Turkish archaeology to transition to the era of 'coordinator excavation presidency'

Minister of Culture and Tourism said, "We will increase the momentum of our work by appointing a 'coordinator excavation head' from Turkish scientists to ensure the coordination of the excavations. This is also a important milestone in the history of Turkish archaeology. All of the excavations, will be carried out under the presidency and coordination of Turkish scientists, which will always be the case from now on."

Presenting the budget of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for 2024 at the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) Planning and Budget Commission, Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy summarized the projects in the field of archaeology, informed about the National Inventory Project and said that "Archaeological Excavations will be carried out under the presidency and coordination of Turkish scientists".

National Inventory Project

Providing information about the excavation works, Ersoy said that they have launched Anatolia's Rock Monuments and Inscriptions Project and that they will complete the work on cataloging, 3D scanning, recording, and documenting the works in question at the end of 4 years.

Ersoy said, "In 2024, we will launch the National Inventory Project in addition to our excavations. We aim to create an inventory of the works of the Turkish-Islamic Period and to create a database of our heritage first in our country and then abroad."

Stating that they decided to carry out a new branding and destination study on the Side with the studies that started at the end of 2022, Ersoy noted that they carried out excavation and repair works at 14 different points of the ancient city.

Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said that the key to completing 20 years of work in 1 year with the devoted work of Prof. Dr. Feriştah Alanyalı, Head of Excavations of the Ancient City of Side, and his team was the budget and logistical support they provided to archaeological excavations and restoration works in this 1-year period.

The archaeological excavations will be carried out under the presidency and coordination of Turkish scientists.

Explaining that they have launched the Heritage for the Future Project, Ersoy said that in the second phase, they included the excavations carried out by foreign scientific committees in this project. Minister of Culture and Tourism Ersoy said, "We will increase the momentum of our work by appointing a 'coordinator excavation head' from Turkish scientists to ensure the coordination of the excavations. This is also a turning point in the history of Turkish archaeology. All of the excavations, which started under the leadership of foreign delegations about 160 years ago, will be carried out under the presidency and coordination of Turkish scientists, which will always be the case from now on."

Mehmet Nuri Ersoy stated that they have started the Heritage for the Future Project in 18 excavation sites such as Pergamon, Aphrodisias, Sardes, Sagalassos, and Hattusa, where work is carried out by foreign scientific delegations.

Emphasizing that the Heritage for the Future Project, they will meet all the needs of the teams by increasing both the budget and logistics of archaeological excavations at an unprecedented rate, Ersoy said: "We will bring added value to our ancient cities and the cultural and tourism potential of the region they are located in by bringing the structures in our archaeological sites to their feet in a very short time in the light of scientific data. Our goal is to complete in the next 4 years the work equivalent to what has been done in Turkey in the last 60 years in the field of archaeology. This period will be the 'golden age' of Turkish archaeology."

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