Sinop Landscapes: Towards an Archaeology of Community in the Hinterland of a Black Sea Port

Abstract

Abstract This paper discusses the evidence for economic and community integration on the Sinop promontory from the early first millennium BC through the middle of the first millennium AD based on the results of the Sinop Regional Archaeological Project. Results suggest that settlement and economy on the Sinop promontory were strongly affected by the broader condition of the Black Sea economy. Contrary to the sudden appearance of colonial sites dispersed over a relatively extensive territory seen in other important Pontic colonies (e.g. Olbia), evidence from Sinop suggests several centuries of disengagement followed by a progressive engagement between Greek and non-Greek communities following the extension of Persian influence in the eastern Pontus in the early fourth century. Infrastructural improvements under early Roman administration may not have been followed immediately by economic expansion, which seems to have taken off after the establishment of Constantinople.