ucl, research assistant 2020-2021

Escaping a background in finance, Saltanat was bitten by the archaeological bug while volunteering on an archaeological excavation in Mongolia. Her abiding fondness for jigsaw puzzles led her to metallurgy which ‘is like a having a conversation with ancient metallurgists and asking them how and why they used this or that ore or how they smelted copper or alloyed bronze’. The Altai mountains are where she likes best to spend her time…investigating everything from Andronovo to Scythian cultures. When she is not running EDS X-ray microanalysis she is singing along with Callas or you know, hiking. Everyone on the CAAL project respects her motto ‘begin before you are ready’.

Saltanat has left the CAAL project and is currently pursuing her PhD at University of Cambridge.