Blogger, Paulina Allen
Today’s Highlights
- Doing laundry!
- Visit to the Istanbul Archeological Museum
- Visit to Istanbul Museum of Modern Art
Today was our free day in Istanbul, so it looked a little different for each of us. However, we all started it off by getting the necessities done — doing our laundry. At various points in the morning, we all dropped our laundry off at a spot around the corner, with plans to pick it up later in the evening!
Visit to the Istanbul Archeological Museum
Jemma, Carson, Kacie, Syd, and I made our way to the Istanbul Archeological Museum, which houses an extensive collection of classical statuary, and artifacts from modern-day Turkey’s Ancient, Byzantine, and Ottoman history. On our way there we ran into a very sweet cat, which is becoming a trend during our time in Turkey! We were looking to find the serpent heads from the Serpentine Column in the Hippodrome, which Gabby had presented on earlier in the week, and the first known mosaics of St. Francis, removed from the Kalenderhane Camii, which I had presented on earlier in the week.
The museum is organized by period and region. When walking through, the story told by the objects provides a counter-narrative to the Western understanding of classical history. The first several rooms are filled with Archaic and Hellenistic statues primarily from the Anatolia region- much of which is modern-day Turkey.
One room in the museum was dedicated to the archeological site of Troy where the events of Homer’s The Iliad take place. The exhibit displayed a variety of objects found at the site. Some pieces included Priam’s Treasure, the gold jewelry smuggled out of the Ottoman Empire by Henrich Schliemann, the first archeologist or treasure hunter to excavate at Troy. In his search for gold, he exercised little concern for the historical record and his excavations destroyed important archeological material. This exhibit provided excellent context for our visit to the site later this week!
Priam's Treasure in the Troy Exhibit at the Istanbul Archeology Museum
While exploring the museum we managed to find the serpent head from the Serpentine Column, but, to my disappointment, the frescoes of St. Francis were nowhere to be found. We concluded that they were in one of the several galleries closed off for renovation. Our last stop in the museum was the coin exhibit. Below is a picture of several Byzantine coins, can you spot the coins of Justinian 1? You may recognize his name as the emperor responsible for building the Hagia Sophia!
We finished off our visit by enjoying some Turkish Cay among the column garden.
The museum was an excellent precursor for the topics we will be discussing with Dr. Human in the upcoming week; how Turkey uses its material heritage to form its identity as a modern-day nation.
While we were off exploring the Archeological Museum, Dr. Pitamber spent her day cozied up in a cafe, enjoying some coffee while hard at work!
Visit to the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art
While Syd, Kacie, Jemma, and I went back to the hotel to rest and do some homework, Carson, Gabby, and Sophie went on to the second museum of the day, the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art.
The museum focuses on Turkish contemporary art. One exhibit of interest was “Between Worlds” by Chiharu Shiota. Istanbul Modern organized this exhibit as part of the celebration as part of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Japan. This is yet another reminder of how art and politics are intertwined.
To finish up our evening, we ate a delicious pizza dinner and went to pick up our laundry!
Final Thoughts
My trip to the museum left me with more questions than answers. How did the archeological museum build its collection, and when did it start? What are the origins of many of the objects on display? How does the organization of the museum’s collection inform our understanding of Turkey’s roots as a modern nation? I am excited to see how our visit to Troy, and our time with Dr. Human, who specializes in cultural heritage, will inform and change my understanding of my museum visit!
See you on Bozcaada!