Turkey: Pınarbașı Excavation (IFR)

Location: Karaman, Turkey

Session Dates: June 17-July 14, 2024

Application Deadline: April 1, 2024

Deadline Type: Rolling

Website: https://ifrglobal.org/program/turkey-pinarbasi/

Program Type:
Field School

RPA Certified:
No

Affiliation:
Institute for Field Research (IFR), University of Liverpool

Project Director:
Prof. Douglas Baird

Project Description:

Turkey has evidence of one of the earliest transitions from hunting and gathering to sedentism in the world. Understanding the period in time immediately preceding and encompassing the first steps in this transition, the Epipalaeolithic period, is crucial. The course will take place at the Epipalaeolithic site of Pınarbașı (c. 14000-11000 BCE), the only Epipalaeolithic site on the central Anatolian plateau and the predecessor of the famous Neolithic sites of Boncuklu and Çatalhöyük. The site is located on the edge of the Konya Plain in central Turkey, 65 km east of the major city of Konya, a famous Medieval centre where the ‘whirling dervish’ sect was founded by the Medieval philosopher Celaleddin Rumi. We will stay in Karaman, an important Medieval city located 50 km to the south of Pınarbașı. There are many medieval buildings of the Seljuk period to visit in Konya and Karaman, both booming cities. The field school also includes visits to other sites and museums in central Turkey including Çatalhöyük and the dramatic Neolithic site of Aşıklı, where there is evidence of repeated rebuilding of houses and an experimental village. Aşıklı is located about 3 hours east of Konya in Cappadocia, also famous for its underground cities and painted medieval churches. We will also visit a number of remote Byzantine and Hittite sites around the Konya plain.

Period(s) of Occupation: Epipalaeolithic period

Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: Students are expected to stay the full length of the program.

Minimum Age: 18

Experience Required: None

Room and Board Arrangements:
Our accommodation will be in a new dig house near the site. Students will share bedrooms. Laundry facilities are available. All meals will be communal events and will provide plenty of nutritious but basic food in the tradition of local cuisine cooked by local people. The daily diet in Turkey is heavily based on pasta, rice, legumes bread other vegetables, with some meat. Vegetarians/Vegans are catered for and gluten-free diets are catered for. The food is varied and nutritious but it will be thoroughly Turkish, which might not appeal to all students. It is, of course, halal.

Academic Credit:
8 semester (12 quarter)