HALET ÇAMBEL AND NAİL ÇAKIRHAN AS AGENTS OF PLACEMAKING: KARATEPE-ASLANTAŞ OPEN AIR MUSEUM AND THE ÇAKIRHAN HOUSE

Date

2024-1-28

Author

Ertürk, Yaz

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This thesis approaches archaeologist Halet Çambel and her partner, self-made architect Nail Çakırhan, as collaborators in place-making by focusing on the Karatepe-Aslantaş Open-air Museum and the Çakırhan House. Çambel and Çakırhan possessed strong views about heritage, culture, and conservation as members of the mid-twentieth-century intellectual milieu of Turkey. This thesis argues that Çambel and Çakırhan saw archaeology, conservation, and architecture as opportunities to create place. Karatepe-Aslantaş Open-Air Museum was an early example of on-site archaeological display and local collaboration. The archaeological remains of the 8th-century BCE Hittite fortress, with its valuable orthostats, were left in place, restored, and turned into the first open-air museum of Turkey, through Halet Çambel’s determined efforts at the beginning of the 1960s. Since then, the area has been used and valued. Gradually, it has become a natural/cultural environment by going beyond being a museum. As such, it was appropriated by local people, becoming an example of inclusive archaeological/conservation intervention. The thesis also explores the Çakırhan house, as a model for keeping Akyaka as a meaningful place through the efforts of Nail Çakırhan. The thesis foregrounds meaningful, resilient, and socially cohesive environments that were more than just a museum and a house.

Subject Keywords

Karatepe-Aslantaş open-air museum, Çakırhan House, Halet Çambel, Nail Çakırhan, place-making

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/108762

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis