Trade in Byzantium to be discussed at symposium

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The exhibitions ‘Stories from the Hidden Harbor: Shipwrecks of Yenikapı’ and ‘Artamonoff: Picturing Byzantine Istanbul, 1930-1947’ will be on display as part of the symposium.

The Third International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium, organized by the Vehbi Koç Foundation and Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC), is set to begin today at the RCAC building in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu neighborhood. The symposium is held in memory of the late Sevgi Gönül, who helped further scientific research on the Byzantine period in Turkey and contributed greatly to the society-wide enhancement of the awareness of Byzantine cultural heritage.

This year’s theme for the symposium, which has been held every three years since 2007, is “Trade in Byzantium.” The four-day-long symposium will host 14 sessions, during which a total of 34 papers will be presented, focusing on up-to-date findings and documents on trade in the Byzantine world in the light of recent archaeological discoveries and new readings of written sources. The symposium aims to further the research work on the Byzantine period and help educate a new generation of young Byzantine researchers, and is open to everyone interested in the topic.

Two exhibitions

As part of the symposium, two exhibitions will open their doors to enthusiasts of art and history: “Stories from the Hidden Harbor: Shipwrecks of Yenikapı” at the Istanbul Archeological Museums; and “Artamonoff: Picturing Byzantine Istanbul, 1930-1947” at the RCAC.

“Stories from the Hidden Harbor: Shipwrecks of Yenikapı,” in which the shipwrecks discovered at Yenikapı will be exhibited, will be open until the end of the year; and “Artamonoff: Picturing Byzantine Istanbul” exhibition, in which historical buildings from the Byzantine period can be seen, will be open until Oct. 6.

One of the world’s most remarkable excavations has been conducted at Yenikapı, at the harbor built by Emperor Theodosius. With the shipwreck found in May 2013, the number of shipwrecks in the collection has reached 37; its transportation problems earned the city this collection, as well as other finds dating to the 5th and 11th centuries.

Catalogues for both exhibitions in which the subject matters are studied in further depth, as well as a book featuring the proceedings of the “Second Sevgi Gönül International Symposium of Byzantine Studies” held in 2010, will be published in time for the symposium.