MACHTELD MELLINK was internationally renowned for her leadership in the archaeology of Turkey. With a deep interest in the interconnections between Ancient Greece and the Near East, she exemplified a scholarship that drew no boundaries but embraced the Old World in all its historical and cultural dimensions.

Between 1947 and 1949 she participated in the trail-blazing excavation of Tarsus in Cilicia conducted by Hetty Goldman. Then from 1950-65 she was a staff member of the important excavation of Gordion, the capital of the legendary King Midas of Phrygia, and from this came a lifelong association with the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology.

While working at Tarsus she became fascinated by the highlands of Lycia and in 1963 she struck out on her own to the plain of Elmali, where no previous archaeological work had been done. There she uncovered at Karatas-Semayük an important Early Bronze Age settlement and cemetery that contributed greatly to the understanding of Anatolian communities and interconnections with the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean during the third millennium BC. The Elmali plain is rich in antiquities and Professor Mellink actively intervened to prevent looting. She led salvage excavations that resulted in the discovery and conservation of the spectacular painted tombs from the late 6th to the early 5th century BC at Kizibel and Karaburun.

Over the course of her long career she brought international attention to archaeological discoveries throughout Turkey and the instrument for this was her authoritative annual report in the American Journal of Archaeology from 1955 to 1994 on discoveries in Turkey.

She was an early advocate for international controls over the traffic in illegally obtained antiquities and was in the forefront of archaeologists in the United States who objected to the purchase and display of unprovenanced artifacts by museums. Professor Mellink also maintained a lifelong interest in Troy and was a partner in the recent project there undertaken by the universities of Tübingen and Cincinnati.

In 1986 she was honoured by her students and colleagues in a volume of essays entitled Ancient Anatolia, and again in 1994 at an international symposium in Istanbul on archaeology in Turkey, where Bryn Mawr College alumnae and professional colleagues and friends gathered to appreciate her contributions.

The results of her research in the Elmali area are published in the Elmali-Karatas series and in Kizibel: An Archaic Painted Tomb Chamber in Northern Lycia. Her earlier research was published as A Hittite Cemetery at Gordion and a chapter in Excavations at Gözlü Kule, Tarsus II. She also wrote Anatolian Chronology in Chronologies in Old World Archaeology. Among her many edited books are Frühe Stufen der Kunst , in the series of the Propylaean Kunstgeschichte (Berlin 1974) and the popular Troy and the Trojan War (1986). She was an unparalleled master of gracefully written, pithy and prophetic interpretations of the past, of which scores were published in many international journals.

Born in the Netherlands in 1917, Machteld Johanna Mellink studied at the University of Amsterdam and, because of the war, received her doctorate in 1943 from the University of Utrecht. During the German occupation she was active in the Dutch Resistance. She came to Bryn Mawr College in 1946-47 with a Marion Reilly Fellowship of the International Federation of University Women and then spent the summer of 1947 at the University of Chicago under a Ryerson grant.

She began teaching at Bryn Mawr in 1949 and retired in 1988, having served 28 years as chair of her department, which flourished under her leadership. Her international recognition included an honorary LLD from the University of Pennsylvania and an honorary doctorate of history from the University of Eskisehir. She received the Archaeological Institute of America’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement in 1991 and the University of Pennsylvania Museum’s Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal for Archaeological Achievement in 1994.

The Ministry of Culture of Turkey recognised her as the senior American excavator in 1984 and the senior foreign archaeologist in 1985. In 2001 the Archaeological Institute of America established in her honour the Machteld Mellink Lecture in Near Eastern Archaeology.

She was a member of many international archaeological societies. Her professional service included serving as president of the American Research Institute in Turkey, president of the Archaeological Institute of America, trustee of the American Society of Oriental Research, chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology and acting dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Bryn Mawr College.

She advised scores of undergraduate and graduate students and supported and followed their careers in archaeology with keen interest. An indefatigable correspondent and adviser, she actively helped colleagues around the world with their scholarship and made special efforts to support and promote their work. For this reason alone she has had an extraordinary impact on the archaeology of the Old World.

She is survived by her sister, Dr Johanna Pel-Mellink.

Professor Machteld Mellink, Emerita Professor in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology of Bryn Mawr College, was born on October 26, 1917. She died on February 23, 2006, aged 88.