One of the main reasons I was interested in visiting Turkiye was to see the Hagia Sophia Church/museum/mosque in Istanbul. That will come at the end of the trip. It turns out there are much better reasons to visit. I don’t think I have ever had a single day when I learned more than I learned yesterday (Friday).
Turkiye was formed after WW I. They didn’t want to be associated with the incompetent and corrupt Ottoman Empire, or the Greco/Roman/Byzantium era. So they formed a secular republic and placed the capital far away from Istanbul. To get away from the Greco-Roman history of Istanbul, they emphasize being an outgrowth of Anatolia. The Anatolian Civilizations Museum is a small but important museum, tracing human history from 1,300,000 years ago. If we had just visited, we would have blown through the museum in an hour. Be we had museum guide who has his doctorate in ancient civilizations. Again and again, he pointed out significant firsts that we would have missed.
Most of the pieces are original finds of archeological work in the area. The era spans from Homo Erectus to the late stages of the Hittites. I was amazed at how much we know of our ancient history. Anatolia had as much impact on human civilization as did Syria and Egypt, Babylonia, etc. Exhibits started with the first tools (basically, rocks) and showed how they became smaller and more specialized over the millennia, finally leading to early cave paintings. From there we “visited” the earliest villages, where homes had entrances only in the roof. We saw Obelisks from the Gobekli Tepe site that show a strong hunter culture long after most humans had switched to agriculture. One of the people in our tour asked our guide if we could ever recreate Neanderthals based on ancient DNA. The Jurassic Park question? Really??? It turns out there really are no dumb questions. Scientists have created Neanderthal stem cells. They learned that Neanderthal DNA replication error rate is much higher error rate than most other species. It turns out Neanderthals had their own serious problems.
I wish I could go back for a day, carefully photographing, and comparing my notes to what the placards say. But it’s time to move on. Our next stop is the Hittite capital. In the meantime, enjoy this wine cup. It doesn’t have or need a stable bottom. The cup is passed around and around the room, each person drinking in turn; refilling the cup as necessary.
I hope this finds everybody doing well.
