A feminist pioneer in archaeology, cultural heritage, and Olympic history
1916 - 2014, Berlin, Istanbul, Karatepe-Aslantaş
Halet Çambel leaving Yazılıkaya after collecting excavation materials following the declaration of World War II, 1939. Image Source: (Photo: Emilie Haspels, Archive of Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları)
Halet Çambel with Theodor Bossert in Karatepe, October 1952. Image Source: Boğaziçi University Archive.
Rescue archaeological excavation at the Hoşrik Church in Ağın, Elazığ (Keban Dam Area), Summer of 1968 – Beginning of the first excavation: Ali Yaramancı, Halet Çambel, Ümit Serdaroğlu. Image Source: Mehmet Özdoğan Archive
1958 in Osmaniye province, Karatepe - Aslantaş Açık Hava Müzesi - Arial Image. Image Source: Mehmet Özdoğan Archive.
1958 in Osmaniye province, Karatepe - Aslantaş Açık Hava Müzesi Image Source: Mehmet Özdoğan Archive
Grikihaciyan paying workers. Image Source: (Photo: Alpaslan Koyunlu, 1970.) Mehmet Özdoğan Archive
4th of August 1936 Halet Çambel Suat Fetgeri Aşeni in Berlin at the Berlin Olympic Games • Image Source: Olympic MuseumGrikihaciyan paying workers. Image Source: (Photo: Alpaslan Koyunlu, 1970.) Mehmet Özdoğan Archive
Halet Çambel is an inspiring figure in 20th-century archaeology. A Turkish archaeologist, Olympian, and early advocate for cultural sustainability, her life and work exemplify a feminist ethic of care—bridging disciplines, geographies, and generations.
As a woman in a male-dominated field and era, her legacy holds particular significance for TAM’s mission to highlight overlooked narratives and trans regional connections, especially those involving gender, knowledge transmission, and cultural continuity.
As a woman in a male-dominated field and era, her legacy holds particular significance for TAM’s mission to highlight overlooked narratives and trans regional connections, especially those involving gender, knowledge transmission, and cultural continuity.
A Life Across Borders
Born in Berlin in 1916 into an Ottoman diplomatic family, Çambel was educated in Istanbul and at the Sorbonne in Paris. This transnational background formed the basis of her later academic collaborations, especially with German scholars. After returning to Turkey, she became one of the country’s first female archaeologists and built a long academic career rooted in scientific rigor and public responsibility.
Resistance on the Olympic Stage
She represented Turkey in fencing at the 1936 Summer Olympics, becoming—alongside Suat Fetgeri Aşeni—one of the first Turkish women to compete in the Games. During the Berlin Olympics, she and her teammate refused an invitation to meet Adolf Hitler—an act that, though quiet, marked a firm ethical stance and underscored her lifelong resistance to authoritarianism.
Pioneer in Archeology: First Open-Air Museum in Turkey
Her most enduring contribution was her work at Karatepe-Aslantaş, a Late Hittite site in southern Turkey, where she collaborated with German archaeologist Helmuth Theodor Bossert. Their discovery of bilingual inscriptions in Phoenician and Luwian scripts played a critical role in deciphering the Luwian language. Yet Çambel’s vision extended beyond academic discovery: she pioneered in-situ conservation and founded Turkey’s first open-air archaeological museum— built by local villagers and her husband, Nail Çakırhan, a self-taught architect and poet.
Feminist Ethos in Field: Community, Care, and Cultural Revitalization
What distinguished Çambel’s approach was her dedication to the people living near the excavation site. She initiated voluntary summer schools to improve literacy in surrounding villages, promoted women’s public participation, and helped revitalize traditional crafts such as organic dyeing and weaving. By reactivating ecological knowledge and transmitting it to younger generations, she positioned archaeology as a socially embedded, community-driven practice. For Çambel, archaeology was not only about the past—it was a living, participatory process rooted in social and cultural responsibility.
Halet Çambel’s life bridges multiple geographies and disciplines—archaeology, education, feminism, and activism. Her visionary model of heritage as care, collaboration, and continuity resonates deeply with TAM’s mission to uncover layered, interconnected histories. More than a figure of the past, Çambel’s legacy offers a roadmap for a more inclusive, ethical, and community-centered future.
SOURCES:
Dirican, Murat. Yaşamını arkeolojiye ve Anadolu’ya adamış bir bilim kadını Halet Çambel. TÜBİTAK Bilim ve Teknik Dergisi, No:359, September 1997, p.72-80.