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MUSEUMS ABOUND IN ANATOLIA
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Aug 2 2007
With archaeological excavations constantly unearthing new discoveries
across Turkey, Anatolia's museums are filling up with exciting new
discoveries.
Mevlana Museum
The graves of seven gladiators, including Achilles, are on display at
the Muðla Museum in the Yataðan district of the city. Museum Director
Þevki Bardakcý says there are 8,000 works from different periods at the
museum. "Gladiator graves, photos of 8,000-year-old stone portraits and
5-million-year-old fossils attract the most attention," he said. The
gladiator graves are on display in a special 60-square-meter hall. The
walls are decorated with giant images portraying wars from that
period, giving visitors a better sense of life of the period. One of
the gladiator graves belongs to Achilles.
"We learn from Greek writings that Achilles was immortalized as a
half god, half hero. Achilles dates back 2,000 years," Bardakcý said.
Noting that works from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and modern
periods are on display at the museum, Bardakcý said: "There are
rhino, giraffe and elephant fossils that go from recent times back
5 million years. As a result of our efforts, there has been an 80
percent increase in visitors to the museum."
Photos of 8,000-year-old paintings from the Paleolithic period,
which were found by German archaeologist Aneliese Peschlow during
excavation in the ruins of Latmos in the ancient city of Herakli in
Milas, are also on display at the museum.
Museums in Antalya: The Antalya museum has some of Turkey's richest
natural and historical works on display. The museum was established
by a teacher named Suleyman Fikri Erten. The museum first operated
in the Alaeddin Mosque in 1922, then moved to the Yivli mosque from
1937 and the moved to its present building in 1947. Winning the
Europe Council Special Award in 1988, items currently on display in
the Antalya museum were obtained during excavations in the region by
local and foreign archaeologists. The museum has 13 exhibition halls,
titled natural history and pre-history, ceramics, gods, mosaics, marble
icons, the Perge Theater, sarcophagi, underground, small artifacts,
icons and coins.
Museum Director Selahattin Eyup Aksu told the Anatolia news agency
the museum contain 53,000 works and is among Europe's top 10 museums.
The hall of sarcophagi, which is a new addition in the museum,
contains a Dionsysiak sarcophagus from A.D. 2. A sarcophagus with an
image of a man and woman was found in Perge during excavations headed
by Professor Haluk Abbasoðlu.
Alanya Museum: The museum opened in 1967 as part of efforts to protect
and exhibit archaeological and ethnographical works. When the museum
first opened no artifacts were found in excavations in the region,
so old Bronze Age, Urartu, Frig and Lidya artifacts from the Ankara
Anatolian Civilizations Museums were transferred to the Alanya museum
for display. There are cooked earth, marble, bronze, glass and mosaic
findings from the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantium period as well as
coins, bronze sculptures, mosaics and ethnographical works from 700
B.C. to the period of the Turkish Republic.
A 52-centimeter Hercules sculpture from 200 B.C. is on display in a
special room in the museum. The sculpture was found in Asartepe near
the Camlýca village of Alanya in 1967. According to myth, Hercules,
the icon of power and strength, killed the monstrous Nema Lion and
used its fur for armor. The sculpture depicts Hercules holding the
lion's fur in one hand and a weapon in the other.
Museums in Konya: After the death of Sufi theologian and poet Mevlana
on Dec. 17, 1273, a mausoleum was built over his grave. The mausoleum
began to function as a museum in 1926. Many local and foreign tourists
visit this museum. The courtyard of the museum is entered from the
"Derviþan Kapýsý" (Gate of the Dervishes). There are dervish cells
along the north and west sides of the courtyard. The south side,
after Matbah and Hurrem Pasha Mausoleums, terminates with the gate
of Hamuþan (Sealed Lips), which opens to Ucler cemetrey. On the
eastern side of the courtyard there are mausoleums of Sinan Pasha,
Fatma Hatun and Hasan Pasha, the Samahane (Ritual Prayer Hall) next
to them and the small mosque (mesjidt) section. In the main building,
there is a total of 65 graves belonging to Mevlana's family members.
Under the Green dome is the tomb of Mevlana and his son Sultan Veled.
The hall of the mausoleum is entered from a silver door, which was
donated in 1599 by Hasan Pasha, who is the son of Sokollu Mehmet
Pasha. Here, the oldest copies of the famous works of Mevlana, the
"Mesnevi" and "Divan-ý Kebir," are displayed in two glass fronted
cabinets.
The Karatay Madrasa, which is an important example of art from the
Anatolian Seljuk period for its encaustic tile workmanship,was opened
to the public as the Museum of Encaustic Tile Works in 1955. The
entrance is provided from the eastern side via a door made of sky and
white marble. The door is a masterpiece of Seljuk stone workmanship.
Other items on display are Kubad-Abad Palace encaustic tiles, plaster
ornaments, encaustic tile plates, candles, non-glazed ceramics,
encaustic tile ruins belonging to the Seljuk period and ceramics
belonging to the Seljuk and Ottoman period. In the domed hall,
visitors will find ceiling centres of Beyþehir Eþrefoðlu Mosque and
ceramics belonging to the Ottoman period.
The Sýrcalý Madrasa was constructed during the of Gýyaseddin Keyhusrev
II with cut and rubble stones. It was taken under repair and opened
to the public as the Grave Monuments Museum. Grave stones belonging
to Seljuk, Karamanoðlu and Ottoman periods that were collected from
the cemetreies, most of which have been lost to time, are exhbited
in the museum.
Among the exhibited works at the Konya Ethnography Museum there are
embroideries, sacks of various sizes and types, ornamented bundles,
hand towels, drawstrings, hand-painted cloth samples, samples from
recent periods of Turkish clothing, wedding clothes, short jackets,
robes, underwear, women's ornamental goods, belt buckles, bracelets,
fez hangers, cap samples, coffee cups and envelopes, coffee boxes,
coffee pans, coffee mills and coffee set samples.
The Ince Minarat was constructed in the reign of Seljuk Sultan Izzeddin
Keykavuz II in 1264, and after various repairs that were started in
1936, it was opened to the public as the Stone and Wooden Works Museum.
In the museum, some exhibitions include construction and repair
inscriptions carved on stone and marble belonging to the Seljuk
and Karamanoðlu periods, high reliefs belonging to the Konya Fort,
door and window wings ornamented with geometric and plant motifs made
with carving technique on various wooden materials, samples of wooden
ceiling centers and marble tombstones.
The most beautiful samples of the double-headed eagle, which was the
symbol of the Seljuks whose capital city was Konya, and winged angel
figures are exhibited in this museum.
Museums in the East display region's rich cultural assets: In museums
in Erzurum and Kars, located in the historically rich eastern Anatolia,
there are thousands of works from different cultures on exhibit. The
Erzurum Fort, the ancient ruins in Kars, and the genocide monument
in Iðdýr are among the most important historical assets in the region.
Erzurum Museum Director Mustafa Erkmen said the Erzurum Archeology
Museum, the Yakutiye Turkish Islamic Works Museums, Ataturk's House
and the Erzurum fort are among the most popular tourist sites in the
region. The most important assets in the archeology museum are the
5,000-year-old works from Karaz culture and works from trans-Caucasian
culture and the Urartu period.
In the Yakutiye Turkish Islamic Works Museum, there are over 750
items on display. The museum stands inside a madrasa built in 1310
during the Ilhanli period. There are Ottoman costumes, jewelry,
hand-writings and inscriptions on display.
The Armenian Massacre Section: There is also a section on ruins
found during excavations in areas of genocide against the Turks by
the Armenians. "We have on display works obtained in excavations
conducted in front of the world. These findings are important in
proving that some misleading claims [of genocide] are groundless. In
this section, there are three different exhibitions of ruins found in
six or seven excavations," Museum Director Erkmen said. Referring to
the Erzurum Fort, Erkmen said the watch tower, the mosque, madrasa,
and tomb from the Celtic period have been preserved.
Kars Fort: The museum in Kars, an entry point into Anatolia from the
Caucuses, first opened to the public in 1981. There are works from the
Paleolithic period, stone axes, digging and cutting tools, a fossil of
a dinosaur's ankle from 2 million years ago, cooked earth works from
the old Bronze Age, two bronze Urartu swords, a bronze war belt and
bronze bracelets found in the Sarýkamýþ Micingirl village on display.
Ocaklý village and the Ani Oren region: Ani Oren sits above a plateau
on the Arpacay nehri along Turkey's border with Armenia. There are 10
churches, one bridge, three structural ruins and many building ruins
in the Ani Oren region. The remains of a castle, caravan palace,
two mosques and two Turkish baths built by Seljuk Sultan Alparslan
after he conquered the region in 1064 have been preserved in Ani for
tourists to view.
Þanlýurfa Museum: Turkey's largest collection of historical artifacts
are in the Þanlýurfa museum.
In the archaeology hall, there are flint stones from the early and
middle Paleolithic periods, flint stones for piercing, stone idols
and cups, cup pieces decorated with different animal figures and
amphorae pieces marked with seals from the Neolithic period on display.
