ARIT Newsletter American Research Institute in Turkey Number 45, Spring 2008 President LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT G. Kenneth Sams As I announced in the last Newsletter, ARIT has been most fortunate to receive Immediate Past President Machteld J. Mellink from the National Endowment for the Humanities a Challenge Grant with a full Vice President potential (1:3 matching) of 2.2 million dollars. The purpose of the grant is to endow Ahmet Karamustafa and enhance the ARIT libraries in Istanbul and Ankara. Thanks to the timely receipt Secretary Linda Darling of a generous anonymous gift and a generous bequest from the estate of Machteld Treasurer Mellink, ARIT has made a good start toward meeting the match. Yet we still have Maria deJ. Ellis a considerable amount of money to raise. A finance and fundraising committee Directors Cornell Fleischer will guide us along the way. We need to identify potential major donors who will Beatrice Manz constitute the leadership force of the campaign. We are hopeful that in the end, Scott Redford Brian Rose with a successful NEH campaign behind us, we will have set in place a permanent Jennifer Tobin fundraising mechanism to ensure ARIT’s continued well being. Honorary Director Lee Striker Since 1997, ARIT has been privileged to award Samuel H. Kress Foundation Institutional Members Pre-doctoral Fellowships in Archaeology and the History of Art. Through the cur- Full Members rent year, a total of 29 young scholars have conducted research in Turkey as Kress University of Chicago Dumbarton Oaks Fellows. One of them was ARIT-Ankara Director Bahadır Yıldırım, who studied a Georgetown University series of Roman-period sculptural reliefs from Aphrodisias. As for the remaining Harvard University University of Illinois 28, their topics overall show a riot of variety running the gamut from early Anatolia Indiana University to the present day. A little over half of the projects are archaeological, dealing with New York University University of Pennsylvania Anatolia-Asia Minor from Neolithic into Medieval times (e.g., dental morphology Princeton University University of Toronto at Çatalhöyük, Bronze Age Miletos, the agora of Troy). Most of the others are art Consortia historical, dealing primarily with the art and architecture of Seljuk-Ottoman Turkey Archaeological Institute (e.g., Seljuk architectural patronage, figural imagery in Seljuk Anatolia, pleasure of America University of Arizona architecture in 18th-century Istanbul). We are most grateful to the Kress Founda- Binghamton University Boston University tion for its generous support of these worthy projects. Brown University Bryn Mawr College To our other supporters both public and private we continue to be equally University of California, Berkeley grateful: the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Bureau of Educational University of California, Los Angeles and Cultural Affairs within the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of University of California, San Diego Education, the Joukowsky Family Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Founda- University of Cincinnati tion, the Turkish-American Friendship Society, and the ARIT Friends both here Columbia University Cornell University and in Turkey. The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (Executive The Council of American Overseas Research Centers Director Mary Ellen Lane) continues to play a crucial role in our mission. Having Dartmouth College just completed a second and final term on CAORC’s Executive Committee, I can Duke University Metropolitan Museum of Art vouch more than ever before for the industry and efficacy of this splendid organiza- University of Michigan University of North Carolina tion. Among its many accomplishments, CAORC founded what is now the Digital Northwestern University Library for International Research, in which ARIT is a key player. CAORC also Ohio State University Portland State University oversees the selection of students for the Department of State’s Critical Language Texas A & M University University of Texas, Austin Institute Scholarship program, which this year, under ARIT sponsorship, will send Tufts University 50 students of beginning and intermediate Turkish to programs in Istanbul, Ankara, Tulane University University of Utah Alanya, and Izmir – an investment in the future of research in Turkey. Washington University, Saint Louis With all best wishes to you for the summer, Yale University G. Kenneth Sams, President ARIT-ISTANBUL BRANCH NEWS Ms. Nurcan Kayacan (Ph.D. candidate, Prehistory ISTANBUL BRANCH NEWS Department, Istanbul University), “The Introduction, Diffusion and Practice of the Pressure Flaking Tech- In the academic calendar, winter and early spring is nique in Neolithic Anatolia.” Based on data from Akar- fellowships decision time, when the grants for the com- çay Tepe, Cafer Höyük, Çatal Höyük, and Ege Gübre, ing year are decided. This is certainly true for ARIT, for Ms. Kayacan will attempt to follow the introduction whom giving out fellowships is perhaps its most impor- and diffusion of the pressure-flaking technique within tant function. Early this spring in Istanbul, juries met to Anatolian communities in the years between 8300 and decide on three important fellowships. 