Ancient Turkey.

• Position: Book review

Ancient Turkey. By Antonio SAGONA and PAUL ZI-MANSKY. Routledge World Archaelogy. London: ROUTLEDGE, 2009. Pp. xii + 420, illus. $44.95 (paper).

Archaeologically, the Republic of Turkey is currently among the most actively researched areas of the Near East, yet an up-do-date textbook covering the entire span of its pre-Hellenic cultures has for some years remained a desideratum. This need has now been met by the work under review from the pens of Antonio Sagona and Paul Zimansky, the former covering the Palaeolithic through the Early Bronze Ages, while the latter summarizes the Middle Bronze Age and the Iron Age up to the Persian conquest of Asia Minor.

Particular sites are well chosen for detailed discussion in order to illustrate the material culture of various periods, for example Qua) Hoyuk for the Late Neolithic-Early Chalcolithic (pp. 85-97), Kultepe for the Middle Bronze Age (pp. 227-40), and Bogazkoy for the Late Bronze (pp. 266-73). Naturally the authors are particularly informative about their areas of specialization: Sagano for the eastern reaches of Anatolia (pp. 163-68. 187-91) and Zimansky for the kingdom of Biainili, or Urartu (chapter 9. pp. 316-47). Other particularly valuable sections deal with the prehistoric trade in obsidian (pp. 69-74), the history of Hittite studies (pp. 253-59), and the issues raised by the recent re-dating of the Iron Age levels at Gordion (pp. 353-62).

On the other hand, this reviewer has noted a number of lapses: Sagona's rather wild speculations concerning shamanism, "phosphenes," and the neuropsychological underpinnings of Palaeolithic art (pp. 33-35, cf. p. 63) are unconvincing. In his chart of Hittite rulers (p...