Ordinary Lydians at Home

Andrew Ramage, Nancy H. Ramage, R. Gul Gurtekin-Demir

"This much-anticipated publication of two major Lydian excavation sectors at Sardis is the first in-depth presentation of the pottery and other artifacts found in the houses of the inhabitants of this legendary city. It traces continuous occupation outside the city walls from the Late Bronze Age to the middle of the sixth century B.C., when the Persians under Cyrus the Great captured the capital city of King Croesus. This book presents a remarkable synthesis of a vast quantity of everyday material into a vivid picture of daily life in early Sardis in the period when the Lydians were conquering most of western Turkey. The authors describe many small structures and a wealth of artifacts that collectively document the lives of ordinary Lydians. Because Sardis maintained cultural and economic contacts throughout the eastern Mediterranean, scholars working in Greece, Anatolia, and the Near...