Who We Are

Director, Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) & Professor, ARHA, Koç University, Istanbul, TR

PhD 2003 History of Art and Archaeology & MA 1997 Archaeology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY USA

BA Geology & Classics, Colby College, Maine USA

Archaeological Practice • Spatial Analysis • Landscape

Chris directs holistically the scope of research within an extremely broad and interdisciplinary agenda with Gygaia Projects.  

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4302-4788

Associate Professor, ARHA, Koç University, Istanbul, TR

Editor, Journal of Field Archaeology 

PhD 2002 Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY USA

BA Anthropology,, Scripps College for Woman, Claremont CA USA

Heritage • Diplomacy •  Gastronomy

For Gygaia Projects, Christina assists with holistic research design, whilst her personal foci integrate natural and cultural heritage through archaeology, socio-political ecologies, food, and hypermodernity. 

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0979-2510

PhD Candidate, ARHA Koç University, Istanbul, TR 

BA & MA Protohistory and Near Eastern Archaeology Ege University, Izmir, TR

Ceramics & Energetics • Data Science • Visual Representation

With Gygaia Projects, Tunç manages KAP administration, material processing, establishing the ceramic chronology, databases, and engages with the born-digital excavation program. 

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7261-9919

Research Coordinator, ANAMED, Koç University, Istanbul, TR

MA Archaeology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, TR

PhD Candidate, University of Antwerp

Landscape Archaeology • Data Science • Design & Exhibition 

With Gygaia Projects, Duygu focuses on the intersection of daily life and landscapes and integrates with ANAMED’s Environmental Archaeological Program. 

PhD 2023 ARHA, Koç University, Istanbul TR

Metallurgy • Materiality • Geophysics  

For Gygaia Projects Dalila has been a trench supervisor for excavation, engaged with the Geophysics, and honed her expertise on metallurgy and materiality.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2363-0887

Assistant Professor, Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen, Netherlands

PhD in Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Tübingen University, Germany

MA Archaeology and History, American University of Beirut, Lebanon

Zooarchaeology • Archaeological Science • Anthropocene 

Canan assisted with the design and research program of the first five years of the zooarchaeological program for the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7994-0091

Lecturer in the History of Science and Citizenship (History), University of Exeter, UK 

PhD 2017 History & Civilization, European University Institute, Florence/Fiesole, IT

Environmental history • Ottoman Archives • Natural History 

With Gygaia Projects, Semih focuses on socio-ecological perspectives of historical wetlands and wider climate change, landscapes and social actors, past to future.  

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8228-4056

Researcher, Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, CZ 

PhD 2016 Archaeology, Comenius University, Bratislava, CZ

Data Science • Archaeology • Efficiency and Utility 

Peter is part of Gygaia Projecs through KAP, including his design of the Laser-Aided Profiler (along with its associated semi-automated typology software) and radiocarbon data. 

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1589-4727

PhD student, Charles University, Prague CZ

Ceramics • Eastern Aegean • Production

With Gygaia Projects, Jan integrates his wider research of coarse wares during the Middle to Late Bronze Age in Anatolia with his ongoing research on the same in the Eastern Aegean region.

ORCID: 

PhD student, Charles University, Prague CZ

Ground Stone • Anatolia • Geology

With Gygaia Projects, Kristina focuses on ground stone technologies and resource locations in the region, including an expanding successful portfolio of independent research funding. 

ORCID: 

PhD student, Charles University, Prague CZ

Ceramics • Architecture • Production

With Gygaia Projects, Anna focuses on ceramic documentation and architectural analysis. 

ORCID:

PhD student, Archaeology, University of Melbourne

BA 2012, English, History, Monash University, AU

Administrative Practices • Archaeological Practice • Data Science

With Gygaia Projects, Emily focuses on born-digital excavations and ancient administrative practices. 

ORCID

Doctoral student, ARHA, Koç University, Istanbul, TR

MA 2022, ARHA, Koç University, Istanbul, TR

BA 2018 Mimar Sinan, Archaeology, Istanbul, TR  

BA 2010 St. Petersburg State University of Economics, RU

Data Science • Soviet Archaeology • Cold War Heritage 

With Gygaia Projects, Elena focuses on the born-digital excavation system, GIS micro-histories and database management. 

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4526-0669

PhD student, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, USA

BA 2022, ARHA, Koç University 

Zooarchaeology • Data Science & Visualization • Landscape Archaeology 

Tuğçe’s PhD research explores with Gygaia Projects explores deer (red, roe and fallow) from micro-archaeological contexts to wide-scale landscape interactions as represented in stable isotopes and iconography.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0633-1013

Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Sciences in Prague.

PhD candidate, Charles University, Prague CZ

Ceramics • Eastern Aegean • Production

With Gygaia Projects, Kristina integrates her wider research of ceramics during the Middle to Late Bronze Age period in Anatolia with her ongoing research in the Eastern Aegean region.

