The Museum Week is being celebrated in Turkey which started on May 18 with special events at Istanbul Modern, Sakip Sabanci Museum and many others across Turkey. New Museums opening in many cities, including Gaziantep, known as the Museum City, and some of the existing Museums are also celebrating this significant week with new exhibitions. Some of these include “New Works New Horizons, Paradise Lost and Yao Lu’s New landscapes at Istanbul Modern.
Among others is Rezan Has Museum, in Cibali, Istanbul, which last year brought together “The Silent Witnesses” of past civilizations and the present day. As stated in the article below, the process of the civilization of mankind that began approximately ten thousand years ago, with their daily life, beliefs, social and commercial relations, struggles against nature and even the wherewithal they developed to resist death, were all on display. The June issue of National Geographic Magazine has a 15-page report on the first Temple in the world, the Gobekli Tepe, which the archaeologists claim to have been built over 12,000 years ago. The area surrounding the Temple near Sanli Urfa will be the site of a new Museum soon.
As an appreciation of the many exhibitions in Turkey, below also a commentary published 5 years ago, with an added comment that hopefully this kind of exhibitions will be part of the programs at the US Turkish Library and Museum in New York planned to open on 23 April 2015. The second Progress Report on the Project is given in website www.turkishlibrary.us .
Yuksel Oktay
23 May 2011, Washington, NJ
Silent Witnesses Exhibition
Rezan Has Museum, Cibali brings together the silent witnesses of past civilizations and the present day. The process of the civilization of mankind that began approximately ten thousand years ago, with their daily life, beliefs, social and commercial relations, struggles against nature and even the wherewithal they developed to resist death, are all on display.
The works of several civilizations that settled in Anatolia, and its environs, between 7500 BC and 1500 AD are exhibited chronologically. Seals, medical instruments, weapons, figurines, idols and weight measurements, illuminating products are displayed thematically within their own historical period. A bronze bathtub dated between 1 BC and 1 AD, a silver-mounted bronze surgical set, painted objects of 2000 BC, Urartu needles, obsidian arrow ends, harnesses, offering statues, oil lamps and clay sculptures are all included in the exhibition.
The exhibition covers a wide range of periods from the Prehistoric Era to the Seljuk Empire and also includes artwork and findings from Turkey’s leading collectors that have not been previously displayed. The collection of Haluk Perk Museum, which is open only for academic studies, will be on display to the public for the first time.
From Neolithic to Seljuk Silent Witnesses Exhibition is open throughout 2010.