University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

Jacques Bordaz (1926-2000) was a French-born anthropologist and archaeologist who conducted field work and research at Native-American sites from 1949-1963, and at Neanderthal and Neolithic sites in Iraq and Turkey since 1960. Along with his wife, fellow archaeologist Louise Alpers Bordaz (1941-2002), he excavated and studied the Neolithic sites of Suberde and Erbaba in southwestern Turkey between 1964 and 1978. A major focus of both of these projects was the study of the manufacture and use of stone tools. The Suberde project included an analysis of animal bone remains to determine patterns of hunting and stock-raising, and the Erbaba project included analysis of Neolithic pottery. Jacques and Louise Bordaz subsequently undertook a joint study of the traditional crafts of Turkey. The Jacques Bordaz papers consist of 13.8 linear feet of textual documents from 1958 to 2003 (bulk 1960-1989) and photographs from 1956 to 1977. The greater part of the collection (7.5 linear feet, including card indexes) relates to the Suberde and Erbaba projects. There are a few files related to the Neanderthal site of Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq, excavated under the direction of Robert Solecki (1960-1961), a survey of the Dandalas Valley in southwestern Turkey (1962), and a curious collection of Termatrex data sheets intended for analysis and interpretation of a number of sites in Turkey and the Middle East. The collection includes records pertaining to the early teaching careers of both Jacques and Louise Bordaz, but there is virtually no record of Bordaz’ Native-American research except for a small file from the Mott’s Point site in New York, and some photographic prints from the Penitas project in Mexico. Text files concerning traditional crafts of Turkey are not well represented. About 30% of the files in this collection are in French. A collection of slides documenting the Karatas, Suberde and Erbaba sites, as well as a significant collection of slides pertaining to the traditional crafts of Turkey, is filed separately.