6000 BC. Ms. Kayacan will spend most of her time at University College in London (Çatal Höyük database) The competition for the George and Ilse Hanfmann and a shorter time at the CNRS in Nanterre. and Machteld J. Mellink Fellowships for advanced research in archaeology by Turkish scholars to be done Mr. Barış Uzel (MA candidate, Protohistory and Near outside of Turkey had 15 applications. The jury, consist- Eastern Archaeology Department, Ege University), “An Evaluation of the Socio-economic Structure of ing of Professor İnci Delemen (Istanbul University), Pro- the Upper Tigris Valley during the 2nd Millennium BC fessor Nur Balkan-Atlı (Istanbul University), Doç. En- using Micro-Archaeological Methods.” Mr. Uzel will gin Akyrek (Istanbul University), Professor Suna Güven analyze material from three sites in the upper valley of (Middle East Technical University), Professor Marie the Tigris in the micro-archaeology laboratory at the Henriette Gates (Bilkent University), ARIT directors University or Utah for the insight it will provide on the Baha Yıldırım and Tony Greenwood, made the following socio-economic structure of the region in the Middle awards to the following scholars: Bronze Age. Doç. Dr. Kutalmış Görkay (Ankara University, The same jury also met to consider applications for the Classical Archeology Department and Zeugma Excava- new fellowship program funded by The Getty Founda- tions Director), “Architecture and Iconography at the tion and run through CAORC which will provide scholars Imperial Margin: Late Hellenistic and Roman Zeug- in countries with American overseas research centers the ma.” Professor Görkay will spend the academic year opportunity to travel and do research in other countries completing for publication an up-to-date overview of with such centers. The application pool was not large the whole site (Zeugma) in the context of its transfor- mation from the Hellenistic to the Roman period, bring- this first time around, but it was an interesting mix and ing together material in recent publications with that in we hope that it will grow as the program becomes better the site’s find database. known. For this coming year from Turkey the program will send Dr. Mehmet Tütüncu to the Park Center in Doc. Dr. Musa Kadıoğlu (Ankara University, Clas- Oran to work on a corpus of the Ottoman period inscrip- sical Archaeology Department), “The Gerontikon of tions in Algeria, while here in Turkey ARIT will host Dr. Nysa, its scenae frons and Sculptural Program.” Hav- Theofanis Mavridis (Curator of Antiquities, Ministry of ing completed three years of excavation and investiga- Culture, Greece) for work on a project entitled “Coloni- tion of the bouleterion, Professor Kadıoğlu now seeks to complete the research necessary to publish it in a com- zation of the Aegean Islands: the Connections to Ana- parative setting. Professor Kadıoğlu will spend some tolia during the Late Neolithic” and Dr. Senzil Nawid months traveling in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and Italy (Research Affiliate, University of Arizona) for “A Study to study other examples of the building type, and some of Turko-Afghan Relations between 1900-1929.” months at Oxford writing up his material. A few weeks later a different jury met for the oldest of Yard. Doç. Arzu Öztürk (Mimar Sinan University, ARIT’s fellowship programs in Turkey, its Dernek fel- Archaeology Department), “Ephesus and the Flavian lowship program to support advanced level research on Period in the Architecture of Roman Anatolia.” Pro- Turkey by Turkish nationals at Turkish universities. The fessor Öztürk will study the architecture of the Flavian program has been in existence for over forty years now, period in Rome for the light it throws on developments and has established itself as one of the most important in architecture in Ephesus, especially during the reign sources of research funds for Turkish doctoral students of Domitian. Professor Öztürk will be studying in the working on Turkey. Hundreds of Turkish academics libraries of Rome based at the Austrian Institute. teaching at universities today, especially in history and 2 archaeology, received support from this program when Esra Yıldız (Art History Department, Istanbul Tech- doing their doctoral research, and through our Dernek nical University), “The Role of Women Artists in post- remain its strong supporters today. Unfortunately fund- 1960 Contemporary Turkish Art.” ing for this program is limited, coming only from ARIT’s own resources, such as membership dues. We hope in the Looking to other activities, the hostel continues to be future to find long-term outside funding support – either used heavily (although we had an unusual break this win- in the U.S. or in Turkey – so that we can increase the ter for several months where occupation averaged only number and amounts of the individual grants given out in one or two persons a night), and the Monday night lec- line with greatly increased current needs.