Collaborative Indigenous Archaeology in Turkey: The Sardis Case

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Since the early 1900s, the archaeological site of Sardis has attracted Classical archaeologists. However, archaeologists’ interaction with the local population has always been limited to labor and domestic service exchange. Such a relationship reflects colonial origins of archaeology in the Middle East and doesn’t address the knowledge-based needs of the young population. The research aim was to adapt Indigenous collaborative archaeology to Turkey to decolonize local-archaeologist relationships, enabling local youth to co-produce knowledge for Sardis. In April 2021–February 2022, I collaborated with sixth-grade students and the social science teacher of Bahçeşehir Middle School. We designed nine informational panels for the 8–12-year-old visitors of Sardis. During the design process, we conducted regular Zoom class sessions (1) for students to share their ideas and curiosities and (2) provide feedback on draft and finalized panels. The results showed that Indigenous collaborative methodologies have great potential in Turkey. Students’ interest for archaeology has increased while teachers found an opportunity to promote heritage stewardship among students. Students expressed their willingness to continue the partnership by designing QR-code-based phone applications. Involving local schools as research partner helps archaeologists diversify their interactions with young generations in line with the global movement toward archaeological ethics.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35869.0