Halet Çambel (27 August 1916 – 12 January 2014) was a Turkish archaeologist and Olympic fencer. She was the first woman with a Muslim background to compete in the Olympic Games. Private life Çambel was born in Berlin, German Empire on 27 August 1916, to Turkish military attaché Hasan Cemil Bey (Çambel), a close associate of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, and Remziye Hanım, the daughter of Ibrahim Hakki Pasha, a former Grand Vizier (prime minister of the Ottoman sultan) and the Ottoman ambassador to the German Empire at the time. She completed her secondary education at Arnavutköy American High School for Girls (today Robert College). During the high school years, she was inspired by her history of art teacher, who organized visits to historic sites of Istanbul. It was at this time that she began to perform fencing. Between 1933–1939, she was educated in archaeology at Sorbonne University in Paris, France. Çambel became a scientific assistant at Istanbul University in 1940. In 1944, she received a doctorate. From 1947 on, Çambel served as lecturer. She was a visiting scholar for two years at University of Saarbrücken in Germany. In 1960, she was appointed professor and founded the Institute of Prehistory. She became emeritus in 1984. On returning to Istanbul after the 1936 Summer Olympics, where she represented her country, she started a relationship with Nail Çakırhan, a communist poet and journalist, who became a celebrated architect. They were married for seventy years until the death of Nail Çakırhan in October 2008. Çambel died at age 97 in Istanbul on 12 January 2014. Following a memorial ceremony held at Istanbul University's Faculty of Letters, she was taken to Akyaka, Muğla, where she was interred beside her spouse's grave. Sports She competed in the women's individual foil event at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Çambel was the first Muslim woman to compete in the Olympics. Although invited by a "female German official" to meet Adolf Hitler, Çambel refused it because of Hitler's mistreatment of Jews. Professional career After World War II, Çambel began studying with German archaeologist Helmuth Theodor Bossert (1889–1961), who was professor for archaeology at Istanbul University. In 1947, Bossert and she began excavating Karatepe, the walled city of 12th century BC late Hiitite king Azatiwada, located at the Taurus Mountains in southern Turkey. She played a key role in the decryption of Hittite hieroglyphics with the