Amasya Museum
| Amasya Müzesi | |
  Location of Amasya Museum in Turkey | |
| Established | 1958 |
|---|---|
| Location | Mustafa Kemal Paşa Cad., Amasya, Turkey |
| Coordinates | 40°38′58″N 35°49′29″E / 40.64944°N 35.82472°ECoordinates: 40°38′58″N 35°49′29″E / 40.64944°N 35.82472°E |
| 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 |
|
| Owner | Ministry of Culture and Tourism |
Amasya Museum, aka Archaeological Museum of Amasya, (Turkish: Amasya Müzesi or Amasya Arkeoloji Müzesi) is 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 rearrangment 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 disposes of 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 Roman and Byzantine era found in a ship wreck 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 immigrated during the Russo-Turkish War.[2]
Upper floor - Archaeological Section
The archaeological section in the upper floor contains artifacts unearthed at 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 Hellenistic period, tear catchers, glass perfume cups, bowls, terracotta kantharos, theatrical masks, bronze containers, various golden, silver and glass women's jewellery of 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 Ottoman period, all type of Ottoman weapons, Seljuk and Ottoman ceramic plates and water jugs, astronomical tools like wooden astrolabes, compass and globe, Ottoman bath objects such as bundles made of tinsel embroidery velvet, bath clothes, timekeeping instruments including silver and enmailled 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, talisman, hand-written books of Quran, writing utensils, lecterns, decree documents with Sultan's tughra as well as 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 site. 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 everyday from 8:30 to 19:00 hours local time (17:00 in winter months). Admission fee is 
5.00 (approx. US$ 1.67).[4]
References
- ↑ "Amasya Müzesi" (in Turkish). Amasya Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Amasya Arkeoloji Müzesi" (in Turkish). Amasya Belediyesi. 2015-03-19. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
- 1 2 "Amasya Müze Müdürlüğü" (in Turkish). Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
- 1 2 "Amasya Müzesi" (in Turkish). Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
