Research projects

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Introduction

Hillforts are one of the most prominent types of prehistoric monument across many parts the British Isles and Ireland as well as being the most obvious legacy of the Iron Age period. Despite fieldwork and changing interpretations of these iconic sites they are still poorly understood in terms of documenting and analysing the variation in characteristics and form across regional and national boundaries.

It is likely that there are over 4000 hillforts in Ireland and Britain. Any academic or popular account of later prehistory from c. 1000 BC will include a discussion of hillforts as the dominant monument type: their forms and architecture, possible functions, relationships with their setting and archaeological surroundings. However there is no integrated system that will provide this information on these hillforts, and existing sources of information are diverse, often difficult to access, and hard to integrate to produce wider interpretations, since all previous syntheses have generally been at 'national' (i.e. Ireland, England) scales. Furthermore, most of the ways in which these sites are usually described are based on upstanding examples, but it is now essential to incorporate many ploughed-down remains, only visible as cropmarks, into understandings of these sites.

The Project

This project will create an online interactive database that will include standardised information on all hillforts in the UK and Eire and enable interrogation and analysis at a range of scales from an individual hillfort to the whole collection. The database will be linked to Google Earth/Maps so that the locations of hillforts can be seen within their landscape contexts. The information held will be a compilation of all existing sources, re-structured to provide maximum achievable consistency and the ability to search all hillforts, evaluating and comparing them on meaningful characteristics such as number and configuration of ramparts, ditches and entrances.

In addition the project will produce a paper atlas of hillforts, which will include extensive discussion on the structuring of the data, including consideration of what is and is not a hillfort and why, together with the interpretation of analyses and patterns established at the different scales and visualised through a series of maps and plans. This work will be mirrored by a critical re-assessment of the dating evidence for these sites, including isotopic and other scientific determinations, numismatic and artefactual data, and documentary sources: these monuments are used in both the first millennia BC and AD, and evaluation of the chronological range of these sites at a variety of scales will allow closer readings of patterns through time.

Hillforts are of great interest to a large range of audiences, sometimes just for their intrinsic archaeological value but often as part of wider landscape, historical and environmental interests. Further to encourage the breadth of this participation, the project will include a ‘citizen science’ element that will enable members of the public to participate in the collection of data by visiting and surveying hillforts within a guided framework.

The analysis of this set of sites across the whole of Britain and Ireland - something not previously-attempted - will generate new configurations of information on similarities and differences amongst sites that will challenge prevailing views. 

Staff Profiles

Prof Ian Ralston

Stratford Halliday

Project Website

An Atlas of Hillforts in Britain and Ireland

Professor Jim Crow's research on Constantinople's water supply systems and the 5th-century Anastasian Wall sheds new light on the Late Roman and Byzantine empires.

The western hinterland of the modern city of Istanbul contains some of the most remarkable monuments of ancient and medieval hydraulic engineering dating from the 4th to the 12th centuries AD, including lines of aqueduct channels and bridges extending for up to 492 km across the western hinterland of the city.

These surviving remains of the Water Supply System of Byzantine Constantinople constitute a largely unrecognised achievement of the newly constructed city of Constantinople founded in AD 330. Until recently fieldwork has been limited and only within the last two decades have there been serious attempts to map the complexity of the monuments and water lines. The dense forest which covers much of the northern hills of Thrace is a major factor restricting fieldwork and survey, yet at the same time the woodland ensures the preservation of much of the system.

Our research project concerned with the archaeology of the western hinterland of Constantinople directed by Professor Jim Crow began in 1994 and has been able to document and map the major structures of the water supply system in greater detail and to consider these in relation to the topography and history of the Byzantine city. The results of these detailed surveys and analysis were published as a monograph in 2008 (Crow, Bayliss and Bardill, 2008).

Recent studies

From 2006 in collaboration with Professor Derya Maktav of Istanbul Technical University utilising remote sensing and satellite imagery for the study of the Water Supply System, this project was funded by TUBITAK (Turkish Science Research Council) and The British Academy, 2007 - 2009 and has resulted in further publications (see below) and provided us with a far greater cartographic resolution and understanding for the location and the hydrological context of the system. The project has been facilitated by the British Institute at Ankara.

