Turkey: Pınarbașı Excavation (IFR)

Location: Karaman, Turkey

Session Dates: June 23 – July 19, 2025

Application Deadline: December 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:

Discover the transformative Epipalaeolithic period at the Pınarbașı site in central Turkey, a unique excavation that sheds light on one of humanity’s earliest shifts from hunting and gathering to settled agricultural life. Situated along the Konya Plain, Pınarbașı is the only known Epipalaeolithic site in Anatolia, offering students a rare chance to investigate this critical transition spanning from 14,000 to 11,000 BCE. Working alongside professional archaeologists, field school students will engage directly with excavations, unearthing intricate burial sites and settlement patterns that mark the beginnings of sedentism. As part of this archaeology field school, students will also study cultural heritage preservation strategies by exploring visitor engagement methods used at renowned nearby UNESCO heritage sites like Çatalhöyük and the Cappadocia rock cut churches. Join us and develop hands-on skills through excavation, lab analysis, and cultural heritage preservation while immersing yourself in the rich archaeological landscape of Anatolia.

Field school highlights:

• Gain practical skills in excavation, artifact cataloging, and soil analysis guided by seasoned archaeologists.
• Learn how UNESCO sites manage tourism at active excavations as you apply these strategies to real-world cultural heritage preservation projects
• Venture through the rich culture of central Turkey, visiting medieval cities, renowned Neolithic sites, and remote Byzantine and Hittite archaeological sites as part of your program.

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)