Exploring the Archaeological Museum

This enormous collection spans over 5,000 years, from figurines of the Mother Goddess modelled in the 3rd millennium BC to Turkish pottery thrown in the 19th century. To cover everything in one visit is impossible. Visitors with little time should not miss the breathtaking sarcophagi from the royal necropolis at Sidon. To learn more about the history of Istanbul itself you should head for the gallery exploring this theme, on the first floor of the new wing. Youngsters may enjoy the displays in the Children's Museum.

CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Monumental Bes, the ancient Egyptian god, greets visitors at the door to the main building. Hugely popular in the lst-3rd centuries, Bes' comically grotesque v   appearance was an effective deterrent for evil spirits. Rooms 9 and 8 contain the highlights of the museum's entire collection: a group of sarcophagi unearthed in 1887 at Sidon tin present-day Lebanon). These are thought to have been made for a line of Phoenician kings who ruled in the 6th-4th centuries BC. Their decoration vividly shows the transition from Egyptian to Greek influence in the art of the Near East at that time.
The latest and finest of them is the so-called Alexander Sarcophagus (late 4th century BC). Alexander the Great features in two decorative, high-relief friezes on the longest sides. These show a battle scene and a hunting scene. The friezes survive in almost perfect condition, showing traces of their original colouring, though the metal weapons of the soldiers and hunters have been lost.
The Sarcophagus of the Mourning Women is thought to have been made for King Straton (374-358 BC), who was known for his fondness for women. The grief-stricken females may have been members of his harem.
Rooms 14-20 contain some remarkable statues. Among them is a Roman copy of a 3rd century BC statue of Marsyas, depicting the satyr about to be flayed after daring to challenge Apollo's musical ability. A statue and bust of Alexander the Great (3rd-2nd centuries BC) show the conqueror as the perfect hero, with a meditative expression on his face. Room 18 contains realistic busts of Roman emperors.

CHILDREN'S MUSEUM

Special low cabinets are used in this part of the museum, which is designed for visiting schoolchildren. Paper and coloured crayons are to hand in a bid to stimulate future archaeologists.

THRACIAN, BITHYNIAN AND BYZANTINE COLLECTIONS

This gallery on the ground floor of the new wing displays religious and other artifacts from the ancient civilizations of Thrace and Bithynia, and from Byzantium  - including a statue of Byzantine Emperor Valens. This section of the musuem also covers the architecture of the ancient world.

ISTANBUL THROUGH THE AGES

With a few well-chosen pieces and explanatory texts in Turkish and English, this gallery brilliantly chronicles Istanbul's archaeological past.
The rare Mosaic Icon of the Presentation (c.AD 600) originally adorned the Kalender-hane Mosque . One of the three snakes' heads from the Serpentine Column, which has stood headless in the Hippodrome since the 18th century, is also displayed here. Look out too for a section of the iron chains that the Byzantines hung across both the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn to stop hostile ships.

ANATOLIA AND TROY

One side of this narrow, long hall chronicles the history of Anatolia (the Asiatic-part of modern Turkey) from the Palaeolithic era to the Iron Age. It culminates with a room devoted to the Phrygian culture, which centred on the city of Gordion. The highlight is a recreation of an 8th-century BC royal tomb, which was housed beneath a tumulus in a juniper-wood chamber. As well as cooking utensils, the king was buried with furniture made of oak, box, yew and juniper.
The other side of the gallery traces the excavations of nine different civilizations at Troy , from 3000 BC to ihe time of Christ. On display are a few pieces of the gold hoard known as Ihe Schliemann treasure, after ihe archaeologist who first discovered it in the late 19th cen-lury. Most of the pieces were smuggled out of Turkey, however, and are now in museums around the world.

ANATOLIA'S NEIGHBOURING CULTURES

This long gallery is also divided in two, with one side devoted to Cyprus and the other to Syria-Palestine. The Cypriot collection was assembled by the joint American and Russian consul to Cyprus. Luigi Palma di Cesnola, who systematically looted its tombs from 1865-73. Apart from some beautiful pots, the most interesting objects are the figures of plump, naked temple boys (3rd century BC). They are thought to represent boy prostitutes at temples to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.
Among the Syrian exhibits are funerary reliefs, the Gezer Calendar (925 BC) - a limestone tablet bearing the oldest known Hebrew inscription -and a reconstruction of a 1st— 3rd-century mausoleum from the trading oasis of Palmyra.

