Jale İnan (1 February 1914 – 26 February 2001) was a Turkish
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
, and she is considered to be the first Turkish woman to have been active in the discipline. She led excavations in
Perga
Perga or Perge ( Hittite: ''Parha'', ''Perge'', ) was originally an ancient Lycian settlement that later became a Greek city in Pamphylia. It was the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia Secunda, now located in Antalya Province on the ...
and
Side
Side or Sides may refer to:
Geometry
* Edge (geometry) of a polygon (two-dimensional shape)
* Face (geometry) of a polyhedron (three-dimensional shape)
Places
* Side, Turkey, a city in Turkey
* Side (Ainis), a town of Ainis, ancient Thessaly, ...
which resulted in the expansion of the
Antalya Museum. Her restoration work on the Temple of Apollo in Side was noted for its significance to Turkish heritage. Her scientific work on the "Weary Hercules" statue in the collections of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...
formed the legal basis for return of the bust of the statue to the Antalya Museum to be reunited with the statue's base. The Antalya Women's Museum has an annual award in her honour which recognizes the woman of the year.
Early life
Jale Ogan was born on 1 February 1914 in
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
to Mesture Hanım and as their second daughter Her father was the curator and director of the
İzmir Archeology Museum for many years and later became the director of the
Istanbul Archaeological Museum
The Istanbul Archaeology Museums () are a group of three archaeological museums located in the Eminönü quarter of Istanbul, Turkey, near Gülhane Park and Topkapı Palace. These museums house over one million objects from nearly all periods an ...
. During the beginning decades of the
Turkish Republic, he brought transformation to curatorial work in the country by systematically cataloguing the holdings and utilizing laboratories to scientifically restore objects and artifacts. He also opened galleries to the public expanding museum collections and encouraged his daughter in her desire to study archaeology. After graduating from the
Erenköy Girls High School in 1934, her father helped her secure a scholarship to study abroad, since there was no opportunity for her to continue studies in Turkey.
Studying in Germany, with the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...
scholarship, Ogan began her archaeological training in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, at the
German Archaeological Institute
The German Archaeological Institute (, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office, Federal Foreign Office of Germany.
Status, tasks and ...
. The following year, she was awarded a scholarship to continue studying by the Turkish government. Despite the war, Ogan was determined to complete her doctorate and though
bombs regularly fell on the city, she took her thesis and notes into a bunker continuing to work. Ogan graduated in 1943 after completing her doctoral thesis, ''Kunstgeschichtliche Untersuchung der Opferhandlung auf römischen Münzen'' (Examination of Art History in Sacrifice Rituals on Roman Coins), alongside .
Career
Ogan returned to Turkey in 1943 and became an assistant to , Chair of Ancient History and Numismatics for the
University of Istanbul
Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, it was reformed as the fi ...
. In 1944, she married
Mustafa İnan
Mustafa İnan (1911–1967) was a Turkish civil engineering academic.
Life
He was born in Adana. His mother was Rabia and father was Hüseyin Avni. At the end of the First World War, Adana was occupied by the French forces and his family had t ...
, a civil engineer and instructor at the
Istanbul Technical University
Istanbul Technical University, also known as Technical University of Istanbul (, commonly referred to as İTÜ), is an public university, public technical university located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the world's third-oldest technical university ...
, and the following year gave birth to their son, Hüseyin İnan. She spent the next two years taking photographs of artifacts and organizing the archive at the university. In 1946, she worked with to found a chair of classical archaeology at Istanbul University, as previously the university had no independent archaeological department. That same year, she began
excavations
In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...
with Mansel on the site at
Perga
Perga or Perge ( Hittite: ''Parha'', ''Perge'', ) was originally an ancient Lycian settlement that later became a Greek city in Pamphylia. It was the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia Secunda, now located in Antalya Province on the ...
working on the Temple of Artemis. The following year, they began digs at
Side
Side or Sides may refer to:
Geometry
* Edge (geometry) of a polygon (two-dimensional shape)
* Face (geometry) of a polyhedron (three-dimensional shape)
Places
* Side, Turkey, a city in Turkey
* Side (Ainis), a town of Ainis, ancient Thessaly, ...
, initially working on the site of the Temple of Apollo, continuing their excavations until 1966. During this period, in 1962, the conversion of one of the baths on the site into a museum was completed under İnan's direction and the
Antalya Museum had to be expanded twice to house the findings.
İnan began publishing articles in both German and Turkish on her studies of sculptures. The first was an evaluation of Roman portraits from the
Anatolia
Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
region, ''Antalya bölgesi Roma devri portreleri: Römische Porträts aus dem Gebiet von Antalya'' (Roman portraits from the area of Antalya, 1965) and the following year she published ''Roman and Early Byzantine Portrait Sculpture in Asia Minor'' with . In 1967, İnan was put in charge of the excavations at Perga and that same year, a large group of bronze statues appeared in the United States with a murky
provenance
Provenance () is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including archaeology, p ...
, but with claims of possible origin in south-west Anatolia. İnan began working to try to verify the actual location of origin in 1973. Unlike other finds in which the sites were known and misappropriated pieces later appeared in museums, the bronzes were unique in that the pieces appeared in a museum but their place of origin was unknown.
From 1970 to 1972, İnan worked at a dig site in the ancient city of
Cremna
Cremna or Kremna (), was an ancient town in Pisidia. It is situated in the district of Bucak. It stands in a remote valley on a high plateau dominating the ancient Cestrus River (today Aksu), with limited access and good defensive features.
