Mehmet Somel

Human Past Senior Fellow, SCAS.
Professor of Biology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara

Mehmet Somel did his PhD at the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (2004–2008) and held
postdoctoral fellowships at PICB Shanghai and UC Berkeley (2008–2013), using transcriptome data to
study human brain evolution and ageing. Since 2013, he has been a faculty member at the Department
of Biological Sciences, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey, working as part of t
he CompEvo group and the METU/Hacettepe Ancient DNA team. The group has been producing and
analysing ancient genomes from humans, sheep, wild asses, and other species, mainly from SW Asia.
A central motivation has been to use genetic data to uncover the cultural practices of past societies in t
he region, such as biological versus social kinship ties among co-buried individuals in Neolithic villages
(Yaka et al. 2021, Current Biology) or sex-biased mobility (Koptekin et al. 2023, Current Biology), and
how such patterns have changed over time. For instance, the group’s findings suggest that the gender-
related dynamics in Neolithic Anatolia may have differed from those in later Neolithic Europe, with strong
patrilocality being observed in Europe but not in Anatolia. 

At SCAS, Somel will work on the transformation of Anatolia in the 2nd millennium CE, when the penin-
sula underwent major cultural shifts with the mixing of incoming nomadic Turkic tribes with the mainly
Greek- and Armenian-speaking local populations. He will be co-analysing archaeogenomic data and the
historical literature in an attempt to better understand the pull and push factors behind the massive religious
and linguistic conversion of Anatolia.

Mehmet Somel is in residence in the spring of 2025.
This information is accurate as of the academic year 2024-25.