TURKISH TILES AND CERAMICS

Apart from carpets, the most distinctive Turkish art form is ceramics. This is particularly seen in the sheets of tiles used to decorate the walls of mosques and pavilions such as the Çinili Pavilion, where the entrance archway is plastered with geometric and calligraphic tiles.
In the main room there is an exquisite early 15th-century tiled mihrab from central Anatolia. Rooms 3 and 4 contain tiles and mosque lamps from the famed İznik potteries, the hub of Turkish ceramics production ). With the decline in quality of Iznik ceramics in the late 16th century, other centres took over. One of these, Kutahya, also produced pieces of beauty and high quality (rooms 5 and 6).

MUSEUM OF THE ANCIENT ORIENT

Although this collection contains antiquities of great rarity and beauty from the Egyptian and Hittite cultures, pride of place goes to the artifacts from the early civilizations of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).
The monumental glazed brick friezes from Babylon's main entrance, the Ishtar Gate, (rooms 3 and 9) date from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC), when the capital of Babylon experienced its final flowering. The elegant, 30-kg (65-lb) duck-shaped weight in Room 4 comes from a much earlier Babylonian temple (c.2000 BC). Room 5 contains some of the earliest known examples of writing, in the form of cuneifonn inscriptions on clay tablets, dating from 2700 BC. The famous Treaty of Kadesh (room 7), concluded around 1269 BC between the Egyptian and Hittite empires, was originally written on a sheet of silver. The one in this collection is a Hittite copy. The treaty includes many sophisticated clauses, including one providing for the return of a political refugee, who was "not to be charged with his crime, nor his house and wives and his children be harmed". (s1)

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMS

The Archaeological Museums consist of three sections - the Archeological Museum itself, the Çinili Köşk (Tiled Pavilion), which was the first Turkish museum, and the Museum of Ancient Oriental Antiquities. The museums contain more than a million objects collected from various cultures and various regions in the Balkans, Africa, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula and Afghanistan - all territories that once lay within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire.

I) The Main Building Old Building

This neo-classical building was begun in 1891 and, after additions in 1902 and 1908, assumed its present form. The architect was Alexandre
Vallaury. The facade was inspired by the Alexander 5arcophagus and the Sarcophagus of the Weeping Women. Originally built as a museum, the building was opened to the public on 13 June 1891.
On the upper floor are exhibited various stone objects, pottery sherds, figurines, coins, seals, signets and medals. The building contains a library of about 70,000 books. On the lower floor we find the Alexander Sarcophagus, the Sarcophagus of the Weeping Women and many ancient Greek and Roman statues and reliefs. Here, one can trace the history of sculpture from the Archaic to the Byzantine periods in chronological order. The museum, after the latest reorganization and the addition of a new exhibition hall on the first floor on its 100th anniversary in 1991, was judged worthy of the Museum Award of the Council of Europe.

II) The Annexe The New Building

The two basement floors contain the storerooms while the three upper floors are designed as exhibition halls. The first floor houses "Istanbul Through The Ages", the second floor "Anatolia Through the Ages and Troy" and the top floor "The Civilizations of Anatolia and the Neighbouring Countries: Cyprus, Syria and Palestine". The mam floor of the additional building contains the Museum for Children and a collection of architectural exhibits. "The Local Cultures of Istanbul" section is situated In the Thrace-Bithynia and Byzantium Hall right underneath the main floor, which was opened in August 1998.

The Museum of Ancient Orient

Originally a school for fine arts, it was built by Osman Hamdi Bey In 1883 and, after restorations and reorganizations carried out In 1917-19 and 1932-35, it was converted into a museum. In 1963 it was closed to visitors, then in 1974, following another reorganization, was again opened to the public. On the upper floor are the Anatolian, Mesopotamia^ Egyptian and Arabian sections. You can see the stele of Naramsin, the king of the Akkadians, the Kadesh Treaty and the Zincirli statue. It also contains a rich archive of 75,000 cuneiform cylinders.

Çinili Köşk The Tiled Pavilion

Built in 1472 by Sultan Mehmed II, it is the oldest example of secular Ottoman architecture in Istanbul. From187to1891 the building served as the imperial museum. Then, in 1953, it was re-opened as the Fatih Museum for the exhibition of Turkish and Islamic artefacts. At the entrance we see a marble portico with 14 columns. The interior consists of six rooms and a central hall where the best examples of Turkish and Selçuk tiles are exhibited. (s2)