These recent studies of the water supply system have been able to identify the major spring sources, to map the line of the water supply channels and to record and locate over sixty bridges which are a key component of the system. Within the city the clearest representation of this great system is the Bozdogan Kemeri, a fourth-century aqueduct bridge nearly one kilometre in length, together with over 160 cisterns ranging in size from the open air cistern of Asper to the covered Basilica Cistern and the scores of smaller cisterns throughout the old city. These elements of the water supply within the city have been recognized since the sixteenth century but we have been able to document the system within and outside the city’s walls, together with a historical discussion and a collection of historic sources.

A fuller understanding of how the hydraulic system has evolved has made a significant contribution towards a fuller urban history of the late antique and medieval city and provides a rebuff to the commonly held view of late Roman and Byzantine decline, and an important link with the resurgence of the Ottoman capital after 1453. Fieldwork has also included the first detailed survey of the Anastasian Wall and we are currently working on the publication of this project.

Project website

Prof Jim Crow's staff profile

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This Leverhulme Trust-funded project (2021-24) aims to fundamentally transform our understanding of Rome’s impact on northern Britain. The project is the result of a collaboration between Dr Manuel Fernández-Götz (Principal Investigator, University of Edinburgh), Professor Derek Hamilton (Co-Investigator, University of Glasgow-SUERC), and Dr Dave Cowley (Historic Environment Scotland), and is carried out with the support of two PDRAs (Ian Hardwick, Edinburgh, and Sophie McDonald, Glasgow).

Cultural encounters at the edges of imperial powers represent a key topic for numerous disciplines, including history, anthropology, classics, and archaeology. The Roman Empire represents a particularly interesting case study for analysing the multifaceted outcomes of these encounters, especially in its frontier regions. Northern Britain is a prime example, since for hundreds of years it was a fluctuating frontier area with alternating episodes of warfare and collaboration, exchange and confrontation. The remains from this period are most spectacularly materialised in the two great walls of the North, Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall, but also evident in the network of Roman roads and military camps, as well as native farmsteads and hillforts spread across the landscapes of northern England and Scotland. However, the impact of Rome on indigenous Iron Age populations remains a matter of intense debate.

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In order to contextualise the Roman influence, “Beyond Walls” will analyse the transformation of settlement patterns and lifestyles in an area extending from c. 40 km south of Hadrian’s Wall to 40 km north of the Antonine Wall. The project will adopt a long-term perspective from 500 BC to AD 500 to facilitate the study of changes and continuities before, during, and after the period of direct Roman presence in the region. Adopting an interdisciplinary and multi-scalar approach, the project will focus on rationalising existing survey and excavation data, generating new information through remote sensing and palaeoenvironmental research, and undertaking an ambitious programme of radiocarbon dating and modelling in order to refine existing chronological frameworks. This combined strategy will produce more robust and nuanced narratives about Roman and indigenous interactions, and also contribute to the wider subject of cultural encounters on the edges of empires, both past and present.

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Dr Manuel Fernández-Götz's staff profile

Dr Dave Cowley's staff profile

Professor Derek Hamilton's staff profile

Ian Hardwick

Sophie McDonald

Dr Ulf-Dietrich Schoop's excavations reveal a fascinating picture of a prehistoric village which, despite its remoteness in the forested Anatolian plateau, traded extensively across the region and eastwards to the Persian Gulf and India.

Boğazköy is well known for the spectacular remains of the ancient city of Hattuša, the capital of the second millennium BC Hittite empire. Much less is known about the prehistory of this area, a time when this now mostly treeless part of Turkey was covered by dense forest. The village of Çamlıbel Tarlası is a small prehistoric settlement close to the Hittite metropolis, situated on a low plateau within a narrow valley branching off from the main plain. The site is radiocarbon dated to ca. 3590-3470BC. The reason for human interest in this location is a nearby deposit of copper ore. Lumps of ore were taken to the settlement where they were reduced to metallic copper in small bowl furnaces. Slag remains and fragments of clay crucibles also testify to metallurgical activities there.

