Amasya Museum

Amasya Museum

Amasya Müzesi
Location of Amasya Museum in Turkey
Established	1958 (1958)
Location	Mustafa Kemal Paşa Cad., Amasya, Turkey
Coordinates	Coordinates: 40°38′58″N 35°49′29″E / 40.64944°N 35.82472°E / 40.64944; 35.82472
Type	Archaeology museum, Ethnographic museum
Collections	Early Bronze Age, Hittites, Kingdom of Urartu Phrygians, Scythians, Hellenistic period, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Ilkhanate, Seljuk Empire, Ottoman Empire
Collection size	5,574 archaeological 17,287 ethnographic 1,247 for study
Owner	Ministry of Culture and Tourism

Amasya Museum, also known as Archaeological Museum of Amasya (Turkish: Amasya Müzesi or Amasya Arkeoloji Müzesi) is a national museum in Amasya, northern Turkey, exhibiting archaeological artifacts found in and around the city as well as ethnographic items related to the region's history of cultural life. Established in 1958, the museum owns nearly twenty-four thousand items for exhibition belonging to eleven historic civilizations.^[1][2]

Background

In 1925, a museum depot was formed in two rooms of the madrasa within the Sultan Bayezid II Complex when a few archaeological artifacts and some Islamic era mummies were stored up together. The official establishment of the museum took place by June 1958. As more space became needed due to the increased number of items for exhibition, the inventory was transferred in 1962 to the 13th-century monumental Seljuk era-building at Gökmedrese Mosque. The museum was moved to its newly built current modern building on March 22, 1977. It was opened to the public on June 14, 1980 after rearrangement of the exhibition items in chronological order.^[2][3][4]

Museum

The museum is housed in a three-story building. The basement contains storeroom, laboratory and service units. In the ground floor, a small exhibition room, a kiosk and a lounge is situated. The upper floor comprises two large exhibition halls containing archaeological artifacts and ethnographic items. In the museum's garden, stone artifacts and mummies from the Ilkhanate period inside the Tomb of Mesud I are on exhibition.^[2]

The museum has 5,574 archaeological and 17,287 ethnographic objects as well as 1,247 items for study purposes.^[3]

Ground floor

The exhibits in the ground floor include amphoras of the Roman and Byzantine eras found in a shipwreck off Bafra, three Roman-era terracotta and a Byzantine-era bronze sarcophagus, a Hellenistic period relief featuring Dionysus and son, a torso statue of a priest from the Roman era, original marble inscriptions of the Seljuk and ottoman era mosques and madrasas, a wooden door leaf with figures from the Late Byzantine period, double-winged wooden doors of Gökmedrese Mosque from the Seljuk era and Mehmed Pasha Mosque from the Ottoman era. There are also carpets, prayer rugs and saddlebags on display, which were brought to the region by Azerbaijanis who immigrated during the Russo-Turkish War.^[2]

Upper floor - archaeological section

The archaeological section in the upper floor contains artifacts unearthed inat local archaeological excavations, including earthenware, bronze daggers and axes, needles, loom weights and seals of the Early Bronze Age (3500–2100 BC) and Hittites (1400–1200 BC), figurine of Hittite storm deity Teshub, best known as the Amasya figurine, acquired bronze bracelets and pots of Kingdom of Urartu (900–600 BC), libation bowls of Phrygians (850–600 BC), iron sword and diverse metallic fighting tools of a Scythian cavalry (6th century BC), dishes and kantharos from the Hellenistic period, tear catchers, glass perfume cups, bowls, terracotta kantharos, theatrical masks, bronze containers, various golden, silver and glass women's jewellery of the Roman era, Hellenistic and Roman oil lamps and bronze coins, copper coins of Byzantine, silver coins of Seljuk and golden coins of Ottoman period, and finally diverse Byzantine period (476-1453 AD) items.^[2]

Upper floor - ethnographic section

This museum's section exhibits copper-ware utensils such as kettles, washbowls, buckets, hand-basins and cooking pots used in the Ottoman households during the 19th century; various jewellery worn by Ottoman women; nacre-inlay wooden spoons, boxes, trunks and clogs from the Ottoman period; all types of Ottoman weapons; Seljuk and Ottoman ceramic plates and water jugs; astronomical tools like wooden astrolabes, compasses and globes; Ottoman bath objects such as bundles made of tinsel embroidery velvet and bath clothes; timekeeping instruments including silver and emmailled hunter-case pocket watches and wooden-case pendelum clocks; lighting devices like glass and cermaic kerosene lamps; Ottoman period tea, coffee and smoking utensils; thuribles; talismans; hand-written books of the Quran; writing utensils; lecterns; decree documents with Sultan's tughra, and colours, standards and guidons.^[2]

