For 20 years, the Sagalassos project has been part of life in Ağlasun, an agricultural town of about 5,000 people located about 100km north of Antalya. As we begin our third decade, we are starting a new project to improve the connections between the site and the local community. The Sagalassos Community Archaeology Project will help improve local awareness of the site among residents of Ağlasun, and will enlist community members – especially young people – as partners in site stewardship. It also aims to help promote Ağlasun and Sagalassos as a destination for alternative tourism, thereby ensuring that the local community benefits economically from the presence of the site and its many visitors.

Community Interviews

During the 2009 campaign, the Sagalassos Community Archaeology project began by doing a series of interviews with individuals and families in Ağlasun, to determine local knowledge of the site and attitudes toward archaeology. While almost everyone in Ağlasun has been to Sagalassos, most still said that they knew very little about archaeology. However, interview participants expressed a desire to learn more about the site, through publications, guided tours, or on-site informational material.  Respondents also mentioned that they were in interested in opportunities to earn money through handicraft sales, employment with the project, and other tourism jobs.

Educational Tours and Visitor Surveys

Sagalassos is a large, complex site that can be difficult for non-experts to fully appreciate. This year, we will provide monthly educational tours for residents of AÄŸlasun, focusing on women, children, and local employees of the project. Through these tours, we hope to help people in AÄŸlasun better appreciate the rich history of their town and to build greater understanding of what archaeologists do and why Next year, we will expand this project and offer weekly tours.

Starting July 26, the Community Archaeology team will be distributing surveys in Turkish, Dutch, and English to people who visit the site. With these surveys, we hope to gather suggestions and ideas for how to improve the visitor experience at Sagalassos.

Partnership with Local Government

Currently, most people who visit Sagalassos go directly to the site without stopping in town. As a result, people in Ağlasun get very little benefit from tourism. To improve the situation, the Community Archaeology Project is working with the mayor of Ağlasun and the Burdur Museum to develop better tourist facilities for visitors to the area. During summer 2009, work will begin on a visitors’ center in Ağlasun, which will offer information about Sagalassos, information about other attractions in the region, and other facilities such as restrooms, an ATM machine, and a tea garden. Eventually, we hope to use the center to help market local handicrafts such as scarves, fruit and rose jams, honey, and other specialty products. In this way, we hope to enhance the experience of visiting Sagalassos, while making a positive contribution to the local economy.

Sagala-Sun

In May 2009, the World Bank awarded Ebru Torun and Göze Uner of the Sagalassos team $20,000 to begin a heritage education program for youth aged 15-24 in the Ağlasun area. Called Sagala-Sun (combining the names of the site and the village), the project began in July 2009 and will continue into the 2009-2010 academic year. Members of the Community Archaeology Project will help develop curriculum for teachers.

Sagala-Sun will involve youth as both learners and teachers: older students who have been through the initial phase of the program will in turn teach younger students about archaeology and heritage in the AÄŸlasun region. We hope in this way to create a self-sustaining program that will raise community awareness and further integrate Sagalassos into the culture of AÄŸlasun.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 27, 2009 at 11:39 am and is filed under Community Archaeology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.