Amasra Museum ( tr, Amasra Müzesi) is a museum in Amasra district of

Bartın Province Bartın Province ( tr, ), a small province in northern Turkey on the Black Sea, surrounds the city of Bartın. It lies to the east of Zonguldak Province. The town of Bartın contains a number of very old wooden houses in a style no longer ext ...

, northwestern Turkey. Established in 1982, it exhibits

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

artifacts and ethnographic items. The museum is visited by more than 50,000 tourists yearly.

Location

Anasra Museum is situated on Çamlık Sok. 4 in Kum neighborhood of Amasra.

History

The foundation of Amasra Museum goes back to 1955 when the collected items, which were stored in a small hall in the municipality building, were opened to the public as an exhibition. In 1969, the museum moved to a former primary school building. On 30 January 1982, it was transferred to its current building. The construction of this building as a naval school began in 1884, it remained however unfinished. In 1975, the building was acquired by the Ministry of Culture and completed in 1976. The museum building underwent a thorough restoration between 2014 and 2015.

Exhibits

The one-story building consists of four halls, two reserved for archaeological artifacts and two for ethnographic items. Most of the exhibits are collected from Amasra and around. The museum holds a total of 1,168 items, 901 archaeological and 744 ethnographic. The museum yard contains stone artifacts from the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and Genoese periods. A map of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

, dating back to 1884 and printed in the court printing shop, hangs on the wall of the museum's hallway. ;Archaeology section In the Hall #1, small-sized artifacts of the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods are exhibited. These are terracotta and glass teardrop and perfume bottles, golden and bronze jewelry found in graves as well as various

amphora An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

s and jugs extracted from undersea. There are bronze

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 cl ...

s, bracelets, fish hooks, Christian crosses, weapons, oil lamps, pots and also golden, silver and bronze coins on display. The Hall #2 contains marble artifacts like statues, busts,

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

s and architectural elements with relief ornaments from Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Genoese periods. ; Ethnography section Small-sized objects from the late Ottoman period are exhibited in the Hall #1 of the Ethnography section including copper kitchenware, weapons, writing tools,

candelabra A candelabra (plural candelabras) or candelabrum (plural candelabra or candelabrums) is a candle holder with multiple arms. Although electricity has relegated candleholders to decorative use, interior designers continue to model light fixtures ...

, seals, scales, earthenware and rings. In addition, wooden pots are on display reflecting the art of wood cutting unique to the Amasra region. Hall #2 is reserved for apparel and silver jewelry of the region from the late Ottoman period. These are coverlets, pillow covers,

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

s, carpets, bath gloves and old wall clocks.

References

{{authority control Buildings and structures in Bartın Province Tourist attractions in Bartın Province Amasra Archaeological museums in Turkey 1982 establishments in Turkey Museums established in 1982 Ethnographic museums in Turkey