About The Collection

The Erimtan Archaeology and Arts Museum collection is a special archaeology collection featuring two thousand movable works, most of which have their origins in Anatolia. The collection was born when Yüksel Erimtan purchased his first Roman ring stones in 1960, and expanded over time with advice from expert archeologists. The collection, which covers the period of time from 3000 B.C. up until the Byzantine Empire, includes works that belong to civilizations such as the Hittites, Urartu, Assyrians, Achaemenids, and Byzantines.

The majority of the works in the collection are comprised of finds from the Late Hellenistic and Roman Ages. These finds include bowls, jugs, cups, measuring cups, rings, glass cups, perfume bottles, ring stones engraved with seals, tweezers, golden crowns, jewellery, mirrors, glass mixing sticks, and many gold, silver, and bronze coins.

The works in the museum collection not only emphasize the cultural legacy of the Anatolian landscape, but have also been brought together in a way that presents the viewer with unconventional exhibition methods that highlight the visual value of the works, while allowing viewers to draw parallels between the works and elements from their contemporary daily lives.

You can reach the museum highlights guide here.

Ceramic Works

Ceramics entered daily life in the Near East starting in 7000 B.C. for storage, cooking, and transportation purposes, and spread rapidly thanks to its ease of production and resistance to heat. The sturdiness of ceramic has allowed many works to be preserved until today. Among works that inform us about the economic, political, social and cultural advancements of the society in which they were used are beak-mouthed ceramic pitchers that are characteristic of the Anatolian Bronze Age, pots and pans from East Anatolia Van-Urmia and Urartu, and Proto-Geometric embellished ceramics from Cyprus and Western Europe. The Roman Age is represented in the museum with a wide collection about its daily life and dining culture. In addition to their archeological values, the exhibited ceramics are akin to works of art thanks to their forms, colors, and embellishments. Their presentation highlights the element of chronology, each work’s attributes and the culture to which it belonged, and contextualizes the social history associated with each body of work. For instance, ceramics from the Roman Age are displayed within the context of their role in daily life, as well as to themes such as life inside the kitchen, dining, and feasts.
Works in Glass

The Erimtan Archaeology and Arts Museum collection contains 273 works made of glass. The pieces in the collection were produced using free-blowing and mold-blowing techniques between the 1st and 3rd centuries B.C., when Anatolia was under Roman rule. The biggest part of the collection is comprised of small scent containers or perfume bottles that were placed as gifts inside Roman graves, as part of a widespread tradition. The collection also features many valuable samples of spherical or rectangular bodied bottle-jugs that were popular during the Late Roman Age. In addition to the cups and bowls used in daily life, many pieces of jewellery such as glass bracelets, rings, and beads are also featured in the collection.
Works in Bronze

Among the 364 bronze works in the collection that range from the Old Bronze Age until the Byzantine Period are war tools like spears, arrowheads, and axes; jewellery such as bracelets, rings, armbands, neck pieces, belts, pins and fibula; quotidian tools such as oil lamps, crosses, mirrors, tweezers, strigils, swings, and bowls, as well as pieces like rhytons and devotional placards used during religious ceremonies. A significant part of the works in bronze are comprised of animal, god and goddess figurines. These figurines, which symbolize rituals for prosperity, protection, sacrifice, and devotion, are quite diverse in terms of their typologies.
Ring Stones

The Erimtan Archaeology and Arts Museum collection features 176 seal stones and 92 rings. The seal rings, which include detailed embellishments carved with expert craftsmanship onto small, semi-precious stones, were used as personal seals. The seal rings, which make up a special group within the larger collection, represent the finest samples of the art of glyptics. Many of the stones belong to the Roman Age and some of them are still located on their original rings. The emperor, god, and goddess figurines, as well as the many mythological stories carved into the seal stones demonstrate a richness in narration and visuality.
Coins

The Erimtan Archaeology and Arts Museum collection holds 563 coins. Coins are created by minting metals like gold, silver, and copper and carry the official stamp of the ruling political power. 80 of the coins in the collection are gold, while the rest are silver, bronze, and gold-silver alloys. Majority of the coins belong to the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods. Factors such as the metal each coin is made from and the period it belongs to have been considered for the classification system in determining their presentation within the museum. The collection also includes groups that are referred to as treasures. The most striking of these include 21 gold coins that were found inside a clay jug. These coins belonged to four different emperors from the Roman Valentinianus family and were all printed in the Antiochia mint. The II. Valentinian (375-392 A.C.) coin that is included in this treasure is a rare piece.
Jewellery

The jewellery within the Erimtan collection are grouped into grave goods, necklaces, pendants, bracelets, rings, earrings, armbands, and pins. Majority of the jewellery in the collection belong the Roman Age.

The jewellery are one of the most striking sections of the collection. The crowns, mouth and eye bands, and earrings that are known to have been used as grave goods are witnesses of the period’s art and craftsmanship, that have made it to present day.

Fore more information on the collection:
Selma Ünal Çakmak Collection Manager
s.unal@erimtanmuseum.org