CORUM MUSEUMS
In this land, which forms a bridge between
East and West, which held a prominent position at various stages of the human
history and which was the cradle of numerous civilizations, Çorum and its
vicinity lead the regions which sustain thousands of year long native cultural
and artistic traditions of Anatolia. The Çorum province which was the scene of
important civilizations and cultures in history as well as in the pre-historic
ages, covers a considerably large area reaching from northern part of Central
Anatolia to the inner parts of the Central Black Sea Region. Museum activities
in Çorum first started in 1937 as a local conciousness of carrying out research
and collecting historical material started to emerge. The findings of the
Alacahöyük excavations which were initiated in 1935 with a directive from
Atatürk greatly contributed to this rising local interest in arcaeology and
historical heritages.
Museums of Çorum serve as a single
administrative unit with two local museums at the center and three at other
locations connected to historical sites. As the need for a museum became
pressing with the Alacahöyük excavations, the Alacahöyük Museum was initiated
in 1940 which has the distinction of being the first local museum, starting the
tradition of excavation site museums. In later years Boğazköy Museum at the
Hattusas, the capital of Hittites was inaugated on 12 September 1966 and Çorum
Museum on 13 October 1968.
The museum which is located at the city
center, near the Monument of the Martyrs was inaugurated on 13 October 1968.
There are four inter- connecting exhibition halls in the single storey building
as well as material storage area and a photography laboratory.
Material originating from the mounds of
Alacahöyük, Boğazköy, Ortaköy, Eskiyapar, Pazarlı, Kuşsaray and Alişar Höyük
which are supplemented with purchased works form the core of the Çorum Museum.
The museum also has ethnographical pieces.
First Hall and the Corridor: coins, ceramics,
glass perfume cups and lachrymatories, figurines and statuettes, offering cups,
steles, sacrophagi and column capitals and jewelery from Hellenistic, Roman and
Byzantine periods are exhibited in typological order.
Second Hall: The exhibition consists of beak headed jugs
from the Hittite and Phrygian periods, bath basin from the Hittite period,
flask shaped cup, vases, fruit stands, rythones, moulds, crucibles, cap-shaped
discs and seals from the Hittite and Phrygian periods and painted cups dated to
the Phrygian period and multi-colored baked earth rel,efed wall panels.
In the corridor which connects the halls,
ceramics of varying forms from Chalcolithic and Old Bronze Ages, Idols, stone
and bronze hand axes and spear heads and cups with Alişar origin are displayed.
Third and Fourth Halls: There are rugs and
kilims reflecting the special characteristics of the Çorum region, garments,
jewelery and ornaments for women and weapons, wood and metal objects and
manuscript form religious books from the Seljuk and Ottoman periods.
Garden: Fountain with a bull
figure, statues from the Roman and Byzantine periods, tomb stelers and milling
stones, inscriptions and tomb stones from Seljuk and Ottoman Periods are on
display.
According to 1997 statistics there are 12.337 items at the museum.
3408 of these are arcaeological material while there are 2360 etnographic
pieces, 3169 coins, 3278 tablets, 110 seals and seal inscriptions and 12
religious books in manuscript form.
The New
Çorum Museum Building
(Former Institute of Higher Education
for Mechanical Engineering)
The new Çorum Museum Service Building which is
being restored, is located at the provincial center, about 400 meters to the
east of the Old Museum Building. It is dated from H.1332 and has served various
purposes since then. The building which for many years housed a Hospital,
Agricultural School, Arts and Crafts School and a High School has three storeys
including the basement. It was struck by fire on 14.06.1989 and restoration
work, which is still underway, was started in 1989 to convert it to the New
Museum Building.
Alacahöyük Museum
The Alacahöyük Museum which operates under the
administration of the Çorum Museum is located in the Alacahöyük village of the
Alaca District and is 45 km. from Çorum. The first local museum in Alacahöyük
was opened to the public in 1940 and then moved to its new premises in 1982.
The museum building has two storeys with Hamit Zübeyr Koşar and Remzi Oğuz Arık
halls on the second floor. In these halls, which are named after the leaders of
the excavation teams, the material obtained from Alacahöyük and Pazarlı
excavations are displayed.
At the entrance hall, the first excavation
materials, hand made ceramics from the Chalcolithic period and photographs
showing the moment of first discovery of the 13 royal graves as well as baked
earth objects are on display.
In the large wall cases of the second hall,
there are earthen beak sprouted jugs, cups and plates, brazeries, and flask
shaped cups from the Hittite period. In the central cases bronze pins,
ornamental objects made of bones, moulds, animal figurines and two tablets with
hierographic inscriptions from the Old Bronze and Hittite periods are
exhibited. Furthermore, in the same hall in a single case reserved for the
Phrygian period baked earth reliefed wall tablets, painted cups and a pheasant
shape rython are on display
At the lower floor which is named the Mahmut
Akok hall and where ethmographic material is exhibited there are rugs and
kilims particular to the region, wooden agricultural tools, loom and weapons
from the Ottoman period including boring and cutting weapons and fire arms.
According to the 1997 statistics the museum
collection has a total of 3233 pieces 2771 of which are arhaeological works,
350 are etnographical material and 112 are coins.
Boğazköy Museum
Boğazköy Museum which also operates as annexed
to the Çorum Museum is located at the Boğazkale District center at a distance
of 82 km. southwest of Çorum. The museum was inaugurated on 12 September 1966
and is a local museum where material from Boğazköy (Hattusas) and those
obtained from the vicinity are stored and displayed.Works from Chalcolithic,
Old Bronze, Hittite, Phrygian, Roman and Byzantine Periods are exhibited at the
museum where the majority of the material consists of Hittite origined works. At
the entrance hall there is a map showing the historical site of Hattusas and a
chronological table and the casted relief of the King's gate, the relief of the
Hittite King Tuthalia IV and across from them a stone stele with hieoglyph
inscription.
In the first hall opening from the enterance
hall there are cases holding displays of baked earth works from Chalcolithic,
Old Bronze and Assyrian Trade Colonies Periods, and in the section where this
hall joins the big hall, there is the relief of Goddess Ishar brought from
Yazılıkaya.
In the second hall the display is in
chronological order and there are cases which exhibit large scale beak sprouted
jugs from the period of Assyrian Trade Colonies and Old Hittite period and
Photograps showing the position and locations of their discovery. The cases
which follow hold baked earth and stone material from the Old Hittite and
Hittite Empire Periods, painted ceramic cups and fibulas from the Phrygian
Period, baked earth and glass works from the Roman period and bronze material
from a church which is dated to the Byzantine period. In the cases at the
center there are tablets with hierography inscriptions, seal stamped earthen
annals, cylindrical and stamp seals, bronze axes, pins, tools for stone
masonary and moulds, an ivory dancing goddess statue, a trio of goddesses, a
pendants and reliefed ceramic pieces, again from the Hittite period. Between
the cases there are large scale jugs and reliefed orthostadts
According to the 1997 statistics the museum
collection has a total of 12074 pieces 11735 of which are archaeological works,
166 etnographical material and 173 are coins.