Sedat Alp

Sedat Alp (January 1, 1913 in Veroia – October 9, 2006 in Ankara) was the first Turkish archaeologist, historian and academic with a specialization in Hittitology, and was among the foremost names in the field.

In 1932, he earned a state scholarship opened under the personal auspices of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and was sent to the University of Leipzig (he later transferred to the University of Berlin) to study prehistory, history, Hittitology, Sumerology, Assyriology, ancient Anatolian languages and cultures, as well as archaeology in general.

Having earned his doctorate in the University of Berlin, he returned to Turkey in 1940 and started to teach Hittitology within Ankara University's Faculty of Languages, History and Geography (DTCF).

One of his most notable discoveries was the mound of Maşat Höyük, which in the quantities of Hittite cuneiform tablets was second only to the Hittite capital at Hattusas modern Boğazkale, near Çorum.

From 1997 he held an honorary doctorate at the University of Würzburg, and from the following year was made a member of the British Academy and, for the contributions he made to the promotion of knowledge on the region's historical treasures, an honorary citizen of the city of Çorum in north-central Anatolia, where the Hittite capital was situated.