Machteld J. Mellink papers

The Machteld Mellink papers cover Professor Mellink’s academic and archaeological career from the late 1950s to the early 2000s. Included in the collection are her writings and notes, photographs, publications, and a few excavation tools. Researchers interested in Mellink’s academic career, as well as her work related to excavation sites such as Kızılbel, Tarsus, and Sardis, will find valuable information in this collection. However, this collection does not provide particularly strong insight into archaeological history, nor Professor Mellink’s thought process when approaching archaeological issues. Instead, this collection is mostly comprised of lecture notes, manuscripts of writings, organizational material, and works sent to Mellink by colleagues in the field.

The collection contains twenty series, including: "Series I: Awards;" "Series II: Bryn Mawr College;" "Series III: Correspondence;" "Series IV: Edith Porada;" "Series V: Elizabeth Simpson;" "Series VI: Excavations;" "Series VII: Hetty Goldman;" "Series VIII: News Clippings;" "Series IX: Organizations and Institutions;" "Series X: Personal Material;" "Series XI: Photographs and Graphic Materials;" "Series XII: Professional Events;" "Series XIII: Projects;" "Series XIV: Subject and Research Files;" "Series XV: Travel;" "Series XVI: Troy;" "Series XVII: Writings by Machteld Mellink;" "Series XVIII: Writings by Others;" "Series XIX: Writings-Unattributed;" and finally, "Series XX: Miscellaneous material found in the collection." The collection came to Bryn Mawr in a variety of folders, envelopes, and other enclosures. Folder titles were taken from these enclosures and used extensively. Due to a number of different languages and Mellink's unique handwriting, folder titles may not be entirely accurate.

The “Series I: Awards” series contains two awards given to Mellink during her career. The first is an award given by the nation of Turkey to commemorate Mellink’s contribution to their archaeological history in 1973. The second is the Christian R. and Mary Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching at Bryn Mawr College. The “Series II: Bryn Mawr College” series is divided into two subseries: “Courses,” and “Collected Material.” The “Courses” subseries contains lecture notes on different archaeological subjects assembled by Mellink for her courses taught at Bryn Mawr. The “Series III: Collected Material” subseries contains bulletins, course catalogs, and correspondence related to her position at Bryn Mawr, covering the years of 1938 to 1996. The “Correspondence" series contains letters written to and from her colleagues and friends. These are listed in alphabetical order by the individual correspondent or institution. There are also several folders containing correspondence with unidentified individuals, which are organized by the date of the letter. Postcards, invitations, and stationary are found throughout the series. The “Series IV: Edith Porada” series contains biographical material and notes related to Mellink’s archaeological colleague, Edith Porada, an archaeologist at Columbia University. The “Series V: Elizabeth Simpson” series contains material related to Mellink’s colleague Elizabeth Simpson, professor at the Bard Graduate Center. This series included some of Simpson’s writings on furniture from Gordion, as well as some excavation notes. The “Series VI: Excavations” series is one of the strengths of the collection, containing Mellink’s notes, writings, and sketches of various archaeological sites across Turkey from 1966 to 1998. Included in this series is material related to Boğazköy (Hattusha), Sardis, and Tarsus sites. The “Series VII: Hetty Goldman” series contains material related to the professional and personal relationship between Machteld Mellink and her close colleague, Hetty Goldman (1881-1972) an archaeologist who worked extensively in Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey, and with whom Mellink worked at Tarsus. Goldman earned her A.B. in English and Greek from Bryn Mawr College in 1903, her M.A. from Radcliffe College in 1910 and her Ph.D. from Radcliffe College in 1916. In 1936, Goldman became the first female professor at the School of Humanistic Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Included in this collection is correspondence written by Hetty Goldman from 1947 to 1972. Also within this series are Hetty Goldman’s diaries from 1900 to the 1930s. The “Series VIII: News Clippings” series is comprised of articles and clippings from various newspapers from 1959 to 1993. Most of these clippings relate to new archaeological discoveries, as well as reports of looting from various excavation sites. The “Series IX: Organizations and Institutions” series covers Mellink’s involvement in many archaeological organizations and institutions from 1970 to 1998. Mellink was heavily involved in the Archaeological Institute of America, the American Journal of Archaeology, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and the American Research Institute in Turkey, which are all well represented in this series. The “Series X: Personal Material” series contains calendars, keepsakes, resumes, material related to Mellink’s retirement from Bryn Mawr College, a telephone book, and excavation tools belonging to Mellink. The keepsakes in this series include postcards and pins. “Series XI: Photographs and Graphic Materials” contains images from the 1950s through 1998. “Photographs” includes photos, slides, and negatives of Machteld Mellink, excavations, and events throughout her life. “Graphic Materials” includes drawings and prints of sites and were collected by Mellink. Throughout her career, Mellink attended numerous archaeological events that are detailed in the “Series XII: Professional Events” series. Within this series is material related to and from colloquia, conferences, lectures, seminars, and symposia, as well as invitations and announcements. The events in this series are from 1962 to 1998. The “Series XIII: Projects” series contains material relating to various projects Mellink worked on and observed, such as Ayia Irini on Keos in Greece in 1983 and the Tigris area in 1990. Also included in this series are applications and excavation material. “Series XIV: Subject and Research Files” is a sizeable series containing Mellink’s handwritten and typed notes along with material she collected regarding her research, writings, and interests. Files within this series include subjects and topics such as radiocarbon dating, Sardis, Tarsus, underwater archaeology, Phrygia, and Egypt and Mesopotamia. Also within this series are notes arranged by date, as well as Mellink’s hand-written card file bibliography. Mellink travelled the world for much of her career, and evidence of her travels can be found in the “Series XV: Travel” series. Within “Travel” are boarding passes, tickets, maps, souvenirs, and postcards. The “Series XVI: Troy” series holds notes, correspondence, lecture material, photographs, and reports relating to the archaeological site of Troy in Turkey from the 1980s to 1998. She both worked on and observed the excavations at this site. Also found within this series are Mellink’s notes and research regarding archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890). The series “Series XVII: Writings by Machteld Mellink” holds Mellink’s notes, drafts, and manuscripts from many of her writings including her "Archaeology in Anatolia" series from the American Journal of Archaeology, Elmalı-Karataş II, and Kızılbel. While the bulk of the dates in this series range from 1959 to 1998, there are various undated documents. “Series XVIII: Writings by Others” and “Writings-Unattributed” hold works that Mellink reviewed, contributed to, collected and read. “Writings by Others” includes writings by archaeologists Halet Çambel, Sevim Buluç, Mehmet Özdoğan, Raci Temizer, and Malcolm Wiener. Materials in this series are also listed by title, when the author’s name could not be identified. “Series XIX: Writings-Unattributed” contains works that were either unsigned or could not be ascribed at this time to an author. Titles in this series include Burdur, Oriental Relations, and Didyma. The final series in the collection is the “Series XX: Miscellaneous” series. This series contains material that is purely miscellaneous and could not be placed within one of the abovementioned series. Items include magazines, unidentified documents, and other material.

This is a fascinating collection for researchers studying Machteld Mellink herself, as well as the role of women in archaeology, and the field of archaeology generally in the mid to late 20th century. Mellink was described in her 2006 obituary in the New York Times as “an archaeologist and authority on ancient sites in Turkey, who became a forceful voice for ending the international trafficking of looted antiquities.” Her impact and work is clearly evident in this collection through photographs and writings that illustrate her life’s work.

Bibliography:

Pearce, Jeremy. “Machteld J. Mellink, 88, Archaeologist, Dies." The New York Times. March 6, 2006.