In the museum's ethnographic section, visitors will be able to
see traditional costumes of the Þanlýurfa region, silver and bronze
jewelry, wooden doors, window frames with inscriptions carved on them,
calligraphic art and handwritten copies of the Koran.
Balýklýgol Sculpture: Þanlýurfa Museum Director Nurten Aydemir said
the museum opened to the public in 1969 and has 74,000 works on
display. The museum has four exhibition halls and many works. Most
works are stored in warehouses because the museum does not have enough
space to exhibit the vast collection, Aydemir said. All works were
retrieved during excavations in the city. One of the most important
works is the Balýklýgol Sculpture, which was obtained 13 years
ago during excavations by the Þanlýurfa Municipality Science Works
teams. Noting the sculpture belongs to the Neolithic Age, Aydemir
said the most important quality of the sculpture is that it is one
of the world's oldest human-sized sculpture. It is 1.92 meters tall
and the eyes are original obsidian.
Museum in eastern Black Sea: There is a vast collection of
archaeological and ethnographical works in museums in Trabzon, Giresun
and Rize. Trabzon Regional Culture and Tourism Director Mehmet Oncel
Koc said there are stone, cooked earth, metal and glass works as well
as coins and icons from different periods between the Bronze Age to
the Ottoman Empire on display in the archaeological section.
The Ayasofya Museum in Trabzon is one of the most important historical
and tourist sites in the region. There are gravestones from the
Byzantium and Ottoman period on display in the courtyard.
The Trabzon Ayasofya Church was built by Byzantine Emperor Manual
Kommenos I and changed into a mosque by Fatih Sultan Mehmet after he
conquered Trabzon in 1461.
Giresun Museum: Giresun Museum Vice Director Hulusi Gulec notes that
the building was a church in the 18th century and served as church
until 1924. It remained empty for several years before it was used
as a prison between 1948 and 1968. In 1982 the Ministry of Culture
restored the church and opened it as a museum. Gulec said visitors
are from outside the city and many foreign tourists are from Greece
and Europe. " The reason Greek tourists are interested in this museum
is because their ancestors lived here in the past. Until 1924, Turks
and Greeks lived together in the region. Now people, whom we can call
the grandchildren of the Greeks, are visiting the museum. They come
to learn about the place their ancestors lived," Gulec said.
--Boundary_(ID_GmLPtCx5GVcuf7/1T5TrHw)--
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Aug 2 2007
With archaeological excavations constantly unearthing new discoveries
across Turkey, Anatolia's museums are filling up with exciting new
discoveries.
Mevlana Museum
The graves of seven gladiators, including Achilles, are on display at
the Muðla Museum in the Yataðan district of the city. Museum Director
Þevki Bardakcý says there are 8,000 works from different periods at the
museum. "Gladiator graves, photos of 8,000-year-old stone portraits and
5-million-year-old fossils attract the most attention," he said. The
gladiator graves are on display in a special 60-square-meter hall. The
walls are decorated with giant images portraying wars from that
period, giving visitors a better sense of life of the period. One of
the gladiator graves belongs to Achilles.
"We learn from Greek writings that Achilles was immortalized as a
half god, half hero. Achilles dates back 2,000 years," Bardakcý said.
Noting that works from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and modern
periods are on display at the museum, Bardakcý said: "There are
rhino, giraffe and elephant fossils that go from recent times back
5 million years. As a result of our efforts, there has been an 80
percent increase in visitors to the museum."
Photos of 8,000-year-old paintings from the Paleolithic period,
which were found by German archaeologist Aneliese Peschlow during
excavation in the ruins of Latmos in the ancient city of Herakli in
Milas, are also on display at the museum.
Museums in Antalya: The Antalya museum has some of Turkey's richest
natural and historical works on display. The museum was established
by a teacher named Suleyman Fikri Erten. The museum first operated
in the Alaeddin Mosque in 1922, then moved to the Yivli mosque from
1937 and the moved to its present building in 1947. Winning the
Europe Council Special Award in 1988, items currently on display in
the Antalya museum were obtained during excavations in the region by
local and foreign archaeologists. The museum has 13 exhibition halls,
titled natural history and pre-history, ceramics, gods, mosaics, marble
icons, the Perge Theater, sarcophagi, underground, small artifacts,
icons and coins.
Museum Director Selahattin Eyup Aksu told the Anatolia news agency
the museum contain 53,000 works and is among Europe's top 10 museums.
The hall of sarcophagi, which is a new addition in the museum,
contains a Dionsysiak sarcophagus from A.D. 2. A sarcophagus with an
image of a man and woman was found in Perge during excavations headed
by Professor Haluk Abbasoðlu.
