Hale Güney

My name is Hale Güney. I received my PhD degree from the University of Exeter in England in 2012. I obtained my BA and MA degrees from Marmara University in İstanbul. I am an ancient historian specialized in ancient economy, ancient numismatics, Greek epigraphy and Asia Minor. Previously I worked at the University of Cologne in Germany and Aarhus University in Denmark. Historians in ancient economy do not have access to archival records or sources suitable for analyses similar to those used by economic historians. The last two decades have witnessed an increasing volume of literature in ancient economy focusing particularly on material culture. However, the proxies used for quantification are generic and problematic. Therefore, it is crucial to find new methods and alternative accounts which are comparable and applicable as units, e.g. yield figures, household numbers. These accounts are available in the 15th-16th-century Ottoman Anatolia where pre-industrial agricultural economy, similar technology and similar climate conditions prevailed. Employing Ottoman tax records from central Anatolia as proxies and evaluating them within structural determinants, I worked on the economy of central Anatolia in the Roman period in my AIAS-Cofund II Marie Sklodowska-Curie project at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark between 2019-2022. I organized an international symposium at Aarhus University in May 2022. As an outcome of my project and the symposium, I am currently preparing an edited volume including symposium papers for Colloquia Antiqua 44, Peeters, Leuven. Within this transdisciplinary network, I will present my project results and I further would like to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the use of Ottoman tax registers in ancient economy.