The “Worthless Stones” of Zincirli: Osman Hamdi Bey and the German Excavations of 1888–1902

Year 2024, Issue: 31, 213 - 244, 14.01.2025

Oğuz Satır , Ali Çifçi

https://doi.org/10.26650/anar.2024.31.1594553

Abstract

This study investigates the archaeological excavations carried out by the German Orient-Comité at Zincirli Höyük between 1888 and 1902, using the Ottoman archives of the period and the documents in the Ottoman Imperial Museum. In addition to these archival documents, the wider work of the German archaeologists will be analyzed within this context. This study will focus on the relationships between Osman Hamdi Bey, the director of the Ottoman Imperial Museum at the time, Carl Humann, and Felix von Luschan. It will also reconstruct their excavation processes in Zincirli in the context of Ottoman bureaucracy. Most importantly, it will analyze how Hamdi Bey’s influence on that bureaucracy allowed the artifacts unearthed during the excavations to be taken to Germany despite the 1884 Asar-ı Atika (Antiquities) Regulation.

Keywords

Carl Humann, Osman Hamdi Bey, Felix von Luschan, Zincirli Excavations, Neo-Hittite

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