Objectives

SARAT is a project whose goal is to contribute to the safeguarding of Turkey’s archaeological assets through people-oriented approaches that enhance capacity and awareness.

In order to achieve this goal, we seek to:

• Understand the relationship that people in Turkey have with archaeology and with their country’s archaeological heritage and come up with new ideas about how to develop that relationship;

• Increase social awareness about safeguarding archaeological assets and explain that protection can succeed only when many individuals–and not just organisations–feel responsible for their protection;

• Increase the professional and technical capacity and knowhow of those working in the fields of archaeology and cultural heritage by means of online courses and workshops;

• Increase risk-management knowledge and experience about how to deal with potential emergencies in the museums housing Turkey’s vast store of archaeological assets;

• Increase archaeology-related knowhow and awareness among journalists in order to improve the accuracy and quality of their archaeological news reporting;

• Explain the harm that illegal excavations, treasure-hunting, and illicit trafficking in archaeological artefacts cause to archaeological assets and to knowledge about them.