Sunday at the İzmir Archeological Museum

After church today, I resolved to beat the heat and go to a museum. My target: the İzmir Archeological Museum, just south of the bazaar in the Konak district.

My friend, Jen, had told me about a slogan she had seen: "Turkey, it's the world's largest museum."

It's true. At any given place where I might stand, especially at an important harbor like Izmir, I may have seven millenia of history at my feet!

I quickly learned, upon entering the gallery that ancient history is a pretty broad topic to examine. When we think of Ancient Rome, we think of a specific civilization that endured for 500 years. Ancient Greece casts our minds to Socrates and Alexander. But Ancient Turkey? There is really no one thing. 

I don't want to go into much detail here. I have years of living in and exploring this fascinating country ahead of me. So I have plenty of time to figure it out for myself.

I'll just write that before the Greek civilizations, known as Ionians and Aeolians, there were the following empires: Hittite, Lydian, Lycian, Persian, and Phrygian, to name a few.

Here are a few of the things I saw and learned during my visit today.

Here's your Art 101 course, just outside the museum. Doric, Ionion, Corinthian capitals of ancient columns. One theme that I picked up on outside the museum was that these were the bits and pieces of ancient art. There were few complete artifacts. I think most of the complete artifacts are in Berlin, London, New York and Paris by now.

What I loved about this Corinthian capital was that it was outside for anyone to touch. Did I  touch the scrolls and trace the pattern of the flowers? You bet I did! Are those eggs between the scrolls? That was one mystery I had after finally getting this close to a Corinthian capital.

This statue of an Amazon was utterly beautiful. I remembered that these female warriors were known to uncover their right breast (or cut it off) to better handle their bow and arrows. I love the posture here, too. It's not the sexy, "Ooh, you caught me bathing," stoop of Aphrodite. It's strong, striding forward, ready for action. The fact that its head was missing just leaves more for the imagination.

This was a head of a Roman woman. I love the detail of each curl in her hair, and the way her hair is drawn back in a shawl. What kind of an artistic genius could make solid stone seem so delicate?

This was one of the more complete statues in the museum: a Roman general. He's missing both sides of his head, but he's got that signet ring tucked close to his chest, and from neck to foot, this guy means business! There is aggression in his stride, too. Just an amazing work of art: this guy will be powerful for as long as he wants to!

There are lots of Greek vases at the museum. This was one of the more complete ones. I thought about writing a poem about the woman following these two soldiers. The detail is really amazing--each soldier has a different crest on his shield.

This is a sarcophagus from the area--no, they weren't just for the pharaohs. The designs here are just two cool. There is resting in peace, and there is resting with two wild lions at your feet, deer fit for hunting at your ankles, winged serpents at your side, and sphinxes to guard your head.

One place that I didn't get photos of was the treasure room, full of gold artifacts. Sorry, I must have been dazzled by all the gold! I really liked their coin collection. They had a set of Roman coins featruing emprerors that went back to Titus (AD 70). There were also a few "hoards" of coins they had found, dating to the time of Croesus. 

Ancient coins were small. Two would fit side by side on a US quarter-dollar. But they had distinctive designs--wrestlers, javelin throwers, boxes of plenty--from the earliest ones.

I'll definitely be back to the Archaeological Museum, especially once I get my 30-lira yearly pass that is available for teachers in Turkey. But today was my first taste of ancient Smyrna. Despite the lack of complete statues and artworks, that taste was delicious!