During a career that spanned more than fifty years, he conducted definitive research in several sites along the western coast of Anatolia such as Phokaia (Foça), Pitane (Çandarlı), Erythrai (Ildırı) and old Smyrna (Bayraklı höyük, the original site of the city of Smyrna before the city's move to another spot across the Gulf of İzmir).
He was born on March 30, 1911, in the town of Tulkarm in the Beirut Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (today a Palestinian city in the West Bank), where his mother's family owned a large farm.
He received his first education from his father's sister and her husband, who taught literature in Darülfünun (Istanbul University today).
Akurgal graduated in 1931 from Istanbul High School for Boys and, having earned a state scholarship, went to the University of Berlin in Germany to study archaeology.
He worked mainly in the Aegean Region, starting the research on Phokaia (Foça), Pitane (Çandarlı), Erythrai (Ildırı) and old Smyrna (Bayraklı tumulus).