Life in ancient Pergamon presented to int’l archaeological community

The results of a project on life in the ancient city of Pergamon (today's Bergama), which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, 1,800 years ago have been presented to the international archaeological community through the New York University Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW).

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, German Archeology Institute Director Professor Felix Pirson said the project they carried out in Bergama with the permission of the Culture and Tourism Ministry was named after "Galen," a famous Greek medical doctor, scientist and philosopher from Pergamon who lived 1,800 years ago.

Stating that they investigated the details of life in the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. and benefited from Galen's writings and excavation results, Pirson said that they studied the relationship between the city center and the countryside, trade, food and water supply in Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Explaining that they announced the results to the world with a presentation at ISAW, Pirson said, "How did the people living at that time eat, and where did food and water come from? These questions are still valid today for big cities such as Ankara, Istanbul and İzmir. We studied the relationship between Pergamon and its surroundings. It is thought that 180,000 people lived in that area. We compared the information we got from Galen with the results of our archaeological excavations. We realized that Pergamon center was small in terms of providing resources to this population. We think that foods such as cheese and honey were produced by farmers in other regions and taken to the center."

Noting that the resource problems of the past and the present are similar, Pirson said, "The scope of archeology is not just to reveal...