Theresa Goell
Theresa Bathsheba Goell (July 17, 1901 – December 18, 1985) was an American archaeologist, best known for directing excavations at Nemrud Dagh in south-eastern Turkey. Born in New York, she earned a BA at Radcliffe College, then graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge, and later studied at New York and Columbia Universities in New York. Goell travelled to the Middle East in the 1930s, working with archaeologists in Jerusalem and Gerasa, before returning to New York. She returned to the Middle East after the Second World War, and in 1947 visited Nemrud Dagh for the first time; excavations there would become her life's work. Goell was involved in excavations at a number of other Middle Eastern sites over the course of her career, including at Tarsus and Samosata. Goell's work in Turkey "nearly single-handedly opened up ancient Commagene to the world". Early life and education Theresa Goell was born in New York, on 17 July 1901. Her parents, Jacob and Mary Samowitz Goell, were middle-class Jews who had emigrated to the US from Russia. Goell was the second of three children; her sister, Eva, would with her husband Philip Godfrey financially support Goell's career, while her brother, Kermit, would go on