Archaeology

Have a nice day. I am Professor Doctor Neşe Atik. I am the Founding Chair of Department of Archeology at Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Our department has been established recently, and we are currently teaching our 3rd grade students. Thrace is an area that has been little researched archaeologically. That's why working here is very attractive. Realizing this, the Ministry of Culture and the officials of our university wanted an archeology department to be established here. I was also conducting archaeological excavations in this area. For this reason, one of the first goals was to establish an archeology department in Tekirdağ to set up archaeological excavation areas. At the same time, this excavation site is an extraordinary one. Because, it covers the Thracians, which is one of the civilizations in Turkey that has not been researched before. Thracians lived in Thrace Region and they have many ancient cities. They have been discovered for the first time with archaeological excavations. That is why there are special courses for Thracians in our curriculum. I can say that we are a privileged department in Turkey. In our department, in addition to the courses in all classical archeology departments, we also have Prehistory and related basic courses covering prehistoric times. In addition to these, our courses consist of elective courses and basic courses. Our program also includes various elective courses related to archeology and interests of our students. But as I just mentioned, we are a department in Thrace, and for the first time, we gave courses on Tracology in the archeology department. We also have courses exploring the Thracian Civilization. In our department, like other departments, we have faculty rooms distributed to us by our university. There is another very nice thing; I can say that we have an advanced laboratory. We have a laboratory where we can both teach students and perform the restoration and conservation of archaeological materials, and there are an archive and a library that has approximately 8 thousand books. Archeology education takes 4 years. In the 4th year of our program, there is a graduation project that must be done by our students. Topics include a variety of areas covering archeology. Archeology is an international science. It is a science based on internal and external relations. Our connections with universities in our country and abroad are available both at the faculty level and at our university level. It is also possible for our students to benefit from the various exchange programs offered by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).
A wide variety of activities are carried out in our department. Some of them are national and some are international. Since archeology is a science that requires communication, the international announcements, symposiums and panels are organized every year. We also participate in them. We also have opportunities such as student exchange programs. There are several areas where Archeology graduates will work. First of these is to work in our Ministry of Culture and Tourism and its organizations. Working as a direct expert in museums and conservation boards is also possible. Apart from that, it is also possible for our graduates to work as consultants and organizers in various fields of art and culture, as it is a field that is directly related to natural arts and culture. There is a challenge that awaits students to come to the department. But it is essential to study internationally, which is learning languages. That's why we put a preparatory class in our department. Our students who really want to work internationally in the field of archeology in the future will first learn a language for 1 year, since it is important to be able to read publications in a foreign language. At the same time, of course, we live in a modern time. Our students are required to use computers well and learn various visual computer programs. However, there is no need to be afraid, because these courses are given in our department. In other words, if they have insufficient knowledge, they can both improve their foreign language and IT skills within the education program in the department. Of course, people who want to deal with Archeology should consult a large number of scientific resources. Our university has a library and they consult us before buying books. However, the book publications of archaeological excavations and documentation belonging to ancient times are of course in the libraries established in the past. In this context, the richest libraries for archaeologists are located in Istanbul. We are one and a half hours away from Istanbul. I can say that it is a great advantage to go and benefit from those libraries even on a daily basis, especially for the projects that students will prepare in the future and the scientific publications of the academic staff. In fact, there are many archeology departments in Turkey. But I think our department is a department that has privileges. Especially for the first time in Turkey, it is very interesting to have a tendency towards a new field, Thracology. On the other hand, I think it is an advantage to have an excavation area, especially that which students can practice in. Because not every archeology department has an excavation area. In addition, I think that the field researches in the area, which we call "Surface Research" as archaeologists, with our new professors who have recently joined our department, constitute an important privilege for our archeology students in terms of professional experience. As I said before, we have a library, a laboratory, and, excavation and research facilities. You can confidently choose our department. Let's contribute to archeology together.