Bergama Archaeological Museum

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Hadrian's statue from the library of Asclepion
"Golden Ear", Hellenistic votive offering

The Bergama Archaeological Museum ( Turkish Bergama Müzesi ) is located on Cumhuriyet Caddesi, the main street of the city of Bergama in the Turkish province of İzmir , about one kilometer southwest of the Red Hall and two kilometers south of the Acropolis . It mainly houses finds from ancient Pergamon , but also from the surrounding area and from Allianoi .

history

At the beginning of the German Pergamon excavations at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, most of the finds were taken to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and a smaller part to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum ; some pieces were stored in a depot at the excavation house. When excavations were resumed in 1927 after the First World War, the desire for a museum on site arose. The Turkish General Field Marshal Fevzi Çakmak initiated the construction after a visit in 1932. On behalf of the Governor of İzmir , Kazım Dirik, the architects Bruno Meyer and Harold Hanson began construction in 1933. On April 13, 1934, Mustafa Kemal visited Pergamon and the museum building site. On October 30, 1936, Governor Fazlı Güleç opened the building to visitors. The museum's first director was Osman Bayatlı. At his suggestion, the first restoration work on the Red Hall began in the 1930s. In 1979 an extension was built and the collection items from the former ethnographic museum were included. Laboratories, a photo studio, a depot and an archive were also set up in the extension.

collection

The finds from Pergamon include a statue of the Emperor Hadrian , found in the library of the Asklepieion , a floor mosaic with a central Medusa head as a motif, a stone horse from the 2nd century BC. From the Pergamon Altar as well as several statuettes and statues of Roman emperors and other important personalities of the city. Among the exhibits is a sarcophagus , which was found unlooted in the pottery district on the Ketios River and which contained the burned skeleton of an eleven to twelve year old boy as well as rich grave goods. The collection also includes tablets, reliefs, friezes and statues from the gymnasium , as well as an acroterion with a floating Nike that adorned the gable of the Propylon in the Asklepieion, which is supplemented by numerous ceramic objects and coins.

The oldest exhibit is a kouros from the 6th century BC. BC, who comes from Pitane , today's Çandarlı . Other finds, mainly ceramics, come from Gryneion , terracottas from Myrina . Finds from the emergency excavations in Allianoi, which is threatened by flooding by a reservoir, have also been included in the museum since the 1990s.

When a burial chamber was discovered in September 2010 during excavations by the German Archaeological Institute on a hill northeast of the castle hill, the door of the tomb, which had been destroyed by grave robbers, was taken to the museum by helicopter for protection by the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

The ethnographic collection belonging to the museum includes carpets, costumes and valuable handicrafts.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DAI - Antique burial chamber discovered in Pergamon ( Memento from July 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 39 ° 7 ′ 0 ″  N , 27 ° 10 ′ 33 ″  E