Today, Google is honoring Turkish archaeologist Jale İnan with a doodle. She had to write her doctoral thesis in a bunker during World War II.
Who was Jale Inan, where was she from, and what was her profession?
She is Turkey’s first female archaeologist. It has made efforts to bring to light the ancient cities of Purge and Side with several years of programmed excavation; This enabled the establishment of the Antalya and Side museums to display the discovered artifacts. In addition to programmed excavations, she has conducted various rescue excavations against the smuggling of historical artifacts.
Her father’s name was Aziz Ogan, he was one of the first archaeologists in Turkey. Her husband’s name was Mustafa Inan who was one of the leading scientists of that time.
She was born in Istanbul in 1914. Jale Inan’s father, Aziz Ogan, oversaw a museum and also worked as an archaeologist. Her mother’s name was Mestur Hanim She was a housewife. She completed her high school education at Erenkoy Girls High School. She became acquainted with archeology at an early age by participating in her father’s professional travels.
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| Image Credit-raillynews.com |
Jale İnan: The three most important facts about the archaeologist
Jale İnan was born in Istanbul in 1914 and her choice of career was obviously influenced to a large extent by her father Aziz Ogan, head of the Archaeological Museum in the Turkish metropolis, He was one of the first Turkish archaeologists. But despite the decisions her family made, Jale İnan went her own way, which was plagued by resistance.
1. Jale İnan wrote her doctoral thesis in a bunker
In the 1930s, Jale İnan received scholarships to universities in Berlin and Munich. But the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, shortly after İnan’s arrival in Germany, prevented a relaxed course of study.
Nevertheless, Jale İnan spent her studies in Germany. In 1943 she moved to a bunker to finish her doctoral thesis on sacrificial rituals and Roman coins.
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| Image Credit-www.tagesspiegel.de |
2. Antalya Museum had to be rebuilt twice because of Jale İnan
Archeology is about discovering the old and creating new knowledge. But Jale İnan also brought the novelty of being the first Turkish woman to work as an archaeologist to science.
Her merits are numerous. İnan participated in the restoration of several ancient cultural sites. This includes the Roman Temple of Apollo. Over the course of her career, she discovered so many artifacts that the Antalya Museum had to be expanded twice to accommodate them.
3. Jale İnan assembled a demigod
Jale İnan made sure that a divided demigod was put back together. One of the many ancient copies of the sculpture Farnese Hercules was dismembered at some point, and the upper torso found its way to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
More on the subject
It was there that Jale İnan spotted him and worked to bring that half back to Turkey where the rest of the Hercules statue was located. Since 2011, ten years after İnan’s death, the whole specimen has been exhibited in the Antalya Museum.
Google Doodle: Who Was Jale İnan – The Archaeologist’s Curriculum Vitae
On February 1, 1914, Jale İnan was born in the same city as the daughter of Aziz Ogan, who later became the director of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Since there was no chair for archeology in Turkey at that time, Jale İnan first studied medicine. However, a German scholarship enabled her to study archeology in Berlin and Munich from 1935 and to do a doctorate in this subject.
After her return to Turkey, she was part of a century-long excavation: together with her colleagues, she uncovered the remains of the Temple of Athena, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But that was not the only merit of the exceptional archaeologist. She helped uncover other cultural treasures in Turkey, including the Temple of Apollo.
The Importance of Jale İnan for Turkish Archaeology
Working on archaeological sites was not all that Jale İnan accomplished. She was responsible for bringing together numerous relics that were scattered in different museums. Their excavations and further efforts meant that new space had to be made several times to house all the relics.
The fact that Google honored her on September 27th also has to do with her efforts to merge relics. She lobbied for an important statue of Hercules to be reunited. Although she died before completing this deed, her efforts ensured that the statue now stands reassembled in Turkey. Because of her pioneering work and the advancement of archeology as science in Turkey, the Dr. Jale İnan Prize was given to a Turkish woman who continues her work.