It ...
in the
Pisidia
Pisidia (; , ; ) was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Pamphylia, northeast of Lycia, west of Isauria and Cilicia, and south of Phrygia, corresponding roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey. Among Pisidia's set ...
region and then between 1972 and 1979 excavated at
Seleucia
Seleucia (; ), also known as or or Seleucia ad Tigrim, was a major Mesopotamian city, located on the west bank of the Tigris River within the present-day Baghdad Governorate in Iraq. It was founded around 305Â BC by Seleucus I Nicator as th ...
along the
Mediterranean coast
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eu ...
north of
Manavgat
Manavgat is a municipality and district of Antalya Province, Turkey. Its area is 2,351 km2, and its population is 252,941 (2022). It is from the city of Antalya. The Manavgat River has a waterfall near the city.
Geography
Between the Ta ...
, uncovering the city
agora
The agora (; , romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Ancient Greece, Greek polis, city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center ...
, as well as several
baths and the temple structure. Dated to the
Hellenistic period
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
, the agora was constructed in the
Ionic Order
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...
and contained decorations depicting the
Seven Sages of Greece
The Seven Sages or Seven Wise Men was the title given to seven philosophers, statesmen, and law-givers of the 7th–6th centuries BCE who were renowned for their wisdom
Wisdom, also known as sapience, is the ability to apply knowledge, ...
as well as mosaics. She was appointed as a full professor at Istanbul University in 1974, and upon Mansel's death, the following year was elevated to the head of the archaeology department.
In 1980, while excavating at Perga, İnan uncovered the bottom half of a 2nd-century AD copy of
Lysippos
Lysippos (; ) was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Classical Greek era, bringing transition into the Hellenistic period. Problems confron ...
' "
Weary Heracles". Rumors at the dig had led them to a workman who was suspected of taking statuary, but no one suspected that the upper torso of the statue was stolen. The following year, the missing half surfaced in New York. The bottom half of the statue was displayed at the Antalia Museum and the upper half was displayed at MFA, after their 1982 acquisition of the piece. From 1981 to 1990, İnan led restoration work on the Temple of Apollo at Side, conserving a significant monument of Turkey's cultural heritage. Though she retired from the university in 1983, İnan continued to work, beginning excavations again in Perga at the Theater in 1985 continuing her work there until 1992.
In 1990, İnan uncovered the Sebasteion, or imperial cult temple, in a dig at
Bubon, which she attributed as the place which had housed the bronze statues she had first heard of in 1967. Her findings were published in the book, ''Boubon Sebasteionu ve heykelleri üzerine son araştırmalar'' in 1994. The bronzes were said to have been brought to the
Burdur Archaeological Museum with an unknown origin, but due to the unauthorized excavations reported at Bubon at that time and the similarities to artifacts found there, İnan began her investigation at that location. From the looter's diary and examination of scattered pieces of arms, heads and torsos held in various collections worldwide, she confirmed that the building had inscriptions for fourteen statues. Though her attribution of seven statues to the Bubon site gained wide acceptance in archaeological circles, the scattered nature of the pieces and the unauthorized excavation of the statues have raised doubts by other researchers.
In 1990, a journalist, Özgen Acar, was attending an exhibition at the
New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and went to see the private collection of Shelby White and
Leon Levy
Leon Levy (September 13, 1925 – April 6, 2003)
April 8, 2003. was an American investor, Connoisseur
A connoisseur (French language, French Reforms of French orthography, traditional, pre-1835, spelling of , from Middle-French , then meaning 'to be acquainted with' or 'to know somebody/something') is a person who has a great deal of knowledge ...
'', İnan did a photo stitching of the bust portion and agreed with Acar that the two pieces were of the same statue. She was determined to retrieve the statue as part of Turkey's cultural heritage and made a
plaster cast
A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a pregnant belly, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – ...
of the lower portion to prove that the two parts would fit together. İnan, Engin Özgen, the General Director Monuments and Museums and students went to Boston with the cast to meet with experts and lawyers, but their results were rejected. At her own expense, İnan made a second trip, with a plaster cast made by an American sculptor, which the Turkish government had hired, in 1992. The second cast conclusively proved the two parts were of the same statue, but the MFA continued to fight returning the piece to Turkey until 2011.
Beginning in 1995, İnan who had
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...
, curtailed her field work and focused her work on publishing. Works produced in this period included ''Toroslar’da Bir Antik Kent: Lyrbe? Seleukeia?'' (1998) and
''Perge'nin Roma devri heykeltraşlığı 1'' (2000), which catalogued the finds made in Perga from 1946 to 1992.
Death and legacy
In 1989, in honor of İnan's 75th birthday, a book, ''Festschrift für Jale Inan'', was published by colleagues and friends in honor of her lifelong accomplishments. Prior to her death, on 26 February 2001, İnan donated her books and compilations to the Antalya Museum. In her honor, the Antalya Women's Museum established the Woman of the Year Award, given annually to recognize women who have contributed to Turkish culture and the development of women. İnan was also featured in the
Google Doodle
Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...
of 27 September 2022.
Her collection, donated by her son Hüseyin İnan, was digitized and made freely available by
Boğaziçi University
Boğaziçi University (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Boğaziçi Üniversitesi''), also known as Bosphorus University, is a Public university, public research university in Istanbul, Turkey, historically tied to a former American educational insti ...
Archives and Documentation Center.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Inan, Jale
1914 births
2001 deaths
Archaeologists from Istanbul
Turkish women archaeologists
20th-century Turkish women writers
20th-century Turkish writers
Erenköy Girls High School alumni
20th-century Turkish archaeologists