Old Fashioned Archaeology

Yesterday I went to Istanbul's Archaeology Musuem.  The museum was founded in the late 19th century to display antiquities from around the Ottoman Empire.  The museum has especially strong collections of Roman sculpture, Near Eastern Hellenistic tombs and sarcofogi, Babylonian and Hittite art and as well as artifacts spanning the entire history of what is presently the city of Istanbul.

Glazed tile friezes from the Ishtar gate of the city of Babylon.

This enormous bust of the Roman Poetess Sappho is absolutely stunning.  It is displayed in such a way that she seems to float in the middle of the room.

This is part of a reconstructed mausoleum from Palmyria in present day Syria.  It's tombs date from the 1st to 3rd century AD.

One of the museum's most famous pieces is the Alexander Sarcofigus, so called because of its battle and hunting friezes featuring Alexander the Great.  It was discoved at Sidon, in present day Lebanon, and dates from the 4th century BC.  The sacofigus is thought to have held the body of a Phonecian king, though there is some dispute as to whom.

Being the history dork that I am, I thought this was particularly cool.  This is part of the enormous chain the Byzantines used to block the entrance to the Golden Horn waterway.  The invading Turks got around this defense by disasembling their boats, taking them overland east of the city, and reassembling them behind the chain.

Though the museum seemed generally be well run, it is by no means state of the art.  There is no building-wide climate control, windows are proped open to cool some of the rooms.  Some artifacts are stored on antique looking curiousity cabinets like the one above.  The cabinets are so old that the glass in their doors is wavy, as you can see from the reflection.

The museum's collection is so extensive, it litterally spills out into the courtyard.  These sarcofigi are made of porphyry, a purple stone imported from Egypt.  They are thought to have held the bodies of some of the earliest Byzantine Emperors.

The museum's collection was one of the most amazing I've ever seen.  It is smaller than the British Museum or Metropolitan Museum in New York but that works in the visitor's favor.  Unlike it's larger counter parts, the museum can be seen in it's entirety in one afternoon; no rushing from gallery to gallery to try to take in the highlights.  Definitely a must-see for any visitor to Istanbul, but not everyone seemed to be as impressed as I was.