JALE İNAN ARCHİVE

Who is Jale İnan?

One of Turkey’s leading archaeologists, Jale İnan was born in Istanbul in 1914 as the daughter of Aziz and Mesture Ogan. Her father, Aziz Ogan, was raised under the tutelage of Osman Hamdi Bey and made significant contributions to Turkish archaeology and museum studies. Jale İnan developed an interest in archaeology from a young age thanks to her father’s profession. She saw ancient sites such as Ephesus, Miletus, and Aphrodisias at an early age and met names such as Theodor Wiegand, Josef Keil, and Gerhart Rodenwaldt. During her high school education, she joined her father Aziz Ogan’s business trips and had the chance to meet many archaeologists throughout her career.

Although Jale İnan really wanted to study archaeology, she started studying medicine in Istanbul because such a department had not yet been opened at universities. In 1934, she was entitled to study classical archaeology at the University of Berlin with an Alexander von Humboldt scholarship. İnan also won a scholarship given by the Republic of Turkey for students studying abroad and became a student of Gerhard Rodenwaldt in Germany.

While continuing his education in classical archaeology at the Universities of Berlin and Munich between 1935 and 1943, he learned German on his own and Latin and Greek in the courses he took at school. In 1943, he received his doctorate with his thesis titled (Examination of Art History in Sacrifice Rituals on Roman Coins).

İnan returned to the country in 1943 and started working as an assistant to Professor Bosch in the Department of Ancient History at the Faculty of Letters at Istanbul University. Later, when Prof. Arif Müfit Masel, who had studied classical archaeology in Germany, became the head of the newly opened classical archaeology department, he became Mansel's assistant in this department.

Jale İnan has an important role in the discovery of findings that shed light on the ancient periods of Anatolia with her research and excavations. She has carried out very important excavations in Antalya Perge-Side, Kremna and Pamphylia Selukeia. Together with her teacher Arif Müfit Mansel, she has carried out projects to protect and restore historical artifacts in various regions of Turkey, and her work on the return of artifacts smuggled abroad, especially the return of the Statue of Tired Herakles, has had a great impact in the world and in our country.

Jale İnan has made significant contributions to archaeology education in Turkey and has trained young researchers. İnan has led many research projects and published numerous articles and books in the field of archaeology. Jale İnan has gained a respected position in Turkey and the international archaeology community with her passion for archaeology and her devoted work.

What's in the collection?

The archive, donated to Boğaziçi University by his son Hüseyin İnan in 2019, is classified under two main headings: biography and archaeology. The biography section includes personal and family documents, correspondence, photographs, postcards, newspaper clippings and other materials. The archaeology section includes academic studies, various excavation notes, correspondence, photographs, Herakles files and newspaper clippings.

The archive of Jale İnan, who holds the title of Turkey's first female archaeologist, is one of the most important sources that illuminates Turkey's history and culture and sheds light on the science of archaeology.

The archive's digitization and classification work has been completed and is available for research on the web.

To access the collection:

https://digitalarchive.library.bogazici.edu.tr/handle/123456789/9527