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The Anatolian Civilizations Museum is in two Ottoman buildings located near Ankara Castle, in the historical Atpazarı district of Ankara. One of the buildings is Mahmut Paşa Bedesteni and the other is Kurşunlu Han (inn, caravanserai).
The Mahmut Paşa Bedesteni was built by Mahmut Pasha, one of ministers (viziers) of Mehmed II the Conqueror during 1464-1471. The building does not have any inscriptions. In some sources, it is recorded that pure Angora garments were distributed here. The design of the building is of the classical type. There are 10 domes covering a rectangle designed to enclose the location, and there are 102 shops facing each other.
According to historical records and registry books, the Kurşunlu Han was built as a foundation (vakıf) to finance Mehmet Pasha's (Mehmet the Conqueror's vizier) alms giving in Üsküdar, Istanbul. It also does not have an inscriptions. During the repairs of 1946, coins of the Murat II period were discovered. The findings indicate that the Han existed in the fifteenth century. The Han has the typical design of Ottoman Period hans. There is a courtyard and an arcade in the middle and they are surrounded by two-storey rooms. There are 28 rooms on the ground floor, 30 rooms on the first floor. The rooms have furnaces. There is a barn with an "L" type on the ground floor on west and south directions of the rooms. On the north side of the han there are 11 shops and 9 shops on east side and 4 shops facing each other within the garden. The inn (han) was built by Mehmet Pasha and in 1467 Mehmet Pasha was promoted to Prime Minister (Grand Vizier). Upon orders by Mahmut Pasha the vaulted bazaar was built. He kept his position until 1470. He had his mosque, soup kitchen and madrasa in Üsküdar, and his body is buried there.
These two buildings constituting the museum today were abandoned after the fire in 1881.
Exhibited artifacts
- Palaeolithic Age (....8000): The age is represented by the remains discovered in the Antalya Karain Cave. The people of Palaeolithic Age were hunting and collecting communities living in caves. The stone and bone tools of the people of that Age are exhibited.
- Neolithic Age (8000-5500) : During this age food production began and first settlements were established by the communities of this age, the artefacts of the age were discovered in two important centers of the age, namely Çatalhöyük and Hacılar and are exhibited in the museum. The remains include the mother goddess sculptures, stamps, earthenware containers, agricultural tools made of bone.
- Chalcolithic Age (Copper-Stone) (B.C. 5500-3000): In addition to stone tools, copper was processed and used in daily life during this age, and rich remains dating from this Age were discovered in Hacılar, Canhasan, Tilkitepe, Alacahöyük and Alişar and are exhibited in the museum.
- Early Bronze Age (B.C. 3000-1950): The people living in Anatolia in the beginning of third millennium B.C. added tin to copper and alloy to copper and invented bronze. They also worked all metals of the age with casting and hammering techniques. Valuable metals, magnificent death presents discovered from royal tombs of Alacahöyük, ruins from Hasanoğlan, Mahmatlar, Eskiyapar, Horoztepe, Karaoğlan, Merzifon, Etiyokuşu, Ahlatlıbel, Karayavşan, Bolu, Beycesultan Semahöyük, Karaz-Tilki tepe constitute the rich Old Bronze Age and are exhibited in the museum.
- Hittite Period (B.C. 1750-1200): The first political union in Anatolia in second millennium was established by the Hittites in the Kızılırmak basin. The capital city was Boğazköy (Hattusa) and other important centers were İnandık, Eskiyapar, Alacahöyük, Alişar, Ferzant. Embossed bull figure containers, earthenware artifacts, tablets of government archives, seals in the name of the king can be seen.
- Phrygian Period (B.C. 1200-700) : The Phrygians immigrated from the Balkans in the 1200s and acquired control over Anatolia, their center was Gordion. The works of art discovered in Gordion and its ruins are the best examples of the Phrygians and are exhibited in the museum.
- Late Hittite Period (B.C. 1200-700) : Upon end of the Hittite Empire, some Hittite communities established province states in south and south-east Anatolia, and the Late Hittite Principalities period ensued. Malatya-Arslantepe, Karkamış (Carchemish) and Sakçagözü are some important Late Hittite settlements.
- Urartian Period (B.C. 1200-600) : The Urartian civilization reached an advanced architecture and mining technology in centers like Altıntepe, Adilcevaz, Kayalıdere, Patnos, Van, Çavuştepe and lived during the same times as the Phrygians.
- Lydian Period (B.C. 1200-546) : The origin of Lydian art comes from the Bronze Age in which there were relations, friendly or hostile, between their ancestors and the Hittites. Lydians made spectacular progress in Iron Age especially from Gyges period to Croesus (685 BC to 547 BC). The exhibited artifacts mostly date from the 6th century BC.
- Collections including Greek, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine period artifacts from the first millennium, made of gold, silver, glass, marble and bronze.
- Coins represent exceptional cultural assets.
- Ancient jewellery.
Source : wikipedia.org