The houses found within the settlement are of large size, mostly exceeding 7 metres in length. Underneath their floors a large number of graves have come to light. Several of the skeletons therein show signs of body modification: their skulls were distorted into an elongated shape at a young age. In the economy, pigs played an important part - an animal very well suited to a forest economy.

A trade crossroads

Despite its small size and the remoteness of its location, Çamlıbel Tarlası enjoyed good relations with distant neighbours. Flint blades from exotic sources reached the settlement as well as marine shells from the Black Sea or the Mediterranean. Obsidian was obtained from sources in Cappadocia to the south. A casting mould for the manufacture of ring-shaped figurines (a type of female statuette common in the southern Balkans) was found in the ruins of a possibly ritual building. A large number of minute enstatite beads (an artificial soapstone produced from natural talc at high temperatures) connect Çamlıbel Tarlası with eastern practices which extended from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Peninsula.

In summary, Çamlıbel Tarlası has produced a rich picture of prehistoric village life in this remote and forested landscape of which little was known previous to our research.

Work at Çamlıbel Tarlası is jointly undertaken by the Boğazköy expedition of the German Archaeological Institute and the University of Edinburgh. Actual excavation work was concluded in 2009 but ongoing analysis of the finds continues to produce new information. A number of preliminary reports (partly in English) have appeared in the journal Archäologischer Anzeiger. 

Dr Ulf-Dietrich Schoop's profile page

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Mud in Roman Architecture

Mud is not a material usually associated with Roman architecture. However, soil and turf (collectively ‘earthen’ materials) were widely used in unit-based (mudbrick and turf) and mass walls (rammed earth and cob) throughout the pre-Roman and Roman Mediterranean. These were cheap, easily available, and versatile materials, which over time were also adopted across the north-western provinces. Here they became a mainstay of military construction, as most dramatically demonstrated by the Antonine Wall in Scotland, possibly Rome’s largest earthen structure.

Despite their ubiquity, earthen building materials have been somewhat neglected in studies of Roman architecture, which have concentrated on a narrow range of structures and materials regarded as typically ‘Roman’ - brick, concrete, and marble most notably. Earthen materials were minimally processed, locally sourced, and often hard to identify archaeologically; the structures built in them are often also reflective of everyday pre-Roman construction practices and traditions.

The scholarly neglect of Roman earthen materials contrasts sharply with the recent revival of earth in modern architecture. Environmentally friendly and sustainable, architects and engineers take these materials seriously once more, even if the potential of turf remains largely underexplored. The field of engineering, in particular, now consciously engages with historic examples of earthen construction, which provide a crucial dataset, otherwise unavailable, for re-examining the long-term performance of these materials. Roman material remains entirely untapped from this perspective.

New light on old buildings

This interdisciplinary project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2018-223), was designed to shed new light on the use and properties of earthen buildings in the Roman North. Drawing together the expertise of archaeologists, architects, engineers and soil scientists, it focused on a series of case study sites, military and non-military. These included the Antonine Wall, Vindolanda, High Rochester, Carlisle, London, Richborough, and Valkenburg in the Netherlands. At each of these sites macro-scale analysis of the extant earthen architecture, including new excavation of it, was combined with microscopic analysis. These resulting datasets allow us to write a more complex, less selective, history of architecture in the Roman North, one that listens to vernacular voices while contributing to debates about how sustainable building today can responsibly use soil-based materials. 

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The Project Team

The Earthen Empire project was a collaboration between the School of History, Classics and Archaeology and the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. The Principal Investigator was Professor Ben Russell (Classics), the Co-Investigator Dr Chris Beckett (Engineering). Dr Tanja Romankiewicz (Archaeology) was a Research Associate on the project between 2018 and 2021, and has continued to collaborate with the project team since 2021. Dr Riley Snyder (Engineering) was a Research Associate on the project between 2018 and 2022. Dr Rose Ferraby was a Research Associate in 2021. Benedicta Yi Xin Lin (Engineering) is the PhD student on the project, working on the mechanics of turf.

