Really Old Stuff

Alexander the Great and Abdalonymous on a lion hunt

Dennis here, typing my first blog ever.
During the weekdays we go to language school, and pretty much go on with the rhythm of daily life, a fact that is of marginal interest when recounted in the simple past tense and limited vocabulary when the Turkish teacher asks us every morning, "What did you do yesterday?"  I am getting pretty good at saying that I went to the market to buy meat and vegetables, went to the gym, cooked my meat and vegetables, ate my meat and vegetables, read something, and went to bed.

The weekend is our time to experience Istanbul to the fullest, and there is no better place to do that on a beautiful Saturday than, you guessed it, the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.  I was actually very excited to go.  Emily also came.  The museum is actually divided into three museums: the Tiled Kiosk, the Museum of the Ancient Near East, and the main Archaeological Museum.

The Tiled Kiosk is the oldest secular building built during the reign of the Ottoman Empire.  If you are really into ceramics, this place is for you, since it displays "fine" painted tiles and dishes.  If your interest in ceramics is not quite as strong as your interest in finding an overdue lunch, as in our case, then you will spend about five minutes here, as we did (it was the last of the three places we visited).

Tiled Kiosk

Brick reliefs taken from the gates of Babylon

 The Museum of the Ancient Near East contains some ancient exhibits indeed.  Just about everything in there is over 2000 years old, from Babylonian, Sumerian, Hittite, Egyptian, and other civilizations from way back.  Some examples of early writing (hieroglyphics, cuneiform) are on display, as well as many carved stone sculptures from ancient ruins.  Many of the artifacts were brought from ruins in Anatolia (modern Turkey), so we will have to visit some of those places.

4500-year old grocery receipt.  Glad to see that beer was an important inventory item back then.

 The main museum is pretty vast, and contains a large collection of archaeological finds.  The bottom floor contains numerous stone sarcophagi from the Greek and Roman empires, the most notable of which is the Alexander Sarcophagus.  It is so named not because Alexander the Great was interred in it, but because he is depicted in the carvings on its side.  It was actually made, of course, for Abdalonymus, King of Sidon.  Or for some other Persian noble.  Who knows.  It is a pretty impressive piece of rock, dug up from what is now Lebanon along with hundreds of other pieces when a farmer apparently discovered something in the way of his plow.  We also visited the "Istanbul through the Ages" exhibit in this museum, which displays some artifacts from the city on chronological order, starting with its origin in the 7th century BC.  I can't imagine that "Sanford, NC through the Ages" would tell as compelling a story.  We skipped the exhibit on the ancient city of Troy and "Anatolia through the Ages," so we will have to return at some point...