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The project

The Isparta Archaeological Survey (IAS) is an interdisciplinary research collaboration that focuses on the territory of northwestern Pisidia (South-West Turkey). In 2008 we began to investigate the area around the modern district of Gönen (24 km north of Isparta) where ancient Konane (Roman Conana) was situated. The immediate purpose of fieldwork in the area of Gönen was to document the surroundings and physical transformations of the ancient town of Konane – a Pisidian community whose historical and archaeological record remain largely undocumented – with a view to situating our findings within the larger context of the complex landscape of northern Pisidia.

The collaboration includes members of the Department of Archaeology at Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi (Isparta, Turkey), members of the Department of Classics at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey), members of the Department of Classics at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio), and members of the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, (Berlin, Germany).

To this end, in 2009 the IAS was devised with a three-tiered format: (I) an archaeological survey of the surrounding area of Gönen, (II) an architectural and topographical mapping of the fortress on Kale Tepe, and (III) an epigraphical and architectural survey of the town of Gönen and some nearby villages that operated in close tandem with the archaeological team.