The Culinary Culture of an Ancient City; Sagalassos

Aylin Öney Tan, originally restoration architect, now a renowned food culture researcher and writer presented the seminar dedicated to the culinary culture of Sagalassos Antique city and the town of Ağlasun, both located in Burdur.

Mrs. Tan worked as the head curator of the gastronomy department of Antalya city museum.  In doing so, she wanted to include the hinterland of Antalya as well, which included the city of Sagalassos. She got acquainted with  the excavation team of the antique city and helped them research the culinary aspects of the foundings.

Aylin Tan, started the seminar by pointing out the location of Sagalassos and continued;

“In these excavations, the team is always trying to make connections between the past and the present. When speaking of Sagalassos one also has to mention Ağlasun. In fact a new project called “Sagalasun” highlights the cultural aspects of both cities. The ultimate goal here is to create regional sustainability that will protect the archeological site and the practices of daily life.

Excavations revealed many tips regarding the culinary culture of Sagalassos. The excavations and research still continues and hopefully in the future, together with the current products will lead into a cookbook that will highlight the culinary culture of the region.”

Aylin Öney Tan also shared pictures and information from the feast she has put together with other food culture researchers. After the seminar the participants got to taste a variety of food from the Sagalassos & Ağlasun region and drank cornelian cherry sherbet which is an important fruit of the region.

18 December 2015

The lecture video is in Turkish.