THE SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

NATIONAL AND NORTHERN BRANCH

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Information about the AGMs will be sent in a separate email

N.B. The AGMs will take about 30 minutes

 

THE AGMs WILL BE FOLLOWED BY OUR MONTHLY TALK ON 04 MAY 2023

 

REPORT BACK ON THE 2022 SA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY TOUR: THE ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURE OF HITTITE ANATOLIA, TÜRKIYE’S BLACK SEA REGION AND THE REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA

By Reinoud Boers

 

Date: Thursday, 04 May 2023

Time: 19:00 for the AGMs, the talk will start at about 19:30

 

Venue: The auditorium, Roedean School, 35 Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown

You will need to show your driver’s licence to gain access to the school grounds.

Charge: Non-members: R50, members: free

Following a two-year Covid-19 enforced postponement, 17 members of the South African Archaeological Society in June 2022 visited a region bedecked by 4 500 years of archaeology and history. From Türkiye’s capital of Ankara, we travelled to the

archaeological highlights of ancient Hittite and Phrygian Kingdoms and the wild and beautiful Black Sea region steeped in history and culture before crossing into the scenically spectacular Republic of Georgia in the Caucasus. The tour covered a

fascinating mix of magnificent archaeological sites and museums, historic religious sites, ancient cultures and great scenery. Reinoud, who organised and led the tour, will describe the Anatolian archaeological sites of Gordion, the political and cultural capital of the Phrygians; Kalehöyük that hosted four main cultural periods; the Iron Age site of Pteria; pre-Hittite Hattuşa where a cuneiform royal archive of 30 000 clay tablets was discovered; the Hittite sanctuary of Yazilikaya; and Şapinuva, another centre of Hittite civilisation. Also discussed will be visits to the remains of the Medieval Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, the superb scenery in the once Georgian Çoruh Valley, lovely old towns, and churches and monasteries often dating back to the 4th century AD like the Sumela Monastery. Another aspect of the talk will be the seven days spent in Georgia: the sub-tropical Black Sea region; medieval Svaneti mountain villages in the high Caucasus region with their defensive ‘khoski’ stone towers; ancient Eastern Orthodox churches and monasteries; and archaeological and cultural heritage as seen at the Vani multi-layered archaeological site dating to the ancient Colchis Kingdom and the thousands-of-years-old Uplistikhe Cave. Russia’s influence on the country as Georgia’s previous master will feature, as will the delightful capital, Tbilisi.

 

Reinoud served on the committee of the Northern Branch of the South African Archaeological Society for over 20 years, six of them as chairman. He also served as vice-president of the Society from 2012 to 2014. After starting his career in journalism with The

Rand Daily Mail and the Sunday Times Business Times, and in public relations, he developed a start-up company providing educational tours for black schools – a first in 1970 – into South Africa’s third largest tour operator and travel wholesaler. The last 20

years of his formal career he spent as manager international liaison at the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, heading up a variety of projects. Since retirement he has continued his life-long involvement in professional editing, co-owns Cape to Cairo Books operating at Origins Bookshop at Wits University, as well as ArchFox Books in association with ArchSoc. But of top interest is researching, organising and leading ArchSoc’s international tours. Since 2005, he has arranged 16 tours to countries such as Iran; southern and eastern Turkey; Peru and Bolivia; China’s Sichuan and Gansu provinces; Tibet and China’s Xinxiang province; St Petersburg, the Balkan States and Poland; and, in Africa, both northern and southern Ethiopia, Mali and Benin and Togo. This year’s tour will visit Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.