As part of the 100-year Friendship Treaty festivities, this project highlights the significance of the scientific work done by the Dutch archaeologist Emilie Haspels (1894-1980) in the 1930s-1950s in the ‘Phrygian Highlands’ region, south of Eskişehir. She led excavations at the 7th century BCE Midas Monument and was the first to document many of the rock-cut monuments in the region. The Midas Monument carries an inscription linking the site to the legendary King Midas, king of the Phrygians. Haspels’ publications are still the reference works on the Iron Age (Phrygian) rock-cut monuments from the area. She went on to become Professor of classical archaeology at the University of Amsterdam and Director of the Allard Pierson Museum.

In partnership with the Netherlands Institute in Turkey, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Heritage Studies/Architectural History), and Middle East Technical University (Graduate Program for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage), and supported by the Netherlands Embassy in Ankara, this project aims to focus on the house in the village of Yazilikaya where she stayed during her fieldwork. A small Turkish-Dutch team will document this building (architecture, building techniques, traditional Anatolian village architecture, current state) and develop a plan to make her life and work visible to visitors to the archaeological site and village. 

Image: Emilie Haspels at the Yazılıkaya Village, Eskişehir. Allard Pierson, Universiteit van Amsterdam, archief van C.H. Emilie Haspes.