Understanding Archaeology and Architecture through Archival Records: The Restoration Project of the Ottoman Fortress of Seddülbahir on the Gallipoli Peninsula of Turkey

Abstract

The Ottoman fortress of Seddülbahir on the European shores of the Dardanelles and Kumkale, its sister fortress on the opposite side of the Straits, were both built in 1658 by Hadice Turhan Sultan, the queen mother or valide sultan of Sultan Mehmed IV. The Seddülbahir restoration project illustrates that the type of information that can be extracted from the Ottoman building and repair records is invaluable for guiding decisions concerning potential excavation sites. Along with the non-invasive techniques that are increasingly a part of pre-excavation archaeological planning, a thorough investigation of the extant physical remains, and the visual records provided in engravings and other representational sources, an examination of the building and repair records in the Ottoman archives should be standard methodological practice for any Ottoman era archaeological or restoration project.

Dendrochronology and archival texts: Dating the Ottoman fortress of Seddülbahir on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey*

“…The queen mother's fortress at Seddülbahir, along with its sister fortress Kumkale on the opposite Asian shore, were intended to serve as part of a network of fortifications erected along the Dardanelles to protect the strategic Ottoman‐controlled sea passage leading from the Aegean to the Marmara Sea and the capital of Istanbul (Thys‐Şenocak et al . ).…”

“…The Ottoman archives have records of repairs and renovations that have been made to different sections of the fortress in the 18th and 19th centuries, but the exact locations for repairs are not always provided in the documents, so it is not possible to correlate all the specific areas described in these archival sources with what remains on site (Thys‐Şenocak et al . ). The fortress was also continually adapted to developments in military technology, and many renovations, such as elevating the walls, or adding crenellations, were made over the centuries to improve the defensive and offensive capabilities of Seddülbahir (Özsavaşcı et al .…”