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[birce]

The Bosphorus at a picturesque village of Büyükdere, the collections of the Sadberk Hanim Museum (The Vehbi Koç Foundation) fill two charming 19th century wooden villas. A private museum which originally displayed Turkish decorative arts, it has recently been expanded with a new collection of archaeological finds

The building was purchased by the Koç family in 1950 and was used as a summerhouse by them until they decide to convert it into a museum in 1978. The conversion work was carried out between 1978 and 1980 according to a restoration project that had been prepared by Sedat Hakkı Eldem, a worldwide known Turkish architect. It was opened to the public on October 14, 1980 with the Sadberk Koç collection on display.

Also in 1988 the "Sevgi Gönül (Mr. Koç's daughter, deceased in September 2003) Wing" of the museum was opened and it hosts works of the pre-Islamic period.

In 1988 it won the "Europa Nostra" award as an outstanding example of modern museum architecture and design.

Sevgi Gönül Binasi

Archeological Section

Anatonlian Civilizations

Early Bronze Age (3200-200 Bc)

Towards the end of the 4th millennium BC, bronze-an alloy of copper, arsenic, and tin-was discovered leading to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age in Anatolia. Although Anatolia is rich in many metals, tin is not one of them, and the development of metal-working brought with it increasing contact with neighboring regions in the form of trade. This in turn encouraged the growth of cities and a number of citystates were established during this period. In the 3rd millennium BC writing was still unknown in Anatolia and our knowledge of these citystates and their way of life is derived from archaeological evidence and from Mesopotamian written sources.

The potter's wheel was still unknown during the Early Bronze Age and ceramics were hand-formed from a gray clay and have a brilliant, black burnished finish. The objects from this period on display at the museum bear the characteristics of finds from central and western Anatolia. Slipware pottery originating at Troy and in western Anatolia during this period is distinctive by its buff-colored or bright-red clay.

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THE IRON AGE (DARK AGE)
(1200-750 BC)

The period from the late 2nd millennium BC to around 1200-1050 BC was marked by vast movements of people not only in the eastern Mediterranean but also in Anatolia and the Balkans.

The disorders caused in the eastern Mediterranean by the collapse of the Mycenaean kingdom in the 13th century BC rippled through Anatolia as well as numerous indigenous Anatolian peoples who had lived for centuries under Hittite territory were stirred into restlessness. The immediate result of this chaos was to cause a period of impoverishment in Anatolia that lasted about 450 years. This seems to be particularly true in central Anatolia, where numerous excavations have so far failed to rum up any evidence of significant cultural importance datable to the years between 1200 and 750 BC.

This period is therefore known as the "Dark Age" in Anatolia and while a number of sites clearly remained inhabited, they were so thinly populated and their cultural levels were so low that the remains they left behind are equally meager.

Despite the collapse of civilization in Anatolia during the Dark Age (also known as the Iron Age and encompassing the period 1200-750/700 BC), the Late Hittite Kingdoms surviving in southeastern Anatolia and partly in northern Syria perpetuated some of the Anatolian Bronze Age culture of the Hittites.

Overlapping this period from 860-580 BC, the Phrygians of central Anatolia, whose capital was located at Gordion, and the Urartians of eastern Anatolia had a profound influence on the contemporary cultures of western Anatolia-Lydian, Carian, and Ionian-and thus on Hellenic civilization as well.

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Ion and Hellen Civilizations

THE MYCENAEAN PERIOD
(1450-1200 BC)

Civilization was brought to Crete by immigrants from Anatolia who arrived there around 3000 BC and merged with the island's indigencotis Neolithic population.

It is just around this date that western cultures made their first appearance in Anatolia. Excavations and surveys indicate that the Mycenaeans, who made use of a type of Greek syllabary that is called "Linear B", arrived in the peninsula sometime during the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Excavations at Miletos have revealed examples of Mycenean pottery.

Furthermore the unbroken sequence of Mycenean finds until the 12th century BC at Troy, dispersed finds at Müsgebi (near Bodrum), Ephesos, Bayraklı (İzmir), Panaztepe, the Kesik Köyü meadow (Menemen), and Klozemenai, and evidence of a Mycenaean cultural presence discovered at Maşat Hoyak in Central Anatolia are all proof that the Mycenaeans were influential throughout all of western and central Anatolia as far as the borders of Syria and that their influence extended even as far as Cyprus and Palestine.

Written sources indicate that the Mycenaeans even reached Egypt.

GEOMETRIC PERIOD
(1050-700 BC)

The style called "Geometric" originated in mainland Greece in the 11th century BC and flourished until the 8th.

One of the most distinctive features of the Geometric Period were city-states (and later their colonies). These became widespread not just in mainland Greece and the islands but also throughout the Ionian and Carian regions of western Anatolia. Geometric Period pottery is still being unearthed in excavations at İzmir-Bayraklı, Miletos, and Teos, and in tombs associated with Carian sites at Assarlık, Dirmil, lasos, Stratoneikeia, Lagina (Turgut), Beçin, and Euromos (near Bodrum).

The Geometric Period ceramics on display at the museum are from the Carian region and were almost certainly manufactured by local Carian potters.

