Istanbul Archaeological Museums

The Istanbul Archaeological Museums in Istanbul house ancient treasures, including the late 4th-century B.C. Alexander Sarcophagus and the world's oldest known love poem written between 2037 and 2029 B.C. Spearheaded by Ottoman archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey, the museum opened on June 13, 1891, with a facade inspired by sarcophagi discovered in Sidon. Artifacts like clay tablet Istanbul 2461 were later translated by Samuel Noah Kramer in 1951.

Istanbul · from the walk “Sultans, Spices & Hidden Streets” · audio ~3 min · Generated

İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri, Osman Hamdi Bey Yokuşu, Sultanahmet, Fatih, İstanbul

Why is the Alexander Sarcophagus at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums named after Alexander the Great?

You are standing before one of the most remarkable museums in the world... and most people walk right past it. Welcome to the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, or as the Ottomans called them... the Müze-i Hümayun, the Imperial Museum.......... This place exists because of one extraordinary man. His name was Osman Hamdi Bey, born in eighteen forty two. He was a painter, an intellectual, and... would you believe... the first mayor of Kadiköy? But his true calling was something else entirely. He became the Ottoman Empire's First modern archaeologist.......... His father sent him to pariS in eighteen sixty to study law. But young Osman had no interest in legal education. Instead, he spent eight years painting in the studio of Gustav Boulanger. When he returned to Istanbul... he brought with him a revolutionary idea. That the empire's ancient treasures belonged Here. Not in the Louvre. Not in the British Museum. Here.......... In eighteen eighty four, he pushed through a groundbreaking law banning the export of historical artifacts from Ottoman lands. Those regulations were so strict they actually Suspended German excavations at Assur, Babylon, and Pergamon!......... Then came his greatest adventure. Between eighteen eighty seven and eighteen eighty eight, he excavated in Sidon, in modern day Lebanon, and discovered the Royal Necropolis. He returned with a treasure that would change everything... the Alexander Sarcophagus. A late fourth century B.C. stone coffin carved from Pentelic marble. Now here is what most people get wrong. It is called the Alexander Sarcophagus Not because it held Alexander the Great, whose tomb has Never been found, but because he is depicted in the battle scenes along the sides. Scholars believe it actually belonged to Abdalonymus, a man of royal blood who had been reduced to a humble Gardener... until Alexander himself elevated him to king of Sidon.......... And the colors! When it was found, remarkably preserved traces of the original polychromy remained... red, blue, and yellow pigments. Imagine this massive coffin blazing with color like a painting.......... The sarcophagus was slid on rails down to the sea and carried by ship to Istanbul. And look at the museum building itself... its facade was actually Inspired by the Alexander Sarcophagus and the Sarcophagus of the Mourning Women housed inside. It opened to visitors on June thirteenth, eighteen ninety one.......... But there is one more secret inside these walls. A tiny clay tablet known as Istanbul two four six one contains the world's oldest known love poem. Written in Sumerian between twenty thirty seven and twenty twenty nine B.C. It sat in a museum drawer, untranslated and unknown, until nineteen fifty one when Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer stumbled upon it. Four Thousand years old... and still whispering about love.

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