdisciplinary meetings. The dissemination of the results will be carried out through joint publications of the preliminary reports and monographies, an international colloquium at the end of the program and a specific website dedicated to the ANR/DFG project. The conservation and the long-term presentation of the data will be operated by the iDAI-field system.