Requirement of Graduate in Settlement archaeology at Middle East Technical University
Meeting Requirements and Job Opportunities in the Field of Settlement Archaeology
Turkey lies astride what is unquestionably one of the most ancient regions in the world to have developed agriculture, animal husbandry, permanent settlement and urbanism. Its archaeological heritage, including remains of human occupation from the Homo Erectus Paleolithic through the Neolithic to the present, is unparalleled and internationally acknowledged. In Turkey are to be found the archaeological records of Çatal Höyük, perhaps the world’s earliest agricultural proto-civilization, and records of the development of a number of indigenous civilizations as well as numerous invasions of peoples who merged with those before them to create new urban/agricultural cultural constellations.
In the United States and Europe the recognition of the need to integrate archaeology with the natural and social sciences has resulted in the creation of interdisciplinary programs in archaeology at the graduate level. These include the Archaeology Graduate Program at the University of California at Los Angeles, the M.A. Program in Archaeological Studies at Yale University, the Graduate Program in Archaeological Sciences and Prehistory at the University of Sheffield, and the Graduate Program in Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford. Some, such as the University of Pennsylvania Graduate Group and the Archaeology Program at Belgium’s Leuven University, are specifically specialized in the Settlement Archaeology of the Near East and the Mediterranean regions.
Unfortunately, settlement and environmental archaeology, as a recently developed modern interdisciplinary domain, remain undeveloped in Turkey. There are no settlement archaeology programs in Turkey, or, indeed, interdisciplinary archaeology programs at all. This is especially regrettable given the fact that, as noted above, Turkey is the site of what are arguably the most significant archaeological remains of early agricultural settlements and early civilizations in the world. There is an urgent need for Turkish archaeologists who are comfortable with and competent in interdisciplinary archaeological approaches. Graduates of the interdisciplinary master’s program may expect to find employment at the numerous domestic and international archaeological projects in Turkey, including the rapidly growing area of salvage archaeology, or at the growing number of museums. Graduates will also, naturally, be capable of pursuing further graduate studies leading to the Ph.D. in archaeology or related fields, either in Turkey or at foreign universities.
Tags: agricultural settlements, agriculture animal, ancient regions, animal husbandry, archaeological heritage, archaeological records, archaeological sciences, archaeology program, environmental archaeology, graduate group, homo erectus, human occupation, interdisciplinary domain, leuven university, mediterranean regions, settlement archaeology, university of sheffield, yale university