Istanbul Hotels

Anadolu Medeniyetleri Muzesi (Museum of Anatolian Civilizations)

The museum of Anatolian Civilizations is one of the most beautiful and richest museums in the world with regard to its exhibits. The whole flow of civilizations of Anatolia is summarized in chronological order in this museum with many fine examples from the sites. The museum was begun in 1968 with the restoration of two 15C Ottoman buildings, Mahmut Pasa Bedesteni and Kursunlu Han. The bedesten houses the exhibits while the han is used by the museum administration.
The exhibits are arranged chronologically, period by period: Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Early Bronze, Assyrian Colonies, Hittite, Phrygian, Urartian and later periods until today. For detailed information about these periods see Ages in the History Section of this book. Some examples of remarkable exhibits in the museum are as follows:

7.4 m / 24 ft-high victory statue standing outside the museum. It is thought to be a 13C BC Hittite statue for the cult area of Eflatunpinar, near Beysehir. Reconstruction of a Neolithic cult room from Catalhoyuk. Neolithic wall paintings. Statuettes of Mother Goddess of Anatolia, generally depicted fat and with big breasts, giving birth, with two feline animals on both sides. Painted pottery of Chalcolithic period.

Early Bronze Age stag statuettes, ceremonial standards and sun-discs. Assyrian Colonies period baked clay tablets, important for the introduction of writing to Anatolia, and an ivory statuette of a nude female goddess. Hittite period ceremonial vessels, some of them in the form of bulls, the famous Inandik vase with a frieze of singers, musicians, priests, revelers and a couple engaged in sodomy. The central hall houses many orthostat reliefs from the Imperial, Neo-Hittite and Phrygian periods giving an account of life at the time. These scenes are of goats being taken to sacrifice, acrobats, priests in procession, hunts, and kings and queens in the act of pouring libations to gods. Artifacts from Gordion, the capital of the Phrygians and the reconstruction of the remarkable wooden chamber and funerary gifts of the Midas Tomb notable as the largest burial tumulus in Anatolia, 53 m / 174 ft in height. A 7C BC bronze cauldron is among the exhibits from the Urartian period.

A new hall is being prepared for the later period finds.

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