Open-air exhibition

In the garden to the west of the museum, large-sized stone artifacts are on display from the periods of Hittites, Hellenistic, Byzantine, Ilkhanate, Seljuk and Ottoman. These are Hittite gate lion statues, Hellenistic and Roman epigraphies, Ionic order and Corinthian order capitals, Roman sarcophagi made of marble and limestone, inscriptions and milestones, Byzantine steles and architectural elements as well as inscriptions of buildings, headstones, terracotta jars and mosque column capitals from the Ilkhanate, Seljuk and Ottoman periods.^[2]

Six mummies from the Ilkhanate period (1256–1335/1353) are on display inside the Tomb of Mesud I. This part of the museum is the most visited. The mummies were transferred here from two mosque graveyards in Amasya.^[2]

Access

The museum is located on Mustafa Kemal Paşa Cad. in the city center. It is open every day from 8:30 to 19:00 local time (17:00 in winter months). The admission fee is 5.00 (approx. US$1.67).^[4]

References

Museums in Turkey
Aegean Region Adatepe Olive Oil Museum Afyonkarahisar Archaeological Museum Akhisar Museum Atatürk's House (Şuhut) Aydın Archaeological Museum Bergama Museum Bostanlı Open-air Archaeological Museum Burhaniye National Forces Culture Museum Çamlık Railway Museum Çeşme Museum Denizli Museum Natural History Museum of Ege University İnciraltı Sea Museum İzmir Archaeological Museum İzmir Art and Sculpture Museum Izmir Ethnography Museum İzmir Toy Museum Kütahya Archaeological Museum Manisa Archaeological Museum Milas Museum Muğla Museum Ödemiş Museum Tire City Museum Uşak Museum of Archaeology Victory Museum
Black Sea Region Alaçam Population Exchange Museum Amasra Museum Amasya Museum Baksı Museum Bolu Museum Çorum Archaeological Museum Dikyamaç Museum Giresun Museum Hagia Sophia, Trabzon Karabük Kardemir Iron-Steel Museum Karadeniz Ereğli Museum Kastamonu Ethnography Museum Ordu Ethnographical Museum Sinop Fortress Prison Sinop Archaeological Museum Söğüt Ertuğrul Gazi Museum Rize Atatürk Museum Tokat Museum Trabzon Museum
Central Anatolia Region Aksaray Museum Akşehir Museum Anıtkabir Ankara Aviation Museum Atatürk Museum Mansion Çengelhan Rahmi M. Koç Museum Eskişehir Museum Eskişehir Aviation Museum Eskişehir Meerschaum Museum Eskişehir Wax Museum Ethnography Museum of Ankara Feza Gürsey Science Center Gordion Museum Gökyay Association Chess Museum İnönü Military Quarter and War Museum Karaman Museum Kayseri Archaeology Museum Kırıkkale MKE Weapons Industry Museum Kırşehir Museum Konya Archaeological Museum Konya Ereğli Museum Mehmet Akif Ersoy Literature Museum Library METU Science and Technology Museum Mevlana Museum Museum of Anatolian Civilizations Museum of Modern Glass Art, Eskişehir Nevşehir Museum Niğde Archaeological Museum Pembe Köşk Republic Museum Roman Baths of Ankara Sivas Congress and Ethnography Museum State Art and Sculpture Museum Tayfun Talipoğlu Typewriter Museum TCDD Open Air Steam Locomotive Museum Ulucanlar Prison Museum War of Independence Museum Yozgat Museum
Eastern Anatolia Elazığ Archaeology and Ethnography Museum Ali Demirsoy Natural History Museum Kars Museum Malatya Museum
Marmara Region Museum of Nationist Forces in Balıkesir Bilecik Museum Bursa Archaeological Museum Bursa Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art Çanakkale Archaeological Museum Edirne Museum Gelibolu War Museum Kırklareli Museum Kocaeli Museum Konuralp Museum Mudanya Armistice House Namık Kemal House Museum Rákóczi Museum Sakarya Museum SEKA Paper Museum Tekirdağ Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography Tofaş Museum of Cars and Anatolian Carriages For museums in İstanbul see Museums in Istanbul
Mediterranean Region Adana Archaeology Museum Adana Cinema Museum Alanya Archaeological Museum Anamur Museum Arslan Eyce Private Amphora Museum Atatürk Museum Adana Ethnography Museum Antalya Museum Atatürk's House Museum (Antalya) Burdur Archaeological Museum Hatay Archaeology Museum İskenderun Naval Museum Kahramanmaraş Archaeology Museum Karatepe-Aslantaş Open-Air Museum Mersin Atatürk Museum Mersin Museum Mersin Naval Museum Mersin Water Museum Mersin Urban History Museum Misis Mosaic Museum Narlıkuyu Museum Osmaniye City Museum Saint Paul's Church, Tarsus Silifke Museum Silifke Atatürk Museum Tarsus Çanakkale Park Museum Tarsus Museum Taşucu Amphorae Museum Taşucu Atatürk Museum
Southeastern Anatolia Region Adıyaman Archaeological Museum Ahmet Arif Literature Museum Library Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı Museum Diyarbakır Archaeological Museum Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology Kilis Museum Mardin Museum Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum Ziya Gökalp Museum