As hopefully you have seen from these past months, Turkey is a country rich in history - in some ways, perhaps the richest in history I know of (or have certainly been to). Its history goes back at least 12,000 years, dwarfing anything I have ever been to.
An attempt to bring that history together is found at the Anatolian Museum of Civilization in Ankara.
The museum encompasses artifacts from all parts of Turkey: Neolithic, Bronze/Iron Age, Phrygian, Lydian, Greek, Roman - all have representatives here.
Uratu column element, 7th Century B.C.:
Neolithic Tools and weapons:
Reconstruction of an early sedentary house, 9,000 years or so B.C.:
Cave drawings:
Surprised that so many large pieces of pottery survived in the condition they did TB.
ReplyDeleteI'm really surprised by that as well Nylon12, Although I have to admit that I think part of that is due to the fact that pottery was so relatively easy to make that a great deal of it was made. I will note some of it was repaired.
DeleteOut of curiosity, have the Turkish museums turned their spaces into essentially large playgrounds for children as so many of the U.S. museums have done? It seems pretty rare to find a museum that caters to the intellectual who can focus on a subject for more than 5 minutes.
ReplyDeleteEd, every museum that we went in was what I would consider a "traditional "museum in that it was geared towards adults. There was no evidence that I can recall of a single playground style museum.
DeleteI had not thought of your point before now, but that does seem to be a stark difference between a lot of of the world and the United States.
I noticed this effect many years ago and now I think I am hyper sensitive to it. It is sometimes to such a level, that I find it hard to enjoy a museum these days simply because it has been configured to entertain kids instead of intellectually stimulate adults. Occasionally I find one that stands out above the rest and it is such a breath of fresh air. "The Sixth Floor Museum" in Dallas was one such that comes to mind, at least it was 15 or so years ago when I visited it.
DeleteCertainly not an issue in most other places I have been recently, now that i think about it. Somehow the US gets it wrong, again.
DeleteThere is so much of human history centered in Turkey.
ReplyDeleteSandi, as they point out, it has been a human crossroads for thousands of years.
DeleteI knew so little about Turkey before you started sharing your trip with us. I am seriously impressed with it's history and diversity.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, I had very base knowledge as well, but the richness was amazing. It is hard ti have a favorite trip, but Turkey is up there.
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