Tahsin Özgüç

Tahsin Özgüc (* March 20, 1916 in Kardzhali, Bulgaria, † 28 October 2005 in Ankara) was a Turkish Near Eastern archaeologist.

Tahsin Özgüc belonged to the first generation archaeologists trained in Turkey. At the newly created University of Ankara, among other German exiles were like the archaeologist Hans Henning von der Osten and the orientalists Hans Gustav Guterbock and Benno Landsberger his teachers. In 1942 he is PhD, 1945 Assistant Lecturer in 1946 and 1954 finally professor. Guest professorships led him to Princeton from 1962 to 1964, 1964 to the University of Saarland and 1975/76 at the LMU Munich.

1948 Özgüc began his most important work that should keep him busy for more than five decades of excavation in Kültepe, the site of the Old Assyrian trading post Kanes. Further excavations he conducted, among others, in Altıntepe in northeastern Turkey and MASAT Höyük.

In addition to his scientific work Özgüc was active in the academic administration, in 1968/69 Dean of his department and from 1969 to 1980, alongside his work as an archaeologist Rector of the University of Ankara. In addition, the Nestor had participated Near Eastern Archaeology in Turkey ( FU - News 6 /2001) as a member of the Government Commission for the reform of the educational system instrumental in expanding the university system in Turkey.

In May 2001, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at the Free University of Berlin. A great Hittite exhibition at the end of 2001 in Cologne and Bonn declined to Özgüçs initiative. He was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the American Institute of Archaeology, the German Archaeological Institute, the British Academy and other Turkish and international associations.