ORCID:

BA student, History, ARHA, Koç University, Istanbul, TR

Digital Archaeology • 3D Modeling • Aerial Imagery

With Gygaia Projects, Ufuk focuses on transforming digital photographs and coordinate data into 3D models of excavation contexts, surface microtopography from UAV imagery, and visualizing spatial contexts in 3D stratigraphic dispalys.

ORCID:

Müge Ergun is an archaeologist and archaeobotanist who holds a Ph.D. from Istanbul University’s Department of Prehistory and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University Doctoral School of Archaeology (co-tutelle, 2016), and an M.A. from Istanbul University’s Department of Prehistory (2009). Her research focuses on people-plant interactions, plant-based activities in daily and seasonal routines, and their effects on the economic and socio-cultural lives of communities, with a special interest in the beginnings of agriculture and the domestication process in Southwest Asia. She has recently been working on the projects focusing on early Neolithic communities from Central Anatolia (Aşıklı Höyük and Balıklı) and North Cyprus (Tatlısu- Çiftlikdüzü (Akanthou-Arkosykos)), and her work with Kaymakçı includes the study of modern and ancient uses of local shrubs and wood.

Şengül Fındıklar investigates the zooarchaeological worlds of western Anatolia. Her research focuses on animal-human relationships throughout the Bronze Age. Her interests include ritual, political economy and environmental archaeology. At Kaymakçı she manages the processing of zooarchaeological remains throughout the field season and assists with training programs. Her detailed research explores the role of cattle at Kaymakçı. She is a MA student at Koç University.

Nick is a PhD student in Anthropology at Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change. He is interested in the geoarchaeology, human ecology, and long-term environmental history of the Eastern Mediterranean. His work with Gygaia Projects focuses on modelling past climate, hydrology, and food production strategies to help provide an ecological context for the archaeological record at Kaymakçı.

Hannah Lau is an anthropological archaeologist whose research uses zooarchaeological data to examine the relationship between ancient peoples’ animal management practices, the environment, and sociopolitical complexity. She is currently an Environmental Archaeology Fellow at ANAMED. She received her Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of California, Los Angeles (2016) where her work documented social and economic cooperation and coordination in agropastoral production among inhabitants at the Halaf period site of Domuztepe (ca. 6000–5450 BCE) in southeastern Turkey. Dr. Lau has fieldwork experience at a number of sites in the Near East and South Caucasus, including in the Autonomous Republic of Naxçıvan and in Lerik Province in southeastern Azerbaijan. Her work with Kaymakçı includes the isotopic analyses of animal bones to help explore patterns of animal husbandry.

John (Mac) is a specialist for archaeobotanical research at Kaymakçı. In his study of archaeological plant remains – archaeobotany or paleoethnobotany – Marston contributes to questions of agricultural sustainability and environmental and climate change. Mac’s recent interdisciplinary collaborations focus on comparative study of cultural adaptation to environmental and climate change in the past and present. His current field projects include also work at the Iron Age site of Kerkenes, the Bronze Age-Medieval site of Gordion, and the Bronze Age-Medieval site of Ashkelon. Mac’s research has been funded by the American Philosophical Society, Boston University, Council of American Overseas Research Centers, and the US National Science Foundation.

Jana is a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on cultural dynamics and mobility at the dawn of the Late Bronze Age and during the Early Iron Age in Western Anatolia. In addition to acting as an excavation area supervisor at Kaymakçı, Jana is conducting a study of the use of mudbrick at the site.

Emanuel is a PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is interested in the role of changing visualization technologies in the production of knowledge, particularly in archaeological and heritage contexts. He works with Gygaia Projects as a Spatial Data and Digital Technologies Specialist, focusing on spatial data management and the development of 3-dimensional recording and visualization techniques.

Bradley was Gygaia Project’s Assistant Director for Survey. He is a specialist in survey methodology and Roman-period landscape archaeology, with an interest in landscapes, settlement dynamics, and governance. His research also explores ancient stone-working technologies, especially in the marble quarries of the Marmara Lake basin. Sekedat is a Lecturer in Writing at the University of California, Davis.

Nami Shin explores the archaeobotanical worlds of western Anatolia. Her work at Kaymakçı focuses on the excavation, recovery and identification of plant remains, usually in the form of carbonized seeds, such as grape, barely, wheat, lentil and bitter vetch. She is active in training programs for new participants. Her research foci and collaborations include partnerships with Beycelsultan and Troy. She is a PhD student at Koç University.

Francesca has been with the Kaymakçı Archaeological Project for many years. Her MA work at Groningen focused on the role of pigs and society using the Kaymakçı material. For her PhD research, she is expanding this focus to greater western Anatolia and the Aegean, still incorporating the Kaymakçı material. Her contributions to Kaymakçı also include analysis of the entire zooarchaeological assemblage and geomorphometric analyses. She is a PhD student at Groningen University.