We have collaborated with a range of colleagues at various organisations and sites. Dr Tom Gardner (Historic Environment Scotland) performed all of the micromorphology on the project, using thin sections prepared by Dr Sabrina Save (TerraScope). We worked closely with Daniël Postma (Archaeo Build) on the practicalities of turf construction. We are grateful to our various collaborators: Dr Andy Birley at the Vindolanda Trust, Dr Geoff Bailey at the Falkirk Local History Society, Dr Tony Wilmott at Historic England, Dr Louise Fowler at MOLA, Dr Richard Carlton at The Archaeological Practice Ltd,  Dr Wouter Vos at Vos Archeo, and Drs Frank Gieco and Matthew Hobson at Wardell Armstrong.

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Astride one of Istanbul’s main boulevards, like a comb parting the constant lines of traffic, the multi-arched aqueduct of Valens or Bozdoğan Kemer is amongst the longest Roman aqueduct bridges known from antiquity, only 29 m short of a full kilometre in length. This bridge was the vital link enabling water to flow throughout the new city of Constantinople and terminated at the huge underground cistern of a Thousand and One-columns (Binbirdirek); one of at least 160 cisterns known from the Byzantine city.

Previous research

Our research on the Water Supply System of Byzantine Constantinople, completed nearly a decade ago and supported by the Leverhulme Trust and the British Institute at Ankara, was able to estimate that the trunk network of water channels constructed to sustain the new city was over 450 km in length, sourced from springs in the hills west of the city, and constructed over less than century; comparable in scale to the 11 aqueducts supplying ancient Rome.

The project

The new project funded by the Leverhulme Trust will build on the archaeological research led by Prof James Crow, but drawing on the expertise of Drs Martin Crapper and Simon Smith at the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. It provides an exciting opportunity to focus a new interdisciplinary approach for the study of this exceptional system.

Building on previous studies we aim to focus on two interrelated themes:

1. Using network modelling software we aim to model gravity flow water systems within area of the old city and conduct a series of simulations representing the water system through its various evolutions through history. Application of these models will then enable a significant step-change in understanding the functioning of this significant ancient hydraulic system and present a range of scenarios which can present new insights and questions into the urban topography and the life of the Byzantine and Ottoman city.
2. Modelling the Infrastructure will examine the construction and project management issues of the ancient water system, including the procurement of materials, manpower and skills, as well as transport to site, organization and funding. For this we will apply a number of approaches designed for contemporary mega projects such as discrete-event simulation regression modelling and artificial neural networks to help determine the set of possible approaches that were required to undertake the exceptional scale of organized work necessary to deliver the water systems of Constantinople.

Project aims

The two themes will inform wider questions concerning the topography, infrastructure and organisation of the late antique and Byzantine city itself and how this evolved over nearly a millennium. Additionally we hope that this evidence can serve as a proxy to estimate the overall ‘cost’ of the massive building programme and its maintenance for the late Roman and Byzantine state.

The project team

Professor Jim Crow, Archaeology, School of History, Classics and Archaeology

Dr Riley Snyder, Research Associate, School of History, Classics and Archaeology

Dr Martin Crapper and Dr Simon Smith, Institute of Infrastructure and Environment, School of Engineering

Kate Ward and Francesca Ruggeri, PHD students, Engineering

This work has been carried out principally in association with Dr Olivier Buchsenschutz (CNRS, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris), and with the town’s Archaeological Service (latterly the Service archéologique de Bourges-Plus), in particular in collaboration with Mme Laurence Augier and its Director, M Jacques Troadec. Further elements of this project have been undertaken with others, notably Dr Pierre-Yves Milcent of the University of Toulouse 2.

Two volumes of results have been published to date (Buchsenschutz & Ralston 2002; Augier, Buchsenschutz & Ralston 2008) and a third, along with other publications, is in progress. Bourges was also the location of the Association française pour l’Etude de l’Age du Fer annual conference in 2008, and work on the site figured prominently in the volume resulting from that meeting.

