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

Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt
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 the 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 the 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 peninsula 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.