Mehmet Somel (Incoming Fellow 2024-25)

Professor of Biology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara

As a Human Past Fellow at SCAS, Mehmet Somel will work on the transformation of Anatolia in
the 2nd millennium CE, when the peninsula underwent major cultural shifts along with the admixture
between incoming nomadic Turkic tribes and the mainly Greek- and Armenian-speaking local popu-
lations. He will be co-analysing archaeogenomic data and the historical literature in an attempt to
better understand the pull and push factors behind the massive religious and linguistic conversion of
Anatolia.