The development of ancient (East) history after 1950:Scholars, institutions, publications and historiography

Ancient history research which is greatly influenced by the power and its ideologies began in the Republic's founding years under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey. The foundations of disciplines such as Hittitology and Sumerology was laid in the 1930s in the universities opened in Turkey and scholars have been trained in these disciplines and also important studies have been done in the universities. This situation started to change due to the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the changing state administrations. Especially in 1950, it was observed that the ancient history lost the importance and didn't see the support expected by the state. In this study, the reasons of this situation and relationship between ancient history and politics of that period are mentioned. In the 1930s, despite the fact that much work was done on the ancient history, the development of the discipline in the following years receded into background. In this study, it will be tried to take into consideration the historical process of ancient (East) history in Turkey, Turkish ancient Near Eastern historians who have made great contributions to the ancient history and their studies and some research institutions (in Turkey) which are so valuable for the ancient historiography in terms of research opportunities.