Alanya Museum: The museum opened in 1967 as part of efforts to protect
and exhibit archaeological and ethnographical works. When the museum
first opened no artifacts were found in excavations in the region,
so old Bronze Age, Urartu, Frig and Lidya artifacts from the Ankara
Anatolian Civilizations Museums were transferred to the Alanya museum
for display. There are cooked earth, marble, bronze, glass and mosaic
findings from the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantium period as well as
coins, bronze sculptures, mosaics and ethnographical works from 700
B.C. to the period of the Turkish Republic.
A 52-centimeter Hercules sculpture from 200 B.C. is on display in a
special room in the museum. The sculpture was found in Asartepe near
the Camlýca village of Alanya in 1967. According to myth, Hercules,
the icon of power and strength, killed the monstrous Nema Lion and
used its fur for armor. The sculpture depicts Hercules holding the
lion's fur in one hand and a weapon in the other.
Museums in Konya: After the death of Sufi theologian and poet Mevlana
on Dec. 17, 1273, a mausoleum was built over his grave. The mausoleum
began to function as a museum in 1926. Many local and foreign tourists
visit this museum. The courtyard of the museum is entered from the
"Derviþan Kapýsý" (Gate of the Dervishes). There are dervish cells
along the north and west sides of the courtyard. The south side,
after Matbah and Hurrem Pasha Mausoleums, terminates with the gate
of Hamuþan (Sealed Lips), which opens to Ucler cemetrey. On the
eastern side of the courtyard there are mausoleums of Sinan Pasha,
Fatma Hatun and Hasan Pasha, the Samahane (Ritual Prayer Hall) next
to them and the small mosque (mesjidt) section. In the main building,
there is a total of 65 graves belonging to Mevlana's family members.
Under the Green dome is the tomb of Mevlana and his son Sultan Veled.
The hall of the mausoleum is entered from a silver door, which was
donated in 1599 by Hasan Pasha, who is the son of Sokollu Mehmet
Pasha. Here, the oldest copies of the famous works of Mevlana, the
"Mesnevi" and "Divan-ý Kebir," are displayed in two glass fronted
cabinets.
The Karatay Madrasa, which is an important example of art from the
Anatolian Seljuk period for its encaustic tile workmanship,was opened
to the public as the Museum of Encaustic Tile Works in 1955. The
entrance is provided from the eastern side via a door made of sky and
white marble. The door is a masterpiece of Seljuk stone workmanship.
Other items on display are Kubad-Abad Palace encaustic tiles, plaster
ornaments, encaustic tile plates, candles, non-glazed ceramics,
encaustic tile ruins belonging to the Seljuk period and ceramics
belonging to the Seljuk and Ottoman period. In the domed hall,
visitors will find ceiling centres of Beyþehir Eþrefoðlu Mosque and
ceramics belonging to the Ottoman period.
The Sýrcalý Madrasa was constructed during the of Gýyaseddin Keyhusrev
II with cut and rubble stones. It was taken under repair and opened
to the public as the Grave Monuments Museum. Grave stones belonging
to Seljuk, Karamanoðlu and Ottoman periods that were collected from
the cemetreies, most of which have been lost to time, are exhbited
in the museum.
Among the exhibited works at the Konya Ethnography Museum there are
embroideries, sacks of various sizes and types, ornamented bundles,
hand towels, drawstrings, hand-painted cloth samples, samples from
recent periods of Turkish clothing, wedding clothes, short jackets,
robes, underwear, women's ornamental goods, belt buckles, bracelets,
fez hangers, cap samples, coffee cups and envelopes, coffee boxes,
coffee pans, coffee mills and coffee set samples.
The Ince Minarat was constructed in the reign of Seljuk Sultan Izzeddin
Keykavuz II in 1264, and after various repairs that were started in
1936, it was opened to the public as the Stone and Wooden Works Museum.
In the museum, some exhibitions include construction and repair
inscriptions carved on stone and marble belonging to the Seljuk
and Karamanoðlu periods, high reliefs belonging to the Konya Fort,
door and window wings ornamented with geometric and plant motifs made
with carving technique on various wooden materials, samples of wooden
ceiling centers and marble tombstones.
The most beautiful samples of the double-headed eagle, which was the
symbol of the Seljuks whose capital city was Konya, and winged angel
figures are exhibited in this museum.
Museums in the East display region's rich cultural assets: In museums
in Erzurum and Kars, located in the historically rich eastern Anatolia,
there are thousands of works from different cultures on exhibit. The
Erzurum Fort, the ancient ruins in Kars, and the genocide monument
in Iðdýr are among the most important historical assets in the region.
