Historical Background of the Faculty of Science and Letters
The Faculty of Science and Letters of Aksaray University was founded in 2010. All necessary preparatory works for establishment of the faculty started in 2013 and education and training activities have been started since the 2014-2015 academic year. It is organized to include courses from Prehistory, Protohistory and Near Eastern Archaeology and Classical Archaeology. There are one associate professor, two associate professors, one assistant professors, one lecturer dr. and one research assistant.
Objectives of the Archeology Program
Archeology is a science, which covers various disciplines like Prehistory, Protohistory, Near Eastern Archaeology and Classic Archeology. The cornerstone objective of the Archeology Program is to train theoretical and practical-skilled and well-educated people, those who are also able to use modern high technologies in their profession. From the education perspective, the students will gain professional skills in the field of Archeology, also they will be able to analyse and assess the theoretical skills in the field concerned, furthermore, will learn sufficient research methods along with being able to use sources in foreign languages except those are in Turkish.
General Information about the Main Diciplines of the Archeology Program
Prehistory: The contents of the discipline Prehistoric Archeology, which is considered the period “before history” or the period that begins with the appearance of the human being is formed by the Paleolithic Era that covers foundations of modern civilization, the longest period of human history and significant part of the evolution of a human being. As a discipline, it examines all material and spiritual remains belonged to a human being in a chronological order during the noted era and has adopted interdisciplinary method of work. Furthermore, it aims to study how to define Paleolithic cultures, to compare examples found in Anatolia with those found in other places and to teach the importance of Anatolia within the World Prehistory in the light of the knapped stone industry, along with learning to recognize, describe, as well as to examine through division by types of instruments used by people during the Stone Age. The course contents cover the Paleolithic cultures, Paleolithic terminology, knapped stone and bone tool industry and typology, art and ornament objects, living and belief systems, economy, ecology, sedimentology, glacial and interglacial periods, zoo- archeology, chronology, stratigraphy, sequence dynamics as well as the information on the dynamics of the absolute dating methods.
Protohistory and Near Eastern Archeology: This discipline examines the Era starting from the Neolithic Era, which confront us with two alternatives of economic models of residents who was farming by hunting and gathering in human history, but also studies the Chalcolithic Era, Bronze Ages, and Protohistic period of Anatolia as the first focal point during the period until the end of Stone Age, Mesopotamia, Iran, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Cyprus and the Aegean world. Topics on know-how social, economic and technological transformation period of societies engaged in standard manufacturing influenced into the life of a human being, their period of adaptation and how the invention of writing as a milestone periods of in the context of archeology existed in Anatolia and Near Eastern cultures are also discussed. The course contents encapsulate the housing and temple architecture, sculpture and sculptural works, ceramics, seals, metal art and funeral rithuals of societies existed and developed in these regions.
Classical Archeology: This discipline encounters Protogeometric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and the Roman period of the Crete-Minoan civilization found in the Aegean geography and starting from Mycenae civilization in Greece, up to all Anatolian civilizations, including the Western Anatolia. The course includes a wide range of detailed discussion of historical geography of Anatolia, Antiquity settlements, Greek and Roman architecture, sculpture, ceramics and ceramic terminology, small findings, numismatic, pictures and mosaic with mythology. Also, topics in classes are discussed in details through presentations.
MISSION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY
The main objective of the Archeology Department is; Prehistoric, Protohistoria and Pre-Asian Archeology and Classical Archeology in the fields of theoretical and practical courses by taking the field of qualified scientists are trained in the field. When dealt with from the point of view of education and training, the program will be aimed at graduating students who are equivalent or more capable of graduating from similar programs both within and outside the country. In this context, the program will train archaeologists and take the place of excellence among the existing archeology departments. Graduated students will be able to use their theoretical and practical knowledge in their field studies in a way that dominates the technological tools and programs they will acquire, and with these differences they will continue to live with a self-confident maturity.
VISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY
Our department is qualified, well equipped; the researcher aims to train archaeologists and scientists who are productive, who know the situation and problematic of archeology in our country, who are looking for solutions, and who are able to use scientific and theoretical foundations of archeology in their application fields.
