Bayram Bash 2011: The Hall of Gods & Goddesses

I'm a big fan of old things. Ruins, rocks, human remains... that sounds creepy, but it's really true. I'm a real big fan. Naturally, I like museums. Loaded with old things! You can understand that I was amped to go the the Antalya Museum then, because it's consistently ranked as a top museum in Europe.

I was not disappointed.

Like all museums of archaeology, we began in the Paleolithic Age, taking peeks at some sweet arrowheads and stone tools and all that jazz. Then, of course, onwards into the Stone Age and Bronze Ages and all that fun. This was interesting, of course, when I didn't realize that the Antalya Museum had so many more promising artifacts to behold. As usual, we found some really well preserved pottery and ceramic pieces, as well as artwork cast from bronze.

This little guy reminded me of something out of Monty Python.

The museum also had a fantastic collection of Roman glass, which was really, really beautiful. I think the coolest job in a museum is the one responsible for arranging the various artifacts. I mean, you're responsible for literally presenting history in a way that will want to make people learn about it... talk about pressure.

How do you like that backlighting?

From glass, we moved onwards once again to an interesting display on how copies of even older Greek marble statues were made by the Romans.  Interesting, super cool, good to know, way to go Romans. I mean, they were super good at it. This surviving marble head is so pretty.

And then I saw this sign.

And I kid you not, readers, I almost fainted. They should just call it "The Hall of Awesome," because it's more accurate.

Let me stress that all of these statues date back to the 2nd century. Comparatively, some of them are in better condition than cars manufactured twenty-five years ago. The Romans built to last.

As a born-again Greek mythology buff (thanks, Rick Riordan!), this was just the coolest thing. The majority of them were found at Perga an archaeological site in the province of Antalya.

Here's just a small serving of the gods and goddesses featured in the Hall of... Gods and Goddesses.

Nemesis, the spirit of divine retribution... this girl had all
sorts of statues in this place.

Statue of a dancing woman, likely to have been a goddess.

Emperor Hadrian... not a god, probably thought he was one though.

Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and her son, Eros.

My girl, Artemis, goddess of the hunt, the forests, and the moon.
Perga apparently had a temple dedicated in her honor. Because she's the coolest.

Athena, the goddess of (deep breath): wisdom, courage, inspiration,
civilization, warfare, strength, strategy,  the arts, crafts, justice, aaaand skill.

Hera, the queen bee goddess. I find it ironic that he head was knocked off.

BIG DADDY ZEUS!

A headless (and topless) Aphrodite.

Apollo, god of music, poetry, the sun, light, and medicine.

Hygieia, the goddess of hygiene!

Hermes, the messenger god.

This might have been Hestia. I can't remember! Ahh!

This guy was just downright terrifying.

Dionysius, the god of wine.

More Athena!

Gosh, it was just the coolest thing. They were enormous too! It was like walking around in Clash of the Titans... but the old one, because that one's the best.

We also toured a room of sarcophagi found at Perge, and the coolest one, in my opinion, depicted all twelve labors of Hercules. It was almost more impressive than the statues in the Hall of Gods and Goddesses because a) the carvings were even smaller and b) someone actually PAID to be entombed in this sucker forever. It's almost as badass as a Jedi burial... almost.

Maybe the most recently famous artifact in the museum was the recently reunited pieces of the Farnese Herakles of Perga. While the bottom half was kept in the Antalya Museum, the top half had been in the Boston Museum for decades, where its discovery (and removal from Turkey) had not been documented (meaning: someone stole it). Like two months ago, the Turkish government was able to secure its return to Turkey after a number of tests concluded that the two pieces fit.

He was a pretty wild site to behold.

So, there's the Antalya Museum of Archaeology. It was awesome. Come visit me and we'll go. And we'll take inappropriate pictures with all of the statues. Just kidding, but not really.

Oh, this a drachma featuring Athena and her symbol, the owl.
I love that owl. Potential future tattoo.