About

TeachIng and LearnIng

The department's primary field of teaching and research comprises all written works transmitted from antiquity to the present day, together with the cultures to which those works belong. Within the current structure of the department, a substantial portion of this material consists of ancient Greek and Latin sources falling within the discipline of Classical Philology. A central aim of the department is to enable students to understand and engage with the civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome — which played a decisive role in shaping European civilisation, itself built to a considerable degree on an Anatolian cultural inheritance. The department's two divisions — Ancient Greek Language and Literature and Latin Language and Literature — serve this purpose.

Two separate undergraduate programmes are offered. The Ancient Greek Language and Literature programme began in 1998, and the Latin Language and Literature programme in 2019. Because the two are deeply intertwined in terms of linguistic structure, history, culture, and administration, Classical Philology at this department is delivered through an integrated model in which the two programmes complement one another.

Students receive more extensive and specialised instruction in their own programme, but are fundamentally trained to read and interpret literary texts and documents in both ancient Greek and Latin, and to analyse the historical, geographical, and cultural dimensions of both civilisations. Each year the department admits approximately 60 students to the Ancient Greek Language and Literature programme and approximately 30 to the Latin Language and Literature programme.

An EpIgraphIcally OrIented Department

While the department is grounded in Classical Philology, its most distinctive feature — setting it apart from departments of the same name elsewhere — is the prominent place accorded to epigraphy. In this respect, the Department of Ancient Languages and Cultures at Akdeniz University is the first and only epigraphically oriented department of its kind in Turkey.

Epigraphy, in its broadest definition, is the discipline concerned with the study of inscriptions. Epigraphists read and interpret inscriptions; in doing so, they produce transcriptions using period- and language-specific methods, translate and date the texts, and examine every layer of information they contain — vocabulary, linguistic structure, historical and geographical references, social, religious, and cultural relations, administrative and military connections, and the relationship between the text and the monument or site on which it is found — in comparative dialogue with other documents.

The department's epigraphic fieldwork takes place in ancient cities, museums, and surface survey areas. Virtually all academic staff conduct fieldwork in these settings during the summer months, pursuing their research through museum visits, project grants, and the support of local authorities.