Halet Çambel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1916-08-27)27 August 1916 |
| Died | 12 January 2014(2014-01-12) (aged 97) Istanbul, Turkey |
| Resting place | Akyaka, Muğla, Turkey |
| Nationality | Turkish |
| Education | Archaeology |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Archaeologist |
| Spouse | Nail Çakırhan |
| Awards | Prince Claus Award |
Halet Çambel (27 August 1916 – 12 January 2014) was a Turkisharchaeologist and Olympicfencer. She was the first woman with a Muslim background to compete in theOlympic Games.[1]
Çambel was born inBerlin,German Empire on 27 August 1916, to Turkishmilitary attachéHasan Cemil Bey (Çambel), a close associate ofMustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, and Remziye Hanım, the daughter ofIbrahim Hakki Pasha, a formerGrand Vizier (prime minister of the Ottoman sultan) and the Ottomanambassador to theGerman Empire at the time.[2]
She completed her secondary education atArnavutköy American High School for Girls (today Robert College). During the high school years, she was inspired by herhistory of art teacher, who organized visits to historic sites of Istanbul. It was at this time that she began to performfencing. Between 1933 and 1939, she was educated inarchaeology atSorbonne University inParis, France. Çambel became a scientific assistant atIstanbul University in 1940. In 1944, she received a doctorate. From 1947 on, Çambel served as lecturer.[3] She was avisiting scholar for two years atUniversity of Saarbrücken in Germany.[2] In 1960, she was appointed professor and founded the Institute of Prehistory. She becameemeritus in 1984.[4]
On returning toIstanbul after the 1936 Summer Olympics, where she represented her country, she started a relationship withNail Çakırhan, a communist poet and journalist, who became a celebrated architect.[2] They were married for seventy years until the death of Nail Çakırhan in October 2008.
Çambel died at age 97 in Istanbul on 12 January 2014.[5] Following a memorial ceremony held at Istanbul University's Faculty of Letters, she was taken toAkyaka, Muğla, where she was interred beside her spouse's grave.[2]
She competed in the women's individualfoil event at the1936 Summer Olympics, at which she lost all five of her bouts.[6] Çambel was the first Muslim woman to compete in the Olympics.[7] Although invited by a "female German official" to meetAdolf Hitler, Çambel refused it on political grounds.[8][2]
AfterWorld War II, Çambel began studying with German archaeologistHelmuth Theodor Bossert (1889–1961), who was professor for archaeology at Istanbul University. In 1947, Bossert and she began excavatingKaratepe, the walled city of 12th century BC lateHiitite kingAzatiwada, located at theTaurus Mountains in southern Turkey.[2] She played a key role in the decryption ofHittite hieroglyphics with the help of thePhoenician alphabet after their discovery ofKaratepe Bilingual there.[3]
Çambel was also active in promoting the preservation of Turkey's cultural heritage. In the 1950s, she resisted the government's attempt to move the artifacts fromKaratepe to a museum. The government eventually agreed, and in 1960 established an outdoor museum, theKaratepe-Aslantaş Open-Air Museum, where her husband Nail Çakırhan designed some buildings. She also fought efforts to dam theCeyhan River, which would have flooded many archaeological sites. She was able to have the proposed water level reduced sufficiently to save the sites.[3]
Çambel was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1979.[9] In 2004, she received thePrince Claus Award in theNetherlands.[2] The jury report cited her "for conducting rescue excavations of endangered heritage sites, introducing stone restoration and ensuring proper conservation of significant cultural heritage in Turkey", for founding a chair ofPrehistoric archaeology at Istanbul University, and "for her dedicated scholarship and for her unique role in expanding the possibilities for interaction between people and their cultural heritage."[10]
Çambel was celebrated in an exhibitionCumhuriyet Kadınları Sahneye Çıkıyor: Cevval, Akılcı, Dirençli, Sabırlı ve İnançlı, (Republican Women Take to the Stage: Brave, Rational, Resistant, Patient and Faithful) organised atGoethe-InstitutAnkara from 5 December 2023 to 4 February 2024 in honour of the 100th anniversary of the founding of theRepublic of Turkey and the 90th anniversary of Turkish women gaining the right to vote. It showcased the lives and careers of six women who were educated in the young Turkish Republic and theWeimar Republic and whose careers made an impact on the world. Alongside Çambel, the exhibition featured computer scientistMarianne Laqueur, architectMualla Eyüboğlu Anhegger,Semiha Berksoy, Turkey's first Muslim opera singer, paediatrician Erna Eckstein Schlossmann and architectMargarete Schütte-Lihotzky.[11][12][13]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
