In December, members of the Türkmen-Karahöyük Archaeological Project (TKAP) conducted comparative analyses at the Institute’s laboratories in Ankara.
The British Institute at Ankara (BIAA) is an international research centre renowned also for its Physical Collections. In fact, the Institute curates and preserves materials from previous archaeological excavations and ethnographic research, housing the most extensive reference collections in Türkiye. These include pottery, botanical, and zoological assemblages, which scholars use for comparative identification of archaeological material.
Last December, team members of the Türkmen-Karahöyük Archaeological Project, a BIAA co-funded initiative, visited the laboratories in Ankara to use the reference collections for their research. Through such studies, TKAP’s researchers aim to shed light on past human-environment relationships at the site. Dr Dries Daems and Mason Scholte (Universiteit van Amsterdam) used the Pottery Reference Collection to find parallels for the ceramic repertoire found at Türkmen-Karahöyük (left photo). Additionally, they 3D-scanned some vessels to demonstrate the process and outcomes in a workshop held at the Institute. Dr Tom Maltas (Keble College, University of Oxford) used modern seeds from the Botanical Reference Collection to identify the specimens retrieved from excavations (photo in the centre). Dr Lorenzo Castellano (Joukowsky Institute, Brown University) used the laboratory for studying palaeoenvironmental samples (right photo).
If you would like to access the physical collections, please write to the BIAA Librarian. Note that a BIAA membership is required to access the physical collections. For further information or to join, please click here.
Also note that some collections are partially or fully digitised. Digital records are freely available in the Digital Repository.