Evidence for a 'princely seat'

The promontory occupied by the modern core of Bourges, set around its magnificent cathedral, has long been known as the location of the principal oppidum of the Bituriges cubi; it was successfully assaulted by Julius Caesar at the end of the Gallic War in 52 BC. The excavations considered here however rather focus on evidence for a more precocious phase in the site’s history in the decades around 500 BC, at the transition from the Late Hallstatt to Early la Tène periods.

For this phase, accumulating evidence suggests the existence of elements of a ‘princely seat’ (Fürstensitz) surviving at depth in the core of the site, coupled with a landscape dominated by funerary monuments, evidence for agriculture and, notably, extensive spreads of semi-sunken workshops, in its periphery. The indications are that the ‘footprint’ of Bourges-Avaricum in the fifth century BC may have extended, for two or three generations, to several hundred hectares, although much was not densely settled; it contracted severely thereafter.

Review of 'Un complexe princier de l’age du Fer, L’habitat du promontoire de Bourges'

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The island of Naxos has a rich Byzantine heritage, including the major fortified settlement of Apalirou Kastro in the south of the island. Following five seasons of fieldwork and survey in the environs of the kastro in a collaborative project with Newcastle University, Oslo University, the Norwegian Institute in Athens and the Ephoria for the Cyclades we have received permission from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture to start an excavation programme of selected areas of the lower settlement in the shadow of the Byzantine fortress.

More on Byzantine Naxos

The collaborative project with the British School at Athens and the Ephoria for the Cyclades and will be directed by Prof Jim Crow and Dr Mark Jackson of Newcastle University, with financial support from the A. G. Leventis Foundation. Fieldwork was delayed by the Covid pandemic, however we aim to start the investigation of an exceptional rural Byzantine settlement in 2022. For previous research see 'Naxos and the Byzantine Aegean: Insular responses to regional change' below.

Naxos and the Byzantine Aegean

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It aims to develop new, data-rich approaches to heritage research and practice that inform real-world interventions with social purpose. The team work with academic and non-academic partners internationally to examine how encounters with the past shape contemporary values, decision-making and future-thinking in an increasingly digital world. We have a strong focus on critically assessing the impact of digital technologies on the processes and outcomes of heritage research and curation.

Find out more on the Heritage Minds Lab website below.

Heritage Minds Lab

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A team of researchers led by Dr Tanja Romankiewicz, Chancellor’s Fellow in Archaeology, are investigating the sustainability of turf as a building material, past, presence and future.

Turf as a building material

Turf has been used in northern climates for thousands of years to build houses, field walls, shelters and defences. In Scotland, turf structures have been recognised as UNESCO World Heritage, from the humble Cleits of St Kilda to the Roman rampart of the Antonine Wall. But how sustainable was the use of turf – and can it offer a zero-carbon alternative for natural building in the future?

Led by Dr Tanja Romankiewicz, Chancellor’s Fellow in Archaeology and Research Affiliate with the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI), her new project GRASSROOTS explores three pilot strands. The aim is to prepare the ground for further large-scale research and to enable local communities to use turf for their own sustainable building projects.

Building a turf wall enclosure

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Thanks to a Knowledge Exchange and Impact grant from the University’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, staff of an eco-farm near Crieff, and locals interested in natural building created a turf-walled enclosure, learning about modern and ancient turf building – by doing it themselves – trained by professional turf builder Daniel Postma of Archaeo Build. The circular enclosure is a modern design, but based on Dr Romankiewicz’s prehistoric roundhouse research and modelled on an excavated roundhouse nearby.

Assessing the sustainability of turf building

Dr Romankiewicz’s research has shown that turf building had been embedded in prehistoric agricultural cycles, from cutting to building, decaying, composting and regrowing. A project grant from the Edinburgh Futures Institute is now supporting her and newly appointed Research Assistant Hannah Genders Boyd in piloting the assessment of this Turf Building Life Cycle – from cradle [growth] to grave [composting] and rebirth [regrowth]. One part also explores the potential of building with turf in a modern context for increasing biodiversity, carbon capture, and Natural and Cultural Capital.

