Y Is For K Aslihan Yener

I can't believe this is the next to last post for the 2012 A to Z. Where has the month gone? It's been a crazy cool April and I've connected with so many great new people. I sure didn't get to visit as many blogs as I wanted, but hopefully the list will be left up so I can use it to visit the rest of my fellow challengers over the next months. Now, on with the show...

Y is for K Aslihan Yener, archaeologist. Her area of expertise is the Bronze Age and throughout the 1980's she made several important discoveries in the Taurus mountains in eastern Turkey (Anatolia). In 1987, while directing an archaeometallurgical survey, she discovered an ancient tin mine at Kestel. It had over two miles of tunnels, most of which were only two feet wide. The mine was apparently worked by children as she also uncovered a mass grave holding the ancient  skeletal remains of fifteen children killed in a tunnel collapse.

In 1989 on a hill opposite the mine, Yener uncovered a site containing almost 50,000 fragments of Bronze Age tools and evidence that this place, an ancient city, had been continuously occupied from 3290 BC to 1840  BC. She and her team also discovered that much of this city was subterranean. By 1993, Yener had uncovered enough evidence to prove her theory that tin was a viable industry in this area during the Bronze Age.

Yener joined the faculty of Chicago's world renowned Oriental Institute in 1993 and remains an Associate Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology. She is also currently the director of the Amuq Regional Valley Project in southern Turkey and is researching a site at Tell Atchana, the capital of the Kingdom of Mukush during the time of the Hittite Empire. In 2009 she joined the faculty of Koc University.

Fun Fact

Ancient garbage dumps are referred to as middens. Archeologists will tell you that they provide some of the best material for study. I can only imagine my South Side scrap yard as a midden 1000 years from now. Well, if the Mayan zombies haven't eaten our brains this December and ended the world, that is. 

Thank you so much for visiting. I appreciate you taking the time to read my post on Aslihan and hope enjoyed her story. To visit my fellow awesome A to Z challengers, please click here.