Erzurum Museum Director Mustafa Erkmen said the Erzurum Archeology
Museum, the Yakutiye Turkish Islamic Works Museums, Ataturk's House
and the Erzurum fort are among the most popular tourist sites in the
region. The most important assets in the archeology museum are the
5,000-year-old works from Karaz culture and works from trans-Caucasian
culture and the Urartu period.
In the Yakutiye Turkish Islamic Works Museum, there are over 750
items on display. The museum stands inside a madrasa built in 1310
during the Ilhanli period. There are Ottoman costumes, jewelry,
hand-writings and inscriptions on display.
The Armenian Massacre Section: There is also a section on ruins
found during excavations in areas of genocide against the Turks by
the Armenians. "We have on display works obtained in excavations
conducted in front of the world. These findings are important in
proving that some misleading claims [of genocide] are groundless. In
this section, there are three different exhibitions of ruins found in
six or seven excavations," Museum Director Erkmen said. Referring to
the Erzurum Fort, Erkmen said the watch tower, the mosque, madrasa,
and tomb from the Celtic period have been preserved.
Kars Fort: The museum in Kars, an entry point into Anatolia from the
Caucuses, first opened to the public in 1981. There are works from the
Paleolithic period, stone axes, digging and cutting tools, a fossil of
a dinosaur's ankle from 2 million years ago, cooked earth works from
the old Bronze Age, two bronze Urartu swords, a bronze war belt and
bronze bracelets found in the Sarýkamýþ Micingirl village on display.
Ocaklý village and the Ani Oren region: Ani Oren sits above a plateau
on the Arpacay nehri along Turkey's border with Armenia. There are 10
churches, one bridge, three structural ruins and many building ruins
in the Ani Oren region. The remains of a castle, caravan palace,
two mosques and two Turkish baths built by Seljuk Sultan Alparslan
after he conquered the region in 1064 have been preserved in Ani for
tourists to view.
Þanlýurfa Museum: Turkey's largest collection of historical artifacts
are in the Þanlýurfa museum.
In the archaeology hall, there are flint stones from the early and
middle Paleolithic periods, flint stones for piercing, stone idols
and cups, cup pieces decorated with different animal figures and
amphorae pieces marked with seals from the Neolithic period on display.
In the museum's ethnographic section, visitors will be able to
see traditional costumes of the Þanlýurfa region, silver and bronze
jewelry, wooden doors, window frames with inscriptions carved on them,
calligraphic art and handwritten copies of the Koran.
Balýklýgol Sculpture: Þanlýurfa Museum Director Nurten Aydemir said
the museum opened to the public in 1969 and has 74,000 works on
display. The museum has four exhibition halls and many works. Most
works are stored in warehouses because the museum does not have enough
space to exhibit the vast collection, Aydemir said. All works were
retrieved during excavations in the city. One of the most important
works is the Balýklýgol Sculpture, which was obtained 13 years
ago during excavations by the Þanlýurfa Municipality Science Works
teams. Noting the sculpture belongs to the Neolithic Age, Aydemir
said the most important quality of the sculpture is that it is one
of the world's oldest human-sized sculpture. It is 1.92 meters tall
and the eyes are original obsidian.
Museum in eastern Black Sea: There is a vast collection of
archaeological and ethnographical works in museums in Trabzon, Giresun
and Rize. Trabzon Regional Culture and Tourism Director Mehmet Oncel
Koc said there are stone, cooked earth, metal and glass works as well
as coins and icons from different periods between the Bronze Age to
the Ottoman Empire on display in the archaeological section.
The Ayasofya Museum in Trabzon is one of the most important historical
and tourist sites in the region. There are gravestones from the
Byzantium and Ottoman period on display in the courtyard.
The Trabzon Ayasofya Church was built by Byzantine Emperor Manual
Kommenos I and changed into a mosque by Fatih Sultan Mehmet after he
conquered Trabzon in 1461.
Giresun Museum: Giresun Museum Vice Director Hulusi Gulec notes that
the building was a church in the 18th century and served as church
until 1924. It remained empty for several years before it was used
as a prison between 1948 and 1968. In 1982 the Ministry of Culture
restored the church and opened it as a museum. Gulec said visitors
are from outside the city and many foreign tourists are from Greece
and Europe. " The reason Greek tourists are interested in this museum
is because their ancestors lived here in the past. Until 1924, Turks
and Greeks lived together in the region. Now people, whom we can call
the grandchildren of the Greeks, are visiting the museum. They come
to learn about the place their ancestors lived," Gulec said.
--Boundary_(ID_GmLPtCx5GVcuf7/1T5TrHw)--