One of the most important archaeologists of Anatolian geography: Who is Ekrem Akurgal?

He was born in Istanbul. After graduating from Istanbul Erkek High School in 1931, he attended Istanbul Law School for a year. In the meantime, he passed the state exam and went to Germany. He studied archeology in Berlin between 1932-1940 and received his doctorate. In 1941, he started to work as a lecturer in the Department of Archeology at the Faculty of Languages, History, and Geography; He became an associate professor in the same year, a professor in 1949, and an ordinary professor in 1957. After Sedat Alp, Akurgal served as the dean of the Faculty of Languages, History, and Geography between 1958-1959.

Ekrem Akurgal (March 30, 1911 – November 1, 2002) was a Turkish archaeologist. During a career that spanned more than fifty years, he conducted definitive research in several sites along the western coast of Anatolia such as Phokaia (Foça), Pitane (Çandarlı), Erythrai (Ildırı), and old Smyrna (Bayraklı höyük, the original site of the city of Smyrna before the city's move to another spot across the Gulf of İzmir).

After 1951, Akurgal gave various conferences in Europe, America, and the Soviet Union. As a result of his extensive work, he was elected as a member of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna, the American Archaeological Institute, the Hellenic Research Development Association in London and the London Antiquities Association, the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, the Austrian Academy, the British Academy, the Swedish Academy, the Danish Academy, and the French Academy. He received the title of honorary doctor from the University of Bordeaux. He was visiting professor at Princeton University from 1961 to 1962, at the University of Berlin from 1971 to 1972, at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa in 1976, and at the University of Vienna from 1980 to 1981. He was awarded the Federal German Order of Merit, the Goethe Medal, and the Grand Prize of the TR Ministry of Culture.

Akurgal, the founder of the periodical called Anatolia, is one of the editors of Kadmos and Epigraphica Anatolica.

He was elected as a member of the Turkish Historical Society in 1943; He was the general secretary of this institution between 1951-1961.

Akurgal started archaeological excavations in 1948 and conducted the excavations of old İzmir, Foça, Sinop, Daskyleion, Çandarlı, and Erytrai. In his works, he determined the situation of East-West relations in the early ages based on archaeological data and determined the place of Anatolia in this process. He tried to create a synthesis based on archaeological and philological findings in his excavations and in the books and articles he published.

Akurgal's research covering a wide area stretching from Babylon to Greece was published in 1966 as Orient und Okzident (“East and West”). In this book, which has been translated into English, French, and Italian, Akurgal defines East-West relations while describing the Greek revealed traces of the East in his art. Akurgal, who knew the world of the Hittites well, examined the architectural elements and identified the ones that were foreign to Anatolia among them and connected them to the Assyrian, Northern Syrian, and Mitanni cultures. “However, it is the Ancient Greek people who caused the creation of the Ancient Greek world and the emergence of classical measures,” said Akurgal, arguing that archaeological finds and documents clearly demonstrate that the interaction was mutual. Findings unearthed during excavations in Greece proved the existence of elements that Archaic Greek art took from the East.

Akurgal argued that since the relations are social, political, and economic, each work of art carries traces of the conditions and art traditions of the environment in which it was created. While determining the origin of a work, determining its period, and interpreting it, he emphasized that the stylistic elements that give it its characteristics should be examined meticulously, and he carried out his archaeological studies within these dimensions.

Akurgal named the period of principalities that emerged after the collapse of the Hittite State in Northern Syria and Southeastern Anatolia (1200-720 BC) as the "Late Hittite" period and this definition has passed into the archaeological literature. The reason for this is that the sculpture works of this period show the general understanding of the Hittite imperial period and maintain this understanding of art in the details. Akurgal, who analyzed the "Late Hittite" art in three phases by separating it according to its stylistic features, emphasized that the "Late Hittite" art played a very important role in transferring the cultures of Ten Asians to the West.

It was determined by the excavations of Akurgal that the civilization in Bayraklı, which was once a peninsula in the Gulf of Izmir, was contemporary with Troy II (3000 BC). This city was founded by the Anatolian people and BC II. It was understood that it was a Greek colony in the century. The wall of this settlement, built in the 9th century BC, is the oldest known Greek wall.

His extensive studies on Anatolian archeology and art led Akurgal to promote his country; His book, Ancient Civilizations and Ruins of Turkey (“Ancient Civilizations and Ruins in Turkey”), which he wrote on this subject, made several editions.

Akurgal made important contributions to the science of archeology by examining the Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian, and Late Hittite arts and by examining the connection between Asia Minor and Greece with a synthetic approach.

WORKS (mainly):

Griechische Reliefs aus' Lykien, 1942 (“Greek Reliefs in Lycia”);

Remarques sty-listiques sur Les reliefs de Malatya, 1946 (“Reflections on the Styles of the Reliefs in Malatya”);

Spaethet-hitische Bildkunst, 1949 (“Late Hittite Painting”);

Zwei Reliefs aus Sinope, 1955 (“Two Reliefs from Sinop”);

Die Kunst Anatoliens, 1961 (“Art of Anatolia”);

Orient und Okzident, 1966 (“East and West”);

Treasures of Turkey, 1966

Ancient Civilizations and Ruins of Turkey, 1969

Old Izmir Settlement Levels and Athena Temple.