Main Collections

Explore Squeeze Collection

The Institute houses a unique collection of approximately 8,000 paper squeezes of inscriptions, particularly milestones, from all over Turkey. This collection was partly assembled by former BIAA Director David French and in many cases the original stone inscriptions are lost or destroyed so that the squeezes form the only surviving evidence. The inscriptions are mainly in Greek, and are accompanied by an electronic catalogue. Read More... »
Explore Photographic Collection

The Institute’s archives hold more than 40,000 pictures in various formats, including slides, negatives and prints. They depict archaeological monuments, sites, artefacts, landscapes and people in the region that is now modern Turkey. The oldest part of this collection goes back to the beginnings of the 20th century with the photographs from John Garstang's surveys of Hittite and Classical Anatolia, while the bulk of the pictures date from the 1950s to the early 1990s and were taken in connection with projects sponsored by the BIAA. This collection is particularly significant as many of the archaeological landscapes and monuments captured in the images have since been destroyed or have changed beyond recognition. Read More... »
Explore Pottery Collection

The Institute houses a collection of pottery assembled between the 1940s and the 1970s. The majority is fragmentary pottery, and occasional stone items, from surface surveys such as the Central Anatolian Survey, but there is also sample material from some important excavations carried out in Turkey under the auspices of the British Institute such as at Mersin, Hacılar, Beycesultan and Catalhöyük; as well as some obsidian from Aşıklı Höyük. There are over 1,000 boxes of material organised into 3 broad categories: survey, excavation and published material. All periods are represented, from the Neolithic to the Ottoman, and there are examples of the vast majority of pottery types to be found in Anatolia. Read More... »
Explore Bone and Plant Collection

The BIAA laboratory houses extensive reference collections and has suitable equipment to support environmental research, particularly archaeozoology, palaeoanthropology and archaeobotany. There are four major collections in the laboratory: the seed collection containing 2,792 samples; the herbarium collection of 2,568 specimens; the wood collection which has 250 specimens of modern Turkish trees and shrubs; and the bone collection with 102 skeletons (complete and partial) of mammals and birds. Microscopes, measuring devices, scales, geological sieves, a riffle box and computers are available. Read More... »

Other Collections


Explore Turkish Series Bibliographic Database

The Turkish Series Bibliographic database contains lists of articles published in most of the well-known Turkish academic journals and proceedings, namely Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı, Arkeometri Sonuçları Toplantısı, Müze Çalışmaları Ve Kurtarma Kazıları Sempozyumu,Türk Tarih, Arkeologya ve Etnografya Dergisi, and Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi. PDF versions of all articles from the annual Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı, Arkeometri Sonuçları Toplantısı and Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı are maintained on the website of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and downloadable from the links provided.

Explore The British Academy Black Sea Initiative

The British Academy Black Sea Initiative (BABSI) began as a three-year programme of research in the Black Sea region sponsored by the British Academy and coordinated by the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). The aim of the initiative was to lay the groundwork for longer-term development of study in the region. Established in the spring of 2002, this first stage of BABSI came to a conclusion at the end of March 2005. However, the British Institute at Ankara has continued to support elements of the Initiative. Hitherto artificial modern boundaries have sliced through a region for which the sea was not so much a division as a central highway. The British Academy Black Sea Initiative aims to support and promote study of the Black Sea region within British universities and to initiate increased interaction between British academics and scholars from the countries neighbouring the Black Sea, as well as within a wider international context. While the existing core of expertise and practice can be built on, this initiative actively reaches out to a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, ethnography, geography, history, art history, linguistics, and literature. The promotion of a thematic approach will explicitly expand the academic base while contributing to an inter-disciplinary synergy.

The British Academy Black Sea Initiative (BABSI) began as a three-year programme of research in the Black Sea region sponsored by the British Academy and coordinated by the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). The aim of the initiative was to lay the groundwork for longer-term development of study in the region. Established in the spring of 2002, this first stage of BABSI came to a conclusion at the end of March 2005. However, the British Institute at Ankara has continued to support elements of the Initiative.

A Web-Based bibliography of academic work about the Black Sea region has been prepared by scholars from Turkey, Romania, and the United Kingdom over the course of several years.
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