Mustafa Barış Harmankaya

Biography

Bariş works as a Culture and Tourism Expert (archaeologist) for the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, a group of three archaeological museums together housing over a million objects. Bariş spends much of his time conducting fieldwork and is responsible for supervising rescue excavations of archaeological sites and writing reports. As well as this, Bariş carries out duties such as traveling internationally as a courier for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for temporary exhibitions held abroad and undertaking administrative duties from time to time.

Currently, Bariş is overseeing the excavations at the ruins of the St. Polyeuktos Church dating back to the 4th century AD, as well as the excavation for the restoration of the only Byzantine seaside palace in Istanbul: Boukoleon Palace, which will be open to visitors as an open-air museum.

Bariş is also currently completing his MA in Museum Management at Istanbul University, where his thesis will study the Istanbul Airport Museum, one of the few museums located in a fully operational airport.

Bariş also has an interest in Greek and Roman architecture and worked in the Regional Council for the Conservation of Cultural Property Directorates that make decisions for preserving immovable cultural assets, like ruins and monuments, in Istanbul.

While on the ITP Bariş enjoyed comparing museological practices between Turkish and British museums, as well as gaining a further understanding of the excavation models of museums in the UK which provided insight into possible future legislative changes to improve the efficiency of excavations supervised by the museums in Turkey. As well as this, Bariş was interested in learning more about the use of technology in museums, specifically to encourage interactivity and enhance visitor experiences.

At the British Museum

During his time at the British Museum, Bariş was based in the Department of Greece and Rome and his UK partner placement was spent at Lincoln Museum and the University of Nottingham Museum.

Bariş’s participation on the International Training Programme was generously supported by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.