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GRASSROOTS and their partners have also undertaken various ecological and biodiversity surveys and are now monitoring the impact of their turf cutting and construction work over time. Thanks to a Research Initiative Grant from the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, this can now be further advanced by various geochemical analyses that assess the amount of carbon stored and released by the turf enclosure and the cutting area. This area from which the turf was cut will also be reseeded with a variety of plants and fertilisers, to monitor how quickly vegetation can be re-established, and how much carbon can be sequestered – to ultimately calculate the carbon net-balance of turf cutting. By modelling prehistoric and modern practices, GRASSROOTS aims to answer how sustainable building with turf was in the past to inform us on how sustainable it can be in the future – as a renewable building material that has the potential to be net-zero!

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Roman turfs as environmental archives

Building in turf might not only offer a step towards UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals – ancient turf blocks also preserve a part of the past environment from which they were cut. To investigate such 'turf archives', Dr Romankiewicz has teamed up with Dr Ben Russell in Classics, the Vindolanda Trust and analytical scientists from Teesside University to learn more about the Roman environment around Vindolanda – by dissecting its Roman turf ramparts. This developed from Dr Romankiewicz’s and Dr Russell’s work in his Leverhulme-funded Earthen Empire project, where they investigated the architectural properties of Roman turf building with a team of geotechnical engineers.  Romankiewicz’s new analytical work at Vindolanda has now received funding from the British Academy Small Research Grants scheme.

Dr Tanja Romankiewicz's staff profile

Dr Ben Russell's staff profile

Dr Christopher Beckett (geotechnical engineer)

Dr James Riley-Synder (geotechnical engineer)

This project which is led by the British Institute in Ankara brings archaeologists, historians, engineers and social scientists together to investigate the water management infrastructure of Istanbul at two key phases in the city’s life: the transition from Byzantine to Ottoman rule and the period of population explosion beginning circa 1980. Since foundation, Istanbul has ‘thirsted for water’ – a problem that ruling authorities have wrestled with through time and that contemporary engineers, policy-makers and urban planners are still attempting to address in the context of continuing population growth and rapid climate change. Focusing on the Topkapi area, which presented particular challenges due to its elevation, archaeological fieldwork and archival research will provide data for hydraulic engineers to model the Ottoman water management system. In parallel, engineers and social scientists will work with the city’s water management experts, policymakers and other local stakeholders to better-understand current needs and explore how past practices can inform solutions to contemporary water-related challenges. Without the active engagement of social scientists and urban planners, and the collaboration of wider stakeholders, it would be impossible to understand contemporary needs and how past solutions might inform future responses.

While this project is a new initiative, it builds on Prof. Crow and Prof Crapper’s work on the Byzantine hydraulic system, which was revitalised and incorporated into the Ottoman infrastructure (see 'Engineering the Byzantine water supply: procurement, construction and operation'). This adaptation of the city’s Byzantine water management infrastructure remains unstudied, however there were particular challenges – especially bringing large quantities of water to the high ground of the new Topkapi palace without modern technology – that would have been significant. How the system functioned is unclear, and  clarification can only be realised through targeted archaeological fieldwork in the preserved infrastructure around and underneath Topkapi palace.

The project is led by Dr Lut Vanderput, director of the BIAA, Prof. Jim Crow is co-investigator with Prof. Martin Crapper, Northumbria University, and other collaborators are Dr Cigdem Ozkan Aygun, Istanbul Technical University, and Dr Ender Peker, BIAA. The two year project commenced in April 2021 and the first workshop was held on 1 October at the Netherlands Consulate in Istanbul. Over forty policymakers and water managers from the city attended  the meeting and were shown the consulate’s new water conservation and rain-water harvesting initiative.

As part of the programme  Dr Cigdem Ozkan Aygun  presented a lecture on her research,​ 'Subterranean Hagia Sophia: Revealing the waters below Hagia Sophia'.

Watch a recording

‘Water in Istanbul: Rising to the challenge?’ received British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Funding in 2021. For more information please see the link below. 

More information on the project