Academic literature on the topic 'Old Stone Mansion'

Abstract As such things go it is certainly one of the lesser mansions on Fifth Avenue. Number 1048 sits unobtrusively on the southeast corner of 86th Street, its gray brick stones tucked into the surrounding neighborhood. It boasts no sweeping circular driveway: no generous portico flanked by brass or iron balustrades: no defenses against the pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk it directly abuts. This was once the home of a banker who earned his riches in the Gilded Age and who passed it on to a Vanderbilt family widow. Its quiet elegance, its clean lines, its understated solidity, testify to the wealth that once flowed through its rooms. And yet, for many years, these lines concealed a quintessentially American institution that literally captured the efforts of immigrants to meld their New and Old World roots. For nearly forty years, 1048 Fifth Avenue did not function as a mansion at all: it housed the collections of the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut, now officially known as YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Excavations at Şanlıurfa Castle are carried out with the permit of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums under the presidency of Prof.Dr. Gülriz Kozbe (Batman University) since 2020. Şanlıurfa Castle is situated on Dambak Hill just south of Balıklıgöl (Pool of Abraham), in the city center. The castle is surrounded by the fortification walls built with cut limestone block stones having the same characteristics with the limestone bedrock on which it was built. Since Şanlıurfa Castle has been excavated for only four years, the knowledge about its foundation and historical sequence are mainly based on Latin, Armenian, Syriac and Arabic written sources. After the death of Alexander the Great, the Seleucid Kingdom (312 BC-63 BC), including Urfa region founded by Seleucus I Nicator, one of his generals during Hellenistic period. He had built a new city on the ruins of the old settlement and named the city as “Edessa”. As a result of the weakening of the Seleucids, the Syriacs declared the Kingdom of Osrhoene (Edess) under the leadership of Aryu (Leo) in132 BC. Thus, it’s the first independent local kingdom seen in Urfa region. Osrhoene, which ruled for about 375 years, was become a Roman Colony in 214. On the basis of the recent archaeological evidence, the earliest data in the castle is the Monument Columns erected just behind the North Wall. Due to its Syriac inscription carved on the eastern column, they are attributed to the 3rd century. Various great or small powers, such as Arameans, Osrhoenes, Eastern Romans, Abbasids, Marwanids, Arab Emirates and Dynasties, Crusaders, Zangids, Ayyubids, Seljuks, Mongols, Mamluks, Aqqoyunlus, Qaraqoyunlus, Safavids and Ottomans wanted to take control of the city, often intervened in the castle and were implementing their own defense strategies. The 2020-2023 archaeological excavations at Şanlıurfa Castle were carried out in three different areas such as “Sector A” which covers the remains of two Monument Columns in the center of the castle adjacent to the Northern Wall; “Sector B” situated in the western part of the castle where a monumental building (mansion) with vaults and stairs exposed and the “Western Towers Sector” where three towers appear at the far west of the castle. There is no doubt that the historical and cultural details of the castle will gain more meaning when the architectural remains are evaluated together with the artifacts such as pottery assemblages, weapons, tools, coins, and etc. For more detailed information, please refer to the Extended Abstract at the end of the text