Turkey opens new archaeology institute in quake-hit city

This article was first published by the Art Newspaper.

Turkey has unveiled a new archaeology research centre that includes the country’s first archaeometry laboratory and vast digital archive, as well as a promise for greater international cooperation in the field after years of tighter control by the government.

The Є7.5mn Turkish Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Institute, which officially opened on 25 October in a 19th-century defunct Armenian Catholic church in the city of Gaziantep, brings an advanced research facility to a region of the country where excavations at Neolithic sites Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe have disrupted the paradigm on the beginnings of civilisation.