The
Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archeology
Bodrum1
Castle (Bodrum Kalesi)
In
1962 the Turkish Government decided to turn the castle into a museum
for the many underwater findings in the ancient shipwrecks in the
Aegean Sea. This has become the Bodrum Museum of Underwater
Archaeology, with a vast collection of amphoras, ancient glass,
bronze, clay, iron items. it's the biggest of its kind devoted to
underwater archaeology. Most of its collection dates from underwater
excavations after 1960.
These excavations were performed on several
shipwrecks :
-
Finike-Gelidonya shipwreck (12th c. BC) :
1958 - 1959; first underwater dig in Turkey, showing that Near
Eastern merchant ships played a much greater role in the Bronze
Age than previously known.
-
Bodrum-Yassiada shipwreck (Byzantine, 7 th
c. AD) : 1961 - 1964 ; Roman merchant vessel with 900 amphoras.
- Bodrum
-Yassiada shipwreck (Late Roman, 4th c. AD)
-
Bodrum-Yassiada shipwreck (Ottoman, 16th
c. AD) (dated by a sixteenth-century 4-real silver coin from
Seville (Philip II) )
- Ṣeytan
Deresi shipwreck (16th c. BC)
-
Marmaris-Serçe harbour shipwreck (glass,
11th c. AD) : 1977; amazing collection of Islamic glassware
-
Marmaris-Serçe harbour shipwreck
(Hellenistic, 3th BC)
-
Kaṣ-Uluburun shipwreck (14th c. BC) : 1982
- 1995; 10 tons of Cypriot copper ingots; one ton of pure tin
ingots; 150 glass ingots; manufactured goods; Mycenaean pottery;
Egyptian seals (with a seal of queen Nefertiti) and jewelry
- Tektaṣ
glasswreck (5th c. BC): (1996-2001)
The former chapel houses an exhibition of vases and
amphoras form the Mycenaean age (14-12th c. BC) and findings from
the Bronze Age (around 2500 BC). The many commercial amphoras give a
historical overview of the development of amphoras and their varied
uses.
The Italian Tower houses in the Coin and Jewelry
Hall a large collection spanning many centuries.
Another exhibition room is devoted exclusively to
the tomb of a Carian princess, who died between 360 and 325 BC.
The collection of ancient glass objects is one of
the four biggest ancient glass collections in the world.
Two ancient shipwrecks have been reconstructed : the
Fatımi ship, detected as sunken 935 years ago, and the large
Uluburun Shipwreck from the 14th century BC.
The garden inside the castle is a collection of
almost every plant and tree of the Mediterranean region, some of
which have a mythological significance: the myrtle was dedicated to
Aphrodite; the shadow of the plane tree was sought after by kings
and noblemen, as it was thought to strengthen one's health.
The Bodrum Castle officially became a museum in
1961 with Mr. Haluk Elbe as its first Director, but its real though
unofficial beginnings go back a little further, to 1959, when the
first appropriation of Turkish government funds (equivalent to about
US$50.00) was received in Bodrum for preliminary repairs of breeches
in the castle walls. The first collection of objects retrieved from
the depths was stored and exhibited in 1959 in the Knights' Hall
which today gives access to the Carian Princess exhibit. This embryo
of the Bodrum Museum included amphorae brought by Bodrum sponge
divers as well as objects recovered during the exploratory dives
made by Peter Throckmorton, Mustafa Kapkin and Honor Frost in 1958,
the year when those pioneers planted the first seeds of scientific
nautical archaeology.
When the Bodrum Castle was designated as a museum
it was little more than a romantic ruin attractive only to those
interested in traces left by medieval crusading knights on the
Anatolian shore. For that story click (THE CASTLE). Castle
restoration projects and the beautification of grounds were started
by the first director, Mr. Haluk Elbe, whose name has been given to
the art gallery at the entrance to the museum. But it is the
director, Mr. Oguz Alpozen, (retired in july 2005) who deserves
credit for implementing the "living museum" concept which attracts
hundreds of thousands visitors and which has earned international
renown and recognition in the form of the Museum of the Year Award.
In the present time Bodrum Museum of the Underwater Archaeology is
directed by Mr.Yaşar Yıldız .
Fifty-two
museums from all over Europe were entered in the "European Museum of
the Year Award '95" (EMYA'95) competition; forty-five were declared
eligible to compete and twelve went into the final round. The Bodrum
Museum of Underwater Archaeology, representing Turkey, survived the
initial selection process, became one of twelve finalists and was
awarded a "Certificate of Special Commendation 1995" at the
competition finals held on June 10 in Sweden" .
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The transformation of a ruined, dilapidated
castle into a great museum of world importance was the work of
vision, conviction and perseverance and, as is usual with all living
organisms, time elapsed between conception and birth. The first seed
was sown in 1958 by Peter Throckmorton, an American journalist-diver
whose pioneering efforts - brought to fruition by Prof. George F.
Bass - inaugurated scientific nautical archaeology. An early and
enthusiastic convert to Throckmorton's vision of the castle as a
museum was Hakki Gultekin, the director of the Izmir Museum, who
brought this matter to the attention of the central government
authorities in Ankara. The cause was also championed in the national
press by Azra Erhad, a respected academic and the co-translator of
such Classical works as the Iliad and the Odyssey into Turkish.
These efforts resulted in the first grant of government funds (1959)
and the placement of the castle under the jurisdiction of the Bodrum
director of education, raising it from the status of an abandoned
former prison. The Knights' Hall, with its graceful vaulted ceiling,
became the nucleus of the museum-to-be when it became the repository
of amphoras previously recovered by Turkish sponge divers as well as
of the first artifacts excavated from under the sea by Captain Kemal
Aras, Peter Throckmorton, Mustafa Kapkin and Honor Frost, all
members of the initial explorations of coastal wrecks.
These early initiatives and continued
perseverance were rewarded in 1961 when the Turkish government, by
official decree, created the Bodrum Museum in the castle under the
jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture, appointing Haluk Elbe as
its first director. It was during his tenure, between 1961 and 1973,
that the work of restoration of the ruined castle began with repairs
of the southern walls and of the knights' chapel which had been
turned into a mosque by the Ottomans. This venue became the museum's
first exhibit hall to be opened to the public (1963) at which time
it housed the Mycenaean Collection, artifacts of the Mycenaean
period excavated on the Bodrum peninsula near the village of Dirmil.
During these years the Knights' Hall was also properly restored and
assigned to house the Carian or Classical Collection while artifacts
recovered from the sea were exhibited in an adjunct building to the
west. Haluk Elbe also planted many of the trees and shrubs that
today make the grounds of the castle so attractive. He is
commemorated by having the Haluk Elbe Art Gallery at the entrance to
the castle named in his honor.
After the departure of Haluk Elbe, under
directors Nurettin Yardimci (1973-1975) and Ilhan Aksit (1976-1978),
the pace of restoration of the castle and the development of the
museum slowed down, with the significant exception of the English
Tower which was repaired in 1975. It was resumed and accelerated
with the appointment of Oguz Alpozen to the museum directorship in
1978.
By the time he was appointed museum director Oguz
Alpozen had already been associated with the museum in one capacity
or another since 1962 when, as a student, he participated in the
underwater excavations under the leadership of George Bass. In later
years, until 1971, he took part in these excavations both as a
qualified diver and as a commissioner representing the Turkish
Ministry of Culture, so when he assumed the directorship of the
museum he was already a champion of underwater archaeology.
Realizing that this new field of science was of immense value in
uncovering the mysteries of the past, and determined to keep the
results of the excavations in Bodrum, Alpozen prevailed upon the
authorities to re-designate the museum as the Bodrum Museum of
Underwater Archaeology.
With this stress on the nautical archaeology role
in mind Alpozen then proceeded to complete the restoration and
beautification work started by Haluk Elbe making additional venues
available for the exposition of artifacts recovered from the sea.
This emphasis also allowed the museum to cooperate more closely with
the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) which, with its academic
and financial resources, was able to continue making trail-blazing
underwater excavations which drew world-wide attention to Bodrum.
Finds, such as the "Oldest Known Shipwreck", became known not only
in specialist circles but also among the wider public due to reports
in the prestigious National Geographic magazine making the Bodrum
museum a prime attraction for visitors from all over the world.
Just when these stunning underwater discoveries
and recoveries were being made fate intervened to redress the
balance, directing everyone's attention once again towards treasures
still buried beneath the earth. In 1989 an earth-moving backhoe,
digging for the foundations of a new building, brought to light a
sarcophagus containing the remains of a clearly wealthy woman and
excitement reached a peak when preliminary scrutiny indicated that
these may belong to Queen Ada of the Hecatomnid dynasty that
included Mausolus, the renowned ruler of Caria. The fascinating
story associated with this find and the befitting venue created for
its display will be found in the exhibits section detailed elsewhere
on this site.
Another intervention of fate took place in 1993
when excavations in front of the English Tower brought to light the
remains of prisoners chained together in the manner known to have
been used for galley slaves. These unknown victims of past cruelty
and callousness had been discarded in the castle's trash pile, so
they called for more humane remembrance. They were given a place,
and they were assigned the sad but illuminating posthumous task of
giving the passing visitor reason to pause and reflect on this
blemish on the romantic and partisan picture all too often painted
of medieval knighthood in the West.
Even the most instructive, impressive or rare
relics of the past, however, fail to captivate unless displayed in a
manner that makes them appealing to the viewer, and this is the
field in which the Bodrum Museum excels. Convinced that museum items
must be displayed in a relevant context in order to attract and keep
public interest, Oguz Alpozen directed the creation of graphic
tableaux which brought life and meaning to objects that normally
would hold only the interest of scholars. Care has also been given
to the ambiance of the totality of the museum - including the
grounds and facilities - with the result that it has become a place
where it is a pleasure to be, and it is this novel and creative
approach that places the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology
among the finest museums in the world. To the extent possible we
have tried to convey the sense of the museum in the various sections
of this site, but virtual reality cannot recreate the fragrance of
flowers or the gentle caress of the Aegean breeze.
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Amphora Park
The
amphora vividly illustrates the ingenuity of mankind in every age.
Faced with the problem of storing and transporting goods of various
kinds in ships, and limited by the materials available at the time,
clay was formed into shapes appropriate for the job at hand. Used in
great numbers, amphorae were produced in many places around the rim
of the Mediterranean and each producer was identifiable by the
design, a fact of tremendous value to today's archaeologists and
historians who are thus able to trace trading patterns of the
ancient world. Some of the trade routes of the Mediterranean,
deduced - among other indicators - from the locations where certain
types of amphorae were found, are illustrated on the wall of the
Amphora Park.
These vessels, ubiquitous in antiquity, were used
as containers for wine, olive oil, olives, grains, almonds and
numerous other staples and bulk goods. Modern technology allows
today's researchers to identify the contents of an amphora even when
these goods have left only traces inside the vessel, permitting the
investigator to describe the cargo carried by a ship when found as
part of a shipwreck. If found on land, the contents of a house
larder or a warehouse can also be identified.
The shapes of amphorae vary from long and slender
to virtually spherical. Cnidian, Coan, Rhodian and even Carthaginian
amphorae are on display, having originated in Cnidus, Cos, Rhodes
and Carthage and finding a resting place in the Bodrum Museum. Some
were found on land, but most were retrieved from the shipwrecks
excavated to date, from the "container ships" of antiquity. The
pointed or knobbed bottoms and oblong shapes permitted the amphorae
to be closely packed, or stacked, in the holds of ships, with
matting placed between the amphorae to prevent breakage. Matting or
shoring with twigs and other materials (the progenitors of Styrofoam
of today!) was also used to cushion the amphorae from the hull of
the ship. The design characteristic that permitted the stacking
allowed loads of a great number of amphorae to be carried, sometimes
well over a thousand, making voyages profitable and permitting loads
of mixed cargo.
There are many sources for detailed information
about amphorae available to all who are interested and the details
are indeed fascinating. For example, amphora handles are embossed
with the sign of the manufacturer, the symbol of Rhodian origin
being a rose, of the Coan a crab, and of the Cnidian a bull's head.
The collection in the Bodrum Museum is displayed
in the Amphora Park, on the ground floor of the Snake Tower and
scattered throughout the castle grounds. It should be noted that the
first artifacts to be deposited in the castle when it was just an
embryo of a museum were amphorae recovered from the sea by Bodrum
sponge divers. Top
The
Carian Princess exhibit evokes the last days of the ancient
greatness of Halicarnassus, the capital city of Caria and the site
on which today's Bodrum stands. It is a reminder of the Hecatomnid
dynasty that ruled Caria from ca. 392 B.C. until the city fell to
the Macedonian armies of Alexander the Great, a disaster from which
it never recovered. It is a tribute to the memory of Ada I, a ruler
deposed by her own brother and reinstated by the conqueror whom she
had adopted as her son.
The beginnings of this exhibition go back to
April 1989 when a construction crew digging the foundations for a
new building came upon a buried ancient structure. Since the
construction site was located near to a known necropolis (cemetary)
of the ancient city of Halicarnassus, the excavations were being
carried out under the supervision of archaeologists of the Bodrum
Museum, and it is they who investigated the uncovered structure to
discover a burial chamber with an intact sarcophagus containing the
remains of a human female. In the space between the burial chamber
and the sarcophagus was a funereal wine decanter (oinochoe) with
black glazing. As the well-preserved interred skeleton was
surrounded by gold jewellery and ornaments, it was immediately clear
that the deceased was a woman of wealth, and preliminary dating
placed the remains as belonging to the Late Hellenistic-Early Roman
period. This caused great excitement in Bodrum since it suggested
that the remains may belong to the last Hecatomnid ruler of ancient
Caria, Ada I.
This thrilling find and its possible historical
importance triggered detailed research into the period and initiated
proceedings very rarely resorted to by archeologists: forensic
reconstruction of the head of the deceased using the skull as the
foundation. This science, excelled in by the Department of Forensic
Science of the University of Manchester Medical School, has been
successfully applied in several criminal investigations of
otherwise-unidentifiable victims. The painstaking reconstruction of
the head was carried out by Dr. Richard Neave and his team in
collaboration with Dr. John Prag of the Museum of Manchester
University and the result, now on display in this Hall, shows a
woman whose facial features would not look out of place in a group
of women native to this area. Based on the investigation of the
teeth, performed by Dr. D.K. Whittaker of the Department of Basic
Dental Science, Dental School, University of Wales College of
Medicine, the age of the deceased at death was estimated at 44
years, with a possible range of 38-50 years, the estimate confirmed
by the Pathologist's Report of Dr. R.W. Stoddard.
The scientific investigations have not proven -
or disproven - conclusively whether the disinterred remains are
truly those of the Carian queen, but there is no doubt that they
belong to a person of consequence, a woman of the noble or ruling
class, and it appears to be more than likely that she was indeed a
Carian princess, and not impossible that she was Ada I of the
Hecatomnid Dynasty. The rich and delicate gold jewellery and
ornaments that grace her figure as she may have appeared greeting
guests in her banqueting hall evoke a regal hostess about to
entertain her equals some 2400 years ago. At the very least the
tableau probably closely approximates how the deposed Ada appeared
to Alexander of Macedon when he paid her a visit in Labranda, before
his troops conquered Halicarnassus and reinstated her to rule over
Caria.
The exhibition of the Carian Princess was created
and opened to the public in 1993 with the support of the Turkish
Ministry of Culture, the Center of Administration of Circulating
Capital Funds of the Ministry of Culture, the Directorate for
Documentation of Monuments in Izmir, Dr. Richard Neave and his team
from Manchester University, Dr. John Prag, Keeper of Archaeology of
the Museum of Manchester University, Sun Med Holidays, Go Turkey,
the Bodrum Lions Club and John and Alison Simpson.
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The
English Tower
The English Tower, also known as St. Catherine's
Tower and Lion Tower, stands at the south-west corner of the castle
looking out over the sea. Its construction was financed by
contributions solicited in England, at least some of which were made
in response to a campaign authorized by the Pope who issued
indulgences to the contributors. A copy of one such Grant of
Indulgence issued in 1414 to Sir William FitzHugh and his wife Dame
Margery is preserved in the Museum of the Order of St John in
Clerkenwell, London. The tower is regarded as one of the most
important well-preserved historical monuments built by the English
outside England.
The three-storied tower is built on solid
bedrock. Its lowest floor originally held dungeons which are now
used for storage, but of the greatest interest to the visitor is the
hall reached through the northern entrance which is surmounted with
the Royal Arms of King Henry IV of England, the arms of six other
male members of the Plantagenet Royal Family and the coats-of-arms
of noble English families, the chief contributors to the building
fund. Among these are such distinguished names as Westmoreland,
Percy, Stafford, De Vere and others known in English history.
Beyond this entrance is the refectory beautifully
restored after the depredations of time and the destruction that the
tower suffered from French bombardment during the First World War.
The medieval aura of this chamber is enhanced by hanging banners,
arms and armor and other ornaments that illustrate the period.
Included also are banners used by land and naval forces of the
Ottoman Turks to whom the castle was surrendered in 1523, showing
the evolution of the Turkish flag to the present. This hall,
redolent of the romance of the Middle Ages, is used on special
occasions for banquets at which the guests are served by castle
staff dressed in medieval garb while listening to the strains of
period music. A great banner with the arms of Sir Thomas Docwra, the
English knight who was the Captain of the Castle in 1498-1499, forms
an impressive background and helps to create the proper ambience for
this living reminder of the past. Top
Just
off the west coast of the Bodrum peninsula, southwest of an islet
called Yassiada, there is a submerged reef appropriately referred to
by some as The Ship Trap. About A.D. 626, in the reign of Emperor
Heraclius, when the Persians and the Avars were laying siege to
Constantinople, the capital of the East Roman Empire, the reef
claimed another victim, a small ship bearing in its hold a cargo of
nearly a thousand wine amphorae. For more than thirteen centuries
the shipwreck lay on the seabed until it was discovered by Kemal
Aras, a Turkish diver, who then showed it to Peter Throckmorton, an
American photo-journalist and diver in 1958. Throckmorton
investigated the wreck and reported:
"We found the area of the cabin-galley, clearly
distinguishable because of roof tiles and different types of pottery
scattered in a ten-foot area. We brought up samples of every kind of
pottery we found: bowls, small jars, and the two types of jars in
the main cargo. We were very careful not to disturb the galley area
or to dig too deep, because this was a shipwreck of a period never
before investigated, the time of the beginning of the Byzantine
Empire."
The shipwreck was excavated in a scientific
manner between 1961 and 1964 by a team headed by George Bass, with
Oguz Alpozen, the current museum director, joining the team in 1962.
The wreck lay on a slope ranging from 32 to 39 meters below the
surface and was dated by gold and copper coins found among the
artifacts. When closely examined by experts the ship was shown to
have been built using the ancient shell-first method below the
waterline and the modern frame-first technique above the waterline,
with the ship's pine planks fastened to its elm frames by iron
spikes. The vessel carried nine iron anchors, two placed on the
sides of the bow and seven resting on deck just forward of the mast.
It is believed that the ship was steered by sweeps extended on its
aft quarters and it probably carried only one sail.
The exhibit on display today is a replica of the
ship's stern section reconstructed with new timber and positioned in
such a way as it probably was when it first rested on the bottom
after sinking, before breaking up due to the action of its
underwater environment. The ship's galley, where nearly all of the
personal possessions of those on board were stored, is seen
reconstructed in great detail, including an iron grill over a tiled
firebox as it was used by the ship's cook. This grill and the iron
spikes used for nailing the planking to the frames were all wrought
true to their ancient forms by a local blacksmith. The cooking and
table ware found in this shipwreck is the largest well-dated
collection of ceramics from the seventh century, including the
earliest examples of glazed Byzantine pottery. Also found in the
galley area were twenty-four terra-cotta oil lamps and several
copper vessels as well as the tools of the ship's carpenter. Lead
fishing-net sinkers indicate that the crew supplemented their diet
by fishing. The artifacts found are displayed in glass cases in the
exhibit hall or, like the cargo amphorae, in situ.
The name of Giorgios Presbyteros Naukleros found
on one of the ship's steelyards suggests that this presbyter of the
church was the owner/merchant and perhaps also the captain of the
ship and it is most likely that the complete set of Byzantine
weights - one pound, six ounces, three ounces, two ounces and one
ounce - was his property. Since the ship sank quite close to the
land it is quite possible that those aboard were able to swim ashore
and were saved, but their inability to salvage the ship and its
cargo has given us the opportunity to extend our knowledge of the
east Mediterranean world in the seventh century.
The replica on display was built by graduate
students of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology with the
assistance and cooperation of the director and staff of the Bodrum
Museum of Underwater Archaeology. Top
The
Turkish bath is a relatively recent addition to the Bodrum Castle
and there is no evidence of any bathing facilities attributable to
the era when the Knights of St. John were masters of the fortress.
Later records are very rare and include little detail, but Evliya
Celebi, a Turkish traveler who visited Bodrum in 1671, specifically
notes in his account that there was no bath (hamam) within the
castle walls which enclosed the whole tiny, impoverished population
of Bodrum. Although the exact date of its construction cannot be
firmly established, some purposeful historical sleuthing points
strongly to the end of the 19th century as the time when the Bodrum
Castle acquired its first Turkish bath. The original facility, which
fell into disuse and disrepair following the First World War, was
restored to reflect the features of a noteworthy Turkish 'hamam' and
was opened to the public in 1991 as an exhibit of a particularly
Turkish cultural tradition.
History notes that the first Crusaders did not
hold bathing in high esteem Their hosts were riddled with diseases,
primarily due to dismal personal hygiene. While the Byzantines
continued the Roman bath tradition, though on a much smaller scale,
and the Turks under the Muslim strictures of cleanliness developed
the Turkish bath, western Europeans were very slow to accept that
bathing the body is beneficial, so it is not surprising that no
remains of a bath dating to the times of the Knights have been found
in the Bodrum Castle.
It is believed that the restored Turkish bath
exhibited today was originally built shortly after the castle became
a prison in 1893, and its building was probably directed by Hoca
Arif Efendi, a scholar of note who was in Bodrum Castle in 1896-97,
held under fortress arrest together with Muneccim Hoca Muin, one of
the founders of the Istanbul observatory. In his history of Bodrum,
Avram Galanti Bodrumlu credits Hoca Arif Efendi with the
installation of iron pipes to replace the settlement's open-channel
water supply system, so it would seem appropriate that a person of
his rank would feel the need of a proper Turkish bath and be in a
position to have one built.
The restored bath exhibit illustrates the typical
characteristics of a Turkish hamam and includes objects associated
with the Turkish bathing tradition. One of its principal aspects is
washing in water poured over the body and then drained away
immediately after use, a hygienic method that avoids having people
other than the bather coming in contact with water once used.
Another mark of the hamam is its hot room - the Latin caldarium of
Roman baths - where heated air circulates through channels in the
floor and in the walls while the surrounding steam and hot water
poured over the body open the pores. This preparatory stage permits
deep cleansing which consists of an invigorating scrub-down massage
with a special rough cloth known as kese wielded by a professional
bath attendant called 'tellak'. The dressing room of the Turkish
hamam, the apoditerium of the Romans, is not just a changing room
but a place of relaxation and cooling off after the ablutions in the
hot room. It is also a place of socializing, especially on women's
days in public Turkish baths (or in separate women's hamams) where
the ladies stay on to eat, slake their thirst and engage in
neighborly gossip.
This exhibit is the only functioning hamam to
have been restored by the Ministry of Culture. The restoration was
made in 1991 with the technical support of the Ministry of Culture,
the General Directorate of Monuments and Museums, the Center for the
Administration of Circulating Capital Funds of the Ministry of
Culture, and the Directorate for Documentation of Monuments in
Izmir. It was opened to the public with the assistance of the Bodrum
Lions Club. Top
During the summers of 1977 through the Institute
of Nautical Archaelogy (INA) with the Bodrum Museum of Underwater
Archaeology excavated a Medieval shipwreck at Serce Limani, a
natural harbour on the southern Turkish Coast.
The ship had set sail in around 1025 A.D from the
southern part of the Syrian coast then ruled by the Fatimid caliphs
and was carrying a variety of cargoes, including 3 tons of glass
cullet in the form of raw glass and broken glassware. The glass
cullet waz seing transported to some small glass factory located
within the Byzantine Empire, most probably in either the Crimea or
the lower Danube river region.
The ship, only 16 meters long and propelled by
two lateen sails, had a flat bottom well designed for river
navigation.The hill, although not well preserved, is an
archaeological document of great importance for the history of naval
architecture, since it constitutes a very early example of the
employment of geometric formulae in order to achive desired hull
shape.
The Serce Limani shipwreck has yielded what is
presently the most closely-dated single assemblage of Islamic
ceramic, metal and glass wares in existence. This assemblage is
making a major constribution toward a more accurate dating of
similar artifacts from other medieval Islamic sites and is already
revolutionizing our view of a major period in Islamic history.
The display of the Serce Limani ship and its
contents within the building designed and built for this pupose by
the Turkish Government has been a joint project of the Bodrum Museum
of Underwater Archaeology and INA. Additional exhibits devoted to he
ship's anchors and rigging and a scale modelof the ship complete
with her rigging will be added in the near future.
Top
Throughout history coins and jewellery have
represented wealth and status is most of the world's cultures and
have and important place in museum collections. Since the minting of
coins was the prerogative of sovereign power they are an important
source of information for historians, not to mention their spell on
collectors. What distinguishes the coin exhibit in the Bodrum Museum
of Underwater Archaeology from collections in other museums,
however, is the imaginative way in which the value of ancient money
is made understandable and relevant for every visitor today.
The purchasing power of these monetary units is
shown by indicating the amounts of various commodities such as
bread, meat or oil that they could buy, and even the effects of
inflation on the value of money are clearly and ingeniously
illustrated. This is further clarified by providing information on
wages earned by unqualified workers as well as aid given to the poor
by the city-states of the era.
The exhibit also shows the monetary and weight
systems used in Anatolia, with particular reference to Caria whose
coins, from the smallest to the largest, in both obverse and
reverse, are displayed in chronological order. Genuine coins as well
as their ancient and modern counterfeits are also displayed with
appropriate clarifying narration and graphics.
The evidence that the Hecatomnid Dynasty which
ruled Caria some 2400 years ago under the nominal suzerainty of the
Persian Empire issued its own coinage testifies to the extent of its
wide autonomy and coins of this period, though very rare, are
included in the exhibit. These coins bear the head of Apollo on the
obverse and on the reverse the name of the reigning Carian ruler
inscribed next to the figure of Zeus Labraunda carrying the
double-bladed Carian battle-axe over his right shoulder.
Here it is important and interesting to note that
the world's first coins were minted in Lydia, the northern neighbor
of Caria. We can hardly imagine the truly revolutionary nature of
this innovation which rendered barter (the exchange of one kind of
goods for another) obsolete and gave birth to commerce much as we
know it today, i.e. the exchange of goods and services for money.
Pieces of jewellery included in the exhibit are
displayed in the way they were originally worn and include a
magnificent necklace crafted in granulation and filigree technique,
a prize possession of very few distinguished families in those
ancient times. Gold dress ornamentation found in the Mausoleum
excavations are exhibited on 4th century BC clothing, again making
the individual pieces more meaningful to the viewer.
Top
German Tower
Bodrum Castle is situated on a rocky promontory
between two beys. In 1496/1407, the Knights of St. John commenced
building on the site of an ancient Byzantine and Turkish castle. The
construction continued until 1522.
the plan of the castle is virtually square. Apart
from the east rampart. the rest of the fortifications are
strengthened by double outer walls. As they possossed a powerful
fleet, the Knights were confident that they could easily ward off
any potential danger from the sea, and the sea walls were relatively
weak. The ramparts facing the mainland, however, were heavily
fortified.
There are five main towers in the castle. These
are known to the people of Bodrum by alternative names. They are the
English Tower (The Lion Tower), the French Tower (The Embroidery
Tower), The Italian Tower (The Releif Tower), The German Tower (The
Strong Tower) and the Spanish Tower (The Snake Tower).
If one looks down between the Snake Tower and the
German Tower, it is possible to see two further towers in the inner
moat below the thick walls of the rampart. These little -known
towers are the Gatineau and the Caretto. The Caretto tower was built
in the name of Magnus Magister (Grand Master) Fabrico del Caretto
(1513-1521), and the Gatineau Tower was constructed under Jacques
Gatineau (1512-1514), one of the castle commanders. In the Gatineau
Tower the cannon embrasures and the ventilation shafts were blocked
up, and during the years 1513 to 1522 the tower was used as a
dungeon and torture chamber.
On the 29th of July 1522, Sultan Suleyman the
Magnificent and the Ottoman Turks, aware of the supremacy and
invincibility of the Knights of St. John, commenced a siege on the
Knights of St. John, commenced a siege on the Knights castle on the
island of Rhodes. During the siege, which lasted 4 months 23 days,
both sides sustained significant losses. The Knights finally
surrendered on the 20th of December 1522 and an agreement was signed
to the effect that the Castle of Rhodes and its island, togetherwith
12 other Islands, including Cos (Istankoy), and Bodrum Castle would
be handed over to the Turks within 10 days. Bodrum Castle was
surrendered without a struggle on the 5th of January 1523 and the
Turks proceeded to bury the shameful room beneath a 3 meter thick
stone wall in order to erease it from history.
On the outer wall of the Ganiteau Tower are three
coats of arms. The central of these comprises the arms of Magnus
Magister Emery d'Amboise (1503-1512), and those on either side are
the arms of Jacques Gatineau, the commanders responsible for the
construction of the tower. The tower is entered by a flight of 23
steps leading down. Above the inner door is an inscription in Latin
-INDE DEUS ABEST, meaning 'God is absent from this place'. Just
within the entrance is a balcony from which the torture chamber can
be seen. Within each of the walls to east and west are two small
chambers, the old cannon embrasures, each with a ventilation shaft
above. One of these shafts was blocked by the arms in the shape of
an anchored cross of Magnus Magister Pierre d'Aubusson (1476-1503).
In the north-west corner of the main room is the gibbet ditch, in
the front of which is a very small cramped cell in the ground.
Attached to the wall are manacles, on the floor is a heavy ball and
chain, and, hanging from the ceiling are the gibbet irons.
During its period of use, certain important Turks
were held captive in the castle dungeons. Among these was Oruc Reis,
the elder brother of the famous Admiral Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha, On
his return voyage from the Trablussam victory, he was besieged by
the Knights. His brother Ilyas was killed in the battle and Oruc
Reis himself was wounded and taken prisoner. He was in captivity
from 1503 to 1506, spending the first year of his imprisonment in
the castle dungeon. The Knights later regarded him as more
trustworthy and transferred him to the island of Rhodes.
'The Gazavat - i Barbaros Hayrettin', the
memories of Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha, written by Seyidi Muradi,
recounts the imprisonment of his brother:
"...they threw Oruc Reis into the dungeon and
ordered that he should be severely tortured. His hands and feet were
beaten with heavy iron chains, and he was made to suffer terrible
afflictions. He was given only enough bread to keep hem alive."
Through the centuries the most honorable efforts
of mankind have been in working towards enabling people to live
without torture, without pain and without cruelty, their most
important right, and a dungeon is always reminiscent of suspicion,
fear and pain. The doors of the dungeon of Bodrum Castle are being
opened as an example to the whole of humanity, in the hope that the
pains suffered for centuries by mankind might end and the darkness
be filled with light. Top
This small room situated in former chapel of the
castle now is used to display Glass objects from 1400 BC to 1100 AD.
. The display was opened to public with the contributions of Turkish
Bottle and Glass Factory.
The rooms houses glass work from various ancient
cities in the region and glass discovered at the shipwrecks in the
region. Oldest pieces of the display are 14th century glass ingots.
Glass works from ancient cities of Kaunos and Stratonikea and glass
pieces from Serce limani wreck are displayed in this room. All these
rare glass pieces are displayed in specially lit pieces in a dark
room.
In addition, an aquarium in the display room
shows 1:20 scale of underwater excavation at 4th century shipwreck
at Yassiada. This gives an excellent idea to visitors about
underwater excavations carried out in the region.
Top
Secret Museum in the Snake Tower
Since antiquity the snake has been the sacred
symbol of healers. Entwined on a staff it marked the statues of
Asclepius, the god of health of ancient mythology. It is thus
reasonable to suppose that the emblem of the snake emblazoned on a
tower in the Bodrum Castle marks a former place of healing and that
this Snake Tower, as it is known today, was very likely used as an
infirmary by the garrison of the Knights of the Hospital of St.
John. Now it houses the Secret Museum, an exhibition of statuary and
various artifacts associated birth, life and death.
When the multitudes of the First Crusade advanced
towards the Holy Land, their ignorance of medicine or even basic
personal hygiene brought on disease and death from infection that
followed wounds sustained in battle. At the same time Blessed
Gerard, recognized as the founder of the Hospital of St. John, was
fortunate to be in Jerusalem where he and his followers already
practiced the arts of healing which they had learned from the
skilled Muslim practitioners of medicine. The Knights of St. John,
though they later became primarily a military religious order,
carried on treating the sick and wounded and established hospitals
in many of their possessions and one such small hospital, or
infirmary, was probably located in the Snake Tower of the Bodrum
Castle. What these knights were very likely unaware of was that the
arts of healing had been practiced since antiquity in this ancient
land.
The Secret Museum exhibition in the Snake Tower
brings evidence of the practice of ancient medicine to a location
where treatment of the sick and wounded was, in all probability,
practiced again. Since the cycle of birth, life and death begins
with procreation, a matter of intense interest to the ancients, the
exhibit includes a number of artifacts that symbolize male virility,
particularly the god Priapus. The inborn procreative drive is
illustrated in the Caunus Altar where Tellus Mater, the goddess of
nature and marriage, holds Eros in her arms. When viewing this
exhibit it is well to remember that Hippocrates, the father of
medicine and author of the Hippocratic oath, taught his students on
the nearby island of Cos. It is also well to note that the sacred
snake of antiquity is a most potent symbol as it represents not only
medicine but also power, fruitfulness, sexuality, sin and death.
Top
'As
the captain of thes ship, i am proud that my pharaoh has enrusted to
me the royal treasures in our cargo hold: delicate gold and silver
bracelets and pendants and rings from the jewellers of Canaan and
Egypt, rare ebony logs transported from tropical Africa, amber beads
from landsso far to the north that few men know the source, and the
teeth of elephants and hippopotamuses hunted along the shores of my
own country.
Shall i drink a toast with this great golden
goblet?
After leaving the coast of Syria behind us, we
sail westward to Cyprus for additional cargo. Porters brought on
board 350 ingots of pure copper, smelted from the ore of the
island's famed mines. In all they weigh ten tons.
mixed with the ton of tin ingots already on my
ship, this will make enough bronze to outfit an entire army! In
thanking his gods for delivery of thes wealth, the Hittite king who
receives it will surely burn as incense some of the resin my ship is
carrying in a hundred Canaanite jars. But i am instructed not to
tell you the name of the king to whom i am to deliver this wealth -
even my crew does not know our destination. They know only that we
continue to sail wastward.
I have entrusted the safety of our voyage to our
own patron goddess. We carry her gold-covered bronze figure at the
bow of the ship. In celebrating her magnificence, my crew dances to
the sound of the bronze cymbals, ivory trumpet, and lutes of
tortoise-shell we carry.
We stop for the night at the entrance to the huge
bay that cuts into the bay till we round the southernmost point of
this land. But now some of my sailors are putting out their fishing
nets. The Mycenean merchant who accompanies us pours wine from his
own pitcher into his own cup. I will weigh carefully anything he
sells with the animal-shaped weights i carry with me; one of them is
the finest ever seen in my time.
Now the sun is rising, and my men hoist the huge
stone anchor that has held us firmly through the night. The wind is
rising, but our stout hull, its fir planks joined tightly together,
will carry us safely through the waves. I do not fear pirates, as
well are well armed with swords, daggers, spears, maces and bows and
arrows.
Now we must round the southernmost protrusion of
land, the Great Point. But the wind is rising, but the wind is
suddenly coming from the south. My helmsman tries to turn us away
from the sheer cliff ahead. We must furl our sail.
I is too late. We have struct the cliff. Thi ship
and all on board are sinking in 33 fathooms of water. We have
finally reached land, but it is not our original destination."
Top
Bodrum Castle is situated on a rocky promontory
between two beys. In 1496/1407, the Knights of St. John commenced
building on the site of an ancient Byzantine and Turkish castle. The
construction continued until 1522.
the plan of the castle is virtually square. Apart
from the east rampart. the rest of the fortifications are
strengthened by double outer walls. As they possossed a powerful
fleet, the Knights were confident that they could easily ward off
any potential danger from the sea, and the sea walls were relatively
weak. The ramparts facing the mainland, however, were heavily
fortified.
There are five main towers in the castle. These
are known to the people of Bodrum by alternative names. They are the
English Tower (The Lion Tower), the French Tower (The Embroidery
Tower), The Italian Tower (The Releif Tower), The German Tower (The
Strong Tower) and the Spanish Tower (The Snake Tower).
If one looks down between the Snake Tower and the
German Tower, it is possible to see two further towers in the inner
moat below the thick walls of the rampart. These little -known
towers are the Gatineau and the Caretto. The Caretto tower was built
in the name of Magnus Magister (Grand Master) Fabrico del Caretto
(1513-1521), and the Gatineau Tower was constructed under Jacques
Gatineau (1512-1514), one of the castle commanders. In the Gatineau
Tower the cannon embrasures and the ventilation shafts were blocked
up, and during the years 1513 to 1522 the tower was used as a
dungeon and torture chamber.
On the 29th of July 1522, Sultan Suleyman the
Magnificent and the Ottoman Turks, aware of the supremacy and
invincibility of the Knights of St. John, commenced a siege on the
Knights of St. John, commenced a siege on the Knights castle on the
island of Rhodes. During the siege, which lasted 4 months 23 days,
both sides sustained significant losses. The Knights finally
surrendered on the 20th of December 1522 and an agreement was signed
to the effect that the Castle of Rhodes and its island, togetherwith
12 other Islands, including Cos (Istankoy), and Bodrum Castle would
be handed over to the Turks within 10 days. Bodrum Castle was
surrendered without a struggle on the 5th of January 1523 and the
Turks proceeded to bury the shameful room beneath a 3 meter thick
stone wall in order to erease it from history.
On the outer wall of the Ganiteau Tower are three
coats of arms. The central of these comprises the arms of Magnus
Magister Emery d'Amboise (1503-1512), and those on either side are
the arms of Jacques Gatineau, the commanders responsible for the
construction of the tower. The tower is entered by a flight of 23
steps leading down. Above the inner door is an inscription in Latin
-INDE DEUS ABEST, meaning 'God is absent from this place'. Just
within the entrance is a balcony from which the torture chamber can
be seen. Within each of the walls to east and west are two small
chambers, the old cannon embrasures, each with a ventilation shaft
above. One of these shafts was blocked by the arms in the shape of
an anchored cross of Magnus Magister Pierre d'Aubusson (1476-1503).
In the north-west corner of the main room is the gibbet ditch, in
the front of which is a very small cramped cell in the ground.
Attached to the wall are manacles, on the floor is a heavy ball and
chain, and, hanging from the ceiling are the gibbet irons.
During its period of use, certain important Turks
were held captive in the castle dungeons. Among these was Oruc Reis,
the elder brother of the famous Admiral Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha, On
his return voyage from the Trablussam victory, he was besieged by
the Knights. His brother Ilyas was killed in the battle and Oruc
Reis himself was wounded and taken prisoner. He was in captivity
from 1503 to 1506, spending the first year of his imprisonment in
the castle dungeon. The Knights later regarded him as more
trustworthy and transferred him to the island of Rhodes.
'The Gazavat - i Barbaros Hayrettin', the
memories of Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha, written by Seyidi Muradi,
recounts the imprisonment of his brother:
"...they threw Oruc Reis into the dungeon and
ordered that he should be severely tortured. His hands and feet were
beaten with heavy iron chains, and he was made to suffer terrible
afflictions. He was given only enough bread to keep hem alive."
Through the centuries the most honorable efforts
of mankind have been in working towards enabling people to live
without torture, without pain and without cruelty, their most
important right, and a dungeon is always reminiscent of suspicion,
fear and pain. The doors of the dungeon of Bodrum Castle are being
opened as an example to the whole of humanity, in the hope that the
pains suffered for centuries by mankind might end and the darkness
be filled with light. Top
In another of his efforts to transform the Bodrum
Castle into a "living museum" that vividly illustrates the past,
Museum Director Oguz Alpözen had the southwest tower rebuilt,
furnished and decorated to reflect its state when it was the
commandant's quarters at the beginning of this century when the
Castle was used as a prison. The restoration was sponsored by Telsim
and the official opening was held on August 26, 1999, some
eighty-four years after the tower was destroyed by naval bombardment
from the French warship Dupleix in 1915.
What makes this new exhibit most interesting is
that it contains the personal effects of the last Ottoman Turkish
commandant who had actually lived in the tower, Lt. İbrahim Nezihi.
These memorabilia were donated to the museum by his daughter,
Neriman Ata, who attended the opening ceremony especially scheduled
to coincide exactly with the 77th anniversary of the death in battle
of her father. By then promoted, Capt. Đbrahim Nezihi was killed in
action at the very beginning of what is known in Turkish history as
"The Great Offensive", on August 26, 1922, the start of the attack
that culminated in Turkish victory in the War of Independence.
Top
The
French Tower, with its height of 47.5 meters, is among the most
imposing structures that comprise the Bodrum Castle. It was built in
the early years of the 13th century by Philibert de Naillac, the
Grand Master of the Order of the Knight of St. John of Rhodes. His
coat-of-arms is emblazoned on the tower wall along with the arms of
the Pope and the King of France. Today, the two lower chambers of
the tower house the Tektas shipwreck exhibition.
Located and identified in 1996 by archaeologist
divers of INA, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, during a
routine underwater shipwreck inventory survey off the south coast of
the Cesme peninsula, the site was excavated in 2001. The excavation,
under the sponsorship of the National Geographic Society , was
performed by INA and TINA, the Turkish counterpart of INA. The wreck
was dated to the 5th century B.C., the Late Classical Age in which
Herodotus lived, traveled and wrote his “Histories”. The finds from
this excavation went on display here in 2004.
There were over 200 amphoras found in excellent
condition and most are on display here; also, there is a replica of
an anchor and an upper section of an anchor found in the wreck.
Marble discs were among the recovered artifacts
and their replicas are shown attached to a model prow of a ship
where they belong according to Prof. George Bass who led the
excavation effort. Prof. Bass believes that they form “The eye of
Achilles, ornamental or perhaps talismanic, believed to protect the
ship”.
The original recovered discs are shown here
separately in a showcase.
The exhibition also includes some kitchen
utensils, various clay pots and oil lamps, bones, simple hand tools
and hunting (and fishing) gear.
Also on display are some facsimiles of artifacts
recovered from the wreck of the ship which is believed to have
carried goods between potrs in the vicinity of the ancient city of
Teos, near to today’s harbor of Sigacik.
The exhibition is enhanced by a display of large
size photographs showing work done on land during the excavations.
Top
External Links
-
Bodrum Museum
-
Wikipedia, Bodrum Museum of Underwater
Archaeology
-
Underwater Archaeology Museums
(1) Halicarnassus ( Turkish: Halikarnas, modern Bodrum)
Top
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