MUSEUM OF ANATOLIAN CIVILISATIONS
The Museum of Anatolian Civilisations in Ankara
stands in a green garden with bird boxes in the pine trees. Sitting
down on one of the benches in the garden, you look out over Ankara.
The soil of Anatolia, which still holds so many secrets, seems to
breathe deeply, carrying you away in its ancient rhythm.
It is from the embrace of this soil that the objects displayed in
the museum have come, bringing with them so many memories from thousands
of years in the past, to tell their stories of past lives and cultures.
Although they have no mouth or tongue with which to speak they are
suffused with legends and secrets to divulge.
 Before
you have taken many steps around the museum, you are struck by the
realisation that art is one of manknd'sa most basic needs, reflecting
the need to declare, 'I am here'. You see rock paintings dating
from 6000 BC found at the neolithic site of Catalhoyuk.
These frescos executed in red paint over plaster
and depicting vultures and hunting buffalo and deer, acquaint us
with a master artist who lived thousands of years ago. Through the
eyes of this prehistoric painter we see all the splendour of the
bison, elegant agility of the deer on its long slender legs, and
the celestial sovereignty of the vulture.
A little way beyond these a pottery figurine of
the Mother Goddess found at Catalhoyuk and dating from 5750 BC awaits
you. Seated on her rock throne with her hands resting proprietorially
on the necks of two leopards, she majestically rules the world.
Her breasts are swollen with milk and her arms are strong. Between
her legs is a newly born child. For thousands of years, without
speaking a word, she has symbolised the fertility and bountifulness
of women. You encounter the Mother Goddess not only in this exquisite
20 cm high figure, but in many wall paintings, figurines and other
objects around the museum.
 Her
ubiquity is due to the fact that she remained a symbol of abundance
and fertility in Anatolia throughout the neolithic, chalcolithic
and bronze ages. Some of the figures depict the Mother Goddess with
others of her sex, such as in the stylised figures of two women
holding hands, a double idol, and gold figure portraying mother
and daughter; all of which were excavated at Alacahoyuk and date
from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Sometimes we see
her suckling her child, as in the bronze figure dating from 3000
BC unearthed at Horoztepe, sometimes hand in hand with leopards,
seated or standing, naked or clothed. These ancient women from sites
near Ankara, from Hasanoglu, Horoztepe, Alacahoyuk and Karaoglan,
will point you the way to