[birce]

ORIENTALIZING AND EARLY ARCHAIC PERIODS
(700-550 BC)

For economic reasons, the inhabitants of mainland Greece began establishing colonies in the coastal regions of the eastern Mediterranean, western Anatolia, and the Black Sea beginning in the 8th century BC and this brought them into direct contact with eastern art for the first time.The abstract geometrical style soon began to incorporate elements of legendary eastern motifs resulting in the emergence of a new style known in the history of Greek art as "Orientalizing".


It should be emphasized that this Orientalizing style owed much of its originality to such indigenous Anatolian cultures as those of Lydia, Lycia, Caria, and Phrygla.

Roman Civilization

The Roman Period

(30 BC-395 AD)

The imperial period of Roman history begins with the reign of Augustus. Various Hellenistic kingdoms of Anatolia began acknowledging Roman suzerainty in one form or another as early as the second half of the 2nd century BC.

A system of Roman provincial administration that began taking shape during the Ist century BC. was extended-sometimes by treaty, sometimes by conquest-until Roman hegemony extended over nearly all of the eastern and western Mediterranean world. In the wake of the civil war that marked the collapse of the Roman republ Thanks to a long history and deeply-rooted cultural heritage, Anatolia accommodated itself successfully to Roman rule and, though it lacked political independence, it nevertheless retained its preeminence in the arts.

It was easy for the various local schools of sculpture to adapt themselves to the type of portraiture that was popular among the Romans and the result was a style of sculpture that was to continue unbroken until the Byzantine period. Anatolian artists and craftsmen were accomplished in working not just marble but also bronze and ivory.

[birce]

Byzantine Art

Byzantium" was the name of a Greek city located on the Bosphorus. When Constantine 1, the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire, decided to relocate the center of his government to the east, Byzantium was the site he chose. The city was completely rebuilt and renamed "Constantinopolis" ("City of Constantine") in 330. The word "Byzantine" to describe this civilization and its empire was first used by historians in the 19th century. The empire came to an end in 1453 with the conquest of Constantintople by Sultan Mehmed II. Under the Turks, the city became known as Istanbul.

It is impossible to draw any clear line demarcating the beginnings of "Byzantine" art inasmuch as it is an original synthesis incorporating elements and traditions of Hellenistic and Roman art, Christian mysticism, and the creative ingenuity of people from Anatolia. As a result, its earliest stages are sometimes referred to as "Early Christian art" as well. In the course of its thousand-year history, Byzantine art went through major three phases whose features are distinctive from one another. These three phases-Early, Middle, and-Late-also encompass the period known as Iconoclastic (726-842) and the interruption of the Latin invasion and occupation of 1204-126l.

Sculpture and Steles

Architecture flourished under the Romans and with it so did the arts of sculptural relief and portraiture.
The most important Roman innovation in the art of sculpture was the emphasis on portraiture.

The importance attached to historical personages resulted in statues being erected to them. The demand for statues accurately portraying the emperor and the members of his family also played a great role in this development resulting in the sculpting of a large number of statues not only of generals and statesmen but even of ordinary citizens and their wives.

Such portraits were of the highest quality but in addition to them there was also a flourishing provincial style of art that yielded up many attractive examples that are especially to be found on sarcophagi and steles. Provincial artists also produced lovely examples of statues during this period. This is particularly true in western Anatolia, where large numbers of statues of local gods and goddesses were sculpted.

Grave steles (gravestones) are not only an art form but also provide us with documentary evidence about the past.

The styles and shapes of these steles vary considerably from region to region and from age to age. Steles were decorated with reliefs that included a figure or motif identifying the deceased or sometimes his portrait. Most contain informative inscriptions that tell us much about the way these ancient people really lived as well as about their cultures, traditions, and economies.


Beads

It is likely that beads are the earliest form of personal adornment used by human beings. Decorative beads, fashioned at first from the bones of animals and birds and later from a variety of stones, have been found in large quantities in the graves of men, women, and children from the Neolithic period onward.

Among tribal cultures even today, beads are used throughout a person's lifetime and are buried along with the owner upon his death. While it is conceivable that these small, colorful, and appealing little objects were originally used for religious or talismanic purposes, there is no question but that they were also worn (especially by women) simply for their decorative value. In ancient times-no more or less so than today-the use of beads made from gold as well as from precious or semiprecious stones such as sapphires, rubies, emeralds, agates, and sards has been an indication of the wearer's economic and social status.

Beads made from gold and agate have been found in royal tombs from the 3rd millennium BC. During the Classical Greek period (5-4th centuries BC), jewelry objects made from golden beads were particularly popular. During the Hellenistic period (330-30 BC), the colorful and precious stones of the exotic cast traveled westward in the wake of Alexander's conquest of that part of the world. During the Roman period, Antioch in Anatolia, Alexandria in Egypt, and Rome in Italy became the fashion-centers of the jewelry-making industry of the day. Beads fashioned to resemble eyes of one sort or another have been continuously manufactured since at least the 6th century BC and were used for talismanic purposes to ward off the evil eye, etc.

Prior to 1500, the Islamic world, India, and China had wealthier and more sophisticated civilizations than did Europe; yet in just three and a half centuries the balance was reversed. During this period, European-manufactured glass beads were carried by explorers and traders throughout the world and they proved to be enormously popular. The result of a seemingly inexhaustible demand led to a proliferation of bead types, designs, and manufacturing techniques.