UNDERWATER TREASURE: An underwater artefact.
Photo courtesy of Liman Tepe Excavations Project

By Anand Holla

When it comes to matters of rich underwater cultural heritage, few countries could rival the wealth of archaeological treasures steeped in the waters of Turkey.
That’s why you may not want to miss a fascinating lecture on Underwater Archaeology in Turkey by Dr Vasif Sahoglu, Professor at the Department of Archaeology, Programme for Protohistory and Near Eastern Archaeology at Ankara University, on Tuesday at 6pm at UCL-Q.
The event is the second in a six-part lecture series on Archaeology and Heritage Conservation organised by Qatar Museums and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey in partnership with UCL-Qatar (UCL-Q) as part of Qatar Turkey 2015 Year of Culture. The series introduces to Doha “the work of key Turkish experts in the fields of Archaeology and Heritage Conservation.”
Aimed at students, faculty staff and general audiences, the informal lectures and talks are scheduled for October and November at the MIA auditorium and in the UCL-Q Auditorium in Education City.
A nation located on the crossroads of both land and maritime trade routes of the prehistoric and historic periods, Turkey has been home to many powerful civilisations throughout history. Thanks to the diverse cultural heritage on land, the Turkish territorial waters, too, reflect “an equally exciting archaeological environment.”
“Underwater archaeological research in Turkey started as early as the 1960s and excavations of numerous important shipwrecks dating to different periods have been conducted by the US-based Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) ever since,” says a note on the current state of underwater archaeological research in Turkey, shared by Dr Ferhan Sakal, Consultant – Head of Archaeology Operations, Qatar Museums.
Apart from conducting underwater excavations, INA also installed an impressive conservation laboratory at Bodrum. “Today, Bodrum Archaeology Museum houses some of the oldest and most impressive archaeological artefacts of the world found under water,” says the note, “Today, there are growing number of maritime research conducted by Turkish scholars and institutions, involving excavation of submerged harbour facilities and shipwrecks as well as underwater surveys around Turkey.”
Sahoglu, who is also the current director of Ankara University Research Center for Maritime Archaeology (ANKUSAM), has focused his research on the prehistoric and protohistoric archaeology of Anatolia and the Aegean. He has conducted excavations at the Bronze Age site of Cesme - Baglararas? in Izmir and is also involved with the excavations at land and underwater excavations at Liman Tepe and Bakla Tepe.
Sahoglu has published work on Bronze Age economies, long distance travel, contacts and trade issues, burial habits and pottery studies around the Aegean, Anatolia and Mesopotamia. He also has publications on Maritime Archaeology.
The note further points out that a number of Turkish Universities also founded research centres and MA programmes on Maritime Archaeology, training a new generation of students on this subject. Sahoglu’s lecture will be followed by preventive and rescue archaeology strategies in Turkey in light of Marmaray project by Zeynep K?z?ltan, Director of Istanbul Archaeological Museums – her speech will be in Turkish – on October 26 at the MIA auditorium at 6pm.