In 1947 she and professor Bossert began excavating Karatepe, the walled city of 12th century BCE late Hittite king Azatiwadda, located in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey.
Back in Turkey by divorcing from his Russian first wife in 1937 (he was going to be able to see his son only in 1979), he started working in the leftist newspaper "Tan" and married the well-known and respected Olympics pioneer athlete and archaeologist Halet Çambel.