archaeological museum
An archaeology museum is a museum that specializes in the display of archaeological artifacts.
Many archaeology museum are in the open-air museum, open air, such as the Ancient Agora of Athens and the Roman Forum.David Watkin. ''The Roman Forum ...
located close to the archaeological site of the
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...
city of
Troy
Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
, in present-day northwestern
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
.
Opened in 2018, it exhibits in seven sections of a contemporary architectural building the historical artefacts from Troy and some other ancient cities around and on nearby islands. The museum director is Rıdvan Gölcük. The Museum was granted the '2020 European Museum of the Year Special Appreciation Award' and the 'European Museum Academy Special Award'.
Museum building
Troy Museum is situated about east of the archaeological site of the city of
Troy
Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
at Tevfikiye village, in the
Çanakkale
Çanakkale is a city and seaport in Turkey on the southern shore of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. It is the seat of Çanakkale Province and Çanakkale District.
The design competition for the museum building was awarded to the Turkish architectural firm Yalın Mimarlık in 2011. The structure embodies a contemporary minimalist architectural style. Construction commenced in 2013 but faced a temporary halt in 2015; however, it resumed in 2017, allowing the project to move forward toward completion.
The cube-shaped building with four floors in square plan is clad in
rust
Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH) ...
-colored
weathering steel
Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys that form a stable external layer of rust that eliminates the need for painting ...
to give the impression that it was excavated from the archaeological site. The building's height is equivalent to the depth of the excavation at the archaeological site of Troy. The exhibition areas cover of the total indoor area. The exhibition areas of are enclosed by workplaces, storages, and conference rooms. The basement is reserved for service functions. Entrance to the museum is by a -wide ramp leading to an underground gate.
The total cost of the building came to 45 million (approx. $8 million). The museum was opened on 10 October 2018, the "Year of Troy" as declared in Turkey.
Exhibitions
The niches on the walls of the entrance ramp contain gravestones, large-sized statues, scenes and mural-sized photographs from the various levels of the excavation in Troy. At the entrance, information about the
archaeological science
Archaeological science consists of the application of scientific techniques to the analysis of archaeological materials and sites. It is related to methodologies of archaeology. Martinón-Torres and Killick distinguish ‘scientific archaeology ...
, archaeological dating methods and terms like
the
conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
conservation and restoration of cultural property focuses on protection and care of cultural property (tangible cultural heritage), including artworks, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections. Conservation activities include preve ...
,
tumulus
A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...
and the prehistoric periods of the
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
,
Chalcolithic
The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...
,
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
and
Iron Age
The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
are explained to the visitor for orientation purposes. The museum also features visual graphical designs,
diorama
A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes dioramas are enclosed in a glass showcase at a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies like mili ...
s and interactive displays.
The museum contains seven sections. The ground floor is reserved for artefacts from the
Troad
The Troad ( or ; , ''Troáda'') or Troas (; , ''Trōiás'' or , ''Trōïás'') is a historical region in northwestern Anatolia. It corresponds with the Biga Peninsula ( Turkish: ''Biga Yarımadası'') in the Çanakkale Province of modern Tur ...
region, today Biga Peninsula. These are archaeological remains from the ancient cities of
Assos
Assos (; , ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city near today's Behramkale () or Behram for short, which most people still call by its ancient name of Assos. It is located on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast in the Ayvacık, Çanakkale, Ayvac ...
(Behramkale),
Tenedos
Tenedos (, ''Tenedhos''; ), or Bozcaada in Turkish language, Turkish, is an island of Turkey in the northeastern part of the Aegean Sea. Administratively, the island constitutes the Bozcaada, Çanakkale, Bozcaada district of Çanakkale Provinc ...
Parium
Parium (or Parion; ) was a Greek city of Adrasteia in Mysia on the Hellespont. Its bishopric was a suffragan of Cyzicus, the metropolitan see of the Roman province of Hellespontus.
History
Founded in 709 B.C., the ancient city of Parion is lo ...
,
Alexandria Troas
Alexandria Troas ("Alexandria of the Troad"; ; , "Old Istanbul") is the site of an ancient Greek city situated on the Aegean Sea near the northern tip of Turkey's western coast, the area known historically as Troad, a little south of Tenedos (mo ...
(Eski Stambul), Smintheion,
Lampsacus
Lampsacus (; ) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek city located in modern day Turkey, strategically situated on the eastern side of the Hellespont in the northern Troad. An inhabitant of Lampsacus was called a Lampsacene. The name has been trans ...
(near
Lapseki
Lapseki (from Greek language, Greek: :el:Λάμψακος, Λάμψακος, ''Lampsakos'') is a town in Çanakkale Province, Turkey. It is the seat of Lapseki District.Thymbra, Tavolia and
Imbros
Imbros (; ; ), officially Gökçeada () since 29 July 1970,Alexis Alexandris, "The Identity Issue of The Minorities in Greece And Turkey", in Hirschon, Renée (ed.), ''Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchang ...
figurine
A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cla ...
s, gold pieces,
necklace
A necklace is an article of jewellery that is worn around the neck. Necklaces may have been one of the earliest types of adornment worn by humans. They often serve ceremonial, religious, magical, or funerary purposes and are also used as sy ...
s and
bracelet
A bracelet is an article of jewellery that is worn around the wrist. Bracelets may serve different uses, such as being worn as an ornament. When worn as ornaments, bracelets may have a supportive function to hold other items of decoration, ...
s, coins, ornaments, bone objects and tools, metal containers, terracotta potteries, weapons, axes and cutters,
milestone
A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...
s, inscriptions, altars, sarcophagi, sculptures and many other special pieces from the area's 5,000-year old history. Among the notable pieces are the 1994-excavated Polyxena sarcophagus and the 2012-discovered statue of
Greek god
In ancient Greece, deities were regarded as immortal, anthropomorphic, and powerful. They were conceived of as individual persons, rather than abstract concepts or notions, and were described as being similar to humans in appearance, albeit larg ...
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...
s,
stele
A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...
s, and column capitals are exhibited in the museum yard.