Here's an interesting LINK to a paper which Mr. Gantos has co-authored.
Bill Simons asks -
"And just what are those white balls on top of that hill in Turkey, anyway???"
To: bsimons@pics.com
From: "Alex J. Gantos" <agantos@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Sinop
Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 04:40:57 +0000Dear Mr. Simons,
It was with great pleasure that I read your Sinop Homepage, with the wonderful personal memories and photographs from the early years of American involvement in that remote area. I knew that many US servicemen were stationed at the Diogenes Station, but didn't realize that many of you keep in touch - and now via Internet it is even more accessible for others to, however indirectly, relive those wild days on "The Hill".
I too have a personal interest in Sinop. I am an American archaeologist based at Tufts University in Medford, MA who, together with three friends and colleagues, began to conduct archaeological research around Sinop town and province two years ago and we plan to continue for some time into the future. Inshallah! Our initial interest was to study the port-hinterland relationships between Sinop (ancient Greek Sinope) and the greater Black Sea area, and also issues of trade with Greece and Rome.We four "land archaeologists" are working in collaboration with Dr. Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the Institute For Exploration to to investigate the coastal continental shelf and deep-sea potential for preserved coastal settlements (presently underwater) and shipwrecks. We have presented the preliminary results of two field seasons (July/August 1996 and 1997) at major conferences in the US and in Turkey and are presently applying for funding to continue our work in that rich area. If all goes well, we will conduct a third season of systematic
surface survey for evidence of human presence in the landscape in all periods as well as begin a shallow-water side-scan sonar survey of the sea floor to a maximum depth of about 100 meters. Hopefully we will also be able to include the use of a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to visually document interesting-looking anomalies. If all goes well, we intend to begin excavations on land at a site near the town and also to begin deep-water (in the anaerobic depths) searches for preserved merchant and war vessels in the years following.
I was particularly struck by one photograph of yours: the ruins of a "Byzantine" church. On my first visit to Sinop in December of 1995 I had the opportunity to tour the base (now under Turkish command) and was shown the location of that church, but unfortunately all traces of it have completely vanished. Your photographs may be the only surviving visual documentation of that very large structure in what must have been the premier location on the peninsula. Would you be interested in checking your collection for other photos of archaeological interest and perhaps describing your memories of the things you have seen? I would very much like to correspond with you and others that were stationed in Sinop to get their impressions of the culture and landscape in those pre-modern times. In many ways it is still pre-modern in Sinop Province. The farmers remain in a pre-mechanized state, plowing with steel tipped wooden plows and hauling their product out of the fields of two-wheeled carts pulled by oxen or water buffalo. Yet they are friendly and often speak warmly about the Americans from the base. In some mountain villages they tell us tales of soldiers coming up to hunt wild boar. It must have been quite an experience for both cultures!
I am attaching a .JPG image of Sinop from space: "http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/images/STS059/L19-M.jpg" along with its data sheet: "http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/images/STS059/L19-M.html".
These are from NASA's "Earth From Space" webpage. You will see that the image of Sinop promontory is significantly closer and more detailed than the image on your page, so I hope you like it.Best wishes,
Alex J. Gantos
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Alex J. Gantos
5 Corinne Road
Brighton, MA 02135
Tel: 617-782-1894
Fax: 617-783-8286
E-mail: "agantos@worldnet.att.net" or "sinop@ada.net.tr Re: A.Gantos".
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Click HERE for a cropped version of the Sinop from space picture mentioned above
** * * * * * * * ** * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Bill replied:
Hello Alex,
Thank you very much for the letter and the picture of the Sinop area from space. It is an excellent shot. I will add it to the page as well as your letter if you don't mind.
As far as I knew, the remains of the "Byzantine chapel" were still present on the site. The ground around those ruins was filled with broken bits of red pottery. The chaplain held a sunrise service at that spot on Easter morning of 1960. It was very inspiring and beautiful to watch the sun come up from that location.
I'm sure other people have pictures of that ruin as well.
There is a picture of that chapel along with several other shots of the base as it was in 1960 on Mike Doran's ASA Web site at "http://www.npoint.net/maddog/bs01.htm", in case you haven't come across that page yet on the Internet.
I'll be most pleased to send along any other photos that I think may be of interest to you and help out in any way at all. My major at Penn ( 1954-58) was Earth Science so I find your archeological/geological/oceanographic investigations most interesting.
Bill Simons / 155 Newbolds Corner Road / Southampton, NJ / 08088-8807* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
