Gaziantep Archaeology Museum Photo Collection

Description: The Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology is located in Gaziantep, Turkey and consists of a large and varied collection. The museum was founded in 1944 and officially opened in 1969. When the museum opened it housed many of the mosaics from Zeugma. However, as excavations uncovered more and more artifacts a specific museum, the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, was established in 2011.

At this time, the mosaics from Zeugma housed in the Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology were moved to the Zeugma Mosaic Museum and placed on display along with new finds. The Turkish government then announced plans for a redesign of the Gaziantep Museum. The museum reopened its doors to the public in 2017 with redesigned exhibition halls and new, detailed displays.

The museum hosts Anatolian finds spanning from the Lower Paleolithic period through the 20th century. In its new design, the museum takes visitors on a chronological journey beginning with Paleolithic and Neolithic stone sculptures, followed by Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age finds from sites such as Şaraga and Gedikli, and through to the Iron Age and Persian period (with materials such as cylinder seals and jewelry from the Kingdom of Commagene).

The museum then continues with galleries which display Hellenistic and Roman funerary stelae and sculpture, as well as coins and seals from the Islamic and Ottoman periods. In addition to the chronologically arranged galleries, the museum displays larger Hittite and Roman stone tombs and stelae throughout their gardens. (Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology)

(SailingStone Travel)