The Penn Stater Magazine

The Antalya Museum—Oh My!

May 15, 2011 at 11:35 am Tina Hay 3 comments

A marble head of Apollo dating to the second century.

I can’t remember being more blown away by a museum than I was at the Antalya Museum. It’s an archaeological museum devoted mostly to stuff excavated from the ruins of ancient Perge (pronounced pair-geh), and the collection is eye-popping.

It starts off modestly enough, with small bowls and pitchers and tools from the Metric Age, the Early Bronze Age, the Hellenistic Age, and so on. Then you turn the corner and enter the Hall of Imperial Statues, and you see an astounding collection of well-preserved marble statues and busts: Hadrian. Lucius Verus. Traian. An elegant, intricate dancer.

It turns out that in the second century A.D., Perge was home to a prestigious school of marble sculpture, so these works were made by some of the best sculptors of the day.

Another exhibition area has even more busts and statues, of folks like Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Dionysos, and Alexander the great. They’re all huge—larger than life size in many instances—and they’re all originals, not replicas.

Still another room is devoted to ornate sarcophagi. And almost none of this stuff is behind glass—you can touch it, pose for a photo next to it, whatever. We could have spent hours walking around and photographing these treasures from every angle. Just a wonderful museum.

I’ve posted more photos from our visit to the Antalya Museum on the Alumni Association’s Facebook page.

Tina Hay, editor

Entry filed under: Alumni Association. Tags: Antalya Museum, Hadrian, Lucius Verus, Perge, sarcophagi, Traian.