Ömer Selahattin Kantar was a Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 archaeologist, museum director, journalist and playwright.

In 1927, he became the founding director of İzmir Archaeology Museum and he held this post until his death. Between 1932-1941, he was responsible for the first organized archaeological excavations at the site of the ancient city of Smyrna

Smyrna

Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...

, a task he carried out jointly with the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 archaeologist Rudolf Naumann. Opening up of a large part of Smyrna's Agora

Agora

The Agora was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Greek city-states. Early in Greek history , free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather in the Agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later, the Agora also served as a marketplace where...

, location of İzmir Agora Open Air Museum today, is due to their work. Naumann and Kantar published the results of their findings for the first time in 1935, with a final version having appeared after Kantar's death in 1950.