Kenan Erim

Kenan Tevfik Erim (13 February 1929, İstanbul – 3 November 1990, Ankara) was a Turkish archaeologist who excavated from 1961 until his death at the site of Aphrodisias in Turkey.

Life Erim's father, Tevfik Erim, was a diplomat who was a member of the Political Section of the Secretariat of the League of Nations in the 1930s (attending as such the Évian Conference) and of the Turkish delegation to the United Nations in the 1950s. Kenan Erim was raised and educated in Geneva, Switzerland, and undertook his university studies in the United States. He took his first degree in Classical archaeology at New York University (NYU) in 1953, and his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1958.

In 1957, he lectured at Indiana University, and from 1958 onwards he was employed by NYU, where he became full professor in 1971. The NYU Institute of Fine Arts, alongside Oxford University, continues to supervise the excavations at Aphrodisias to this day. There is a grave memorial to Professor Erim near the reconstructed Tetraplyon.

Honours 1961: Guggenheim Fellowship 1986: Liberty Medal of New York City 1987: Commendatore of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy 1988: National Geographic Society Centennial Medal