Professor Kutalmış Görkay studied Classical Archaeology at Ankara University, where he also completed his PhD on Attic painted pottery of the Archaic and Early Classical periods. During and following his doctoral studies, he held research fellowships at several leading institutions, including the University of Münster (Germany), the University of Oxford (UK), the University of Bordeaux (France), and the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany). He has participated in numerous archaeological excavations and surveys, including those at Arykanda in Lycia, Aphrodisias in Caria, Alexandria Troas in the Troad, and Erythrai in Ionia.
Görkay’s research focuses on the art, architecture, and archaeology of the Greek and Roman worlds, with particular interests in urbanism, domestic architecture, mosaics, and the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. He is the author and co-author of several books, including Zeugma: Between Two Worlds, The Houses and Tombs of Zeugma, From Life to Eternity, and Roman Ancyra.
Since 2005, Görkay has directed the excavations at the ancient city of Zeugma on behalf of the Department of Classical Archaeology at Ankara University, where he taught from 1999 to 2019. Since 2019, he has been based in Oxford, conducting research as an Honorary Research Professor of Ankara University. An Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and Visiting Fellow at several colleges of the University of Oxford, he is currently affiliated with Wolfson College, where he continues his research on the archaeology and cultural history of the eastern Mediterranean. He joined the Department of Archaeology at Bilkent University as a Visiting Professor in 2026.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Ancient Greek and Roman Art and Architecture; Archaeology in the Roman Eastern Frontier; Roman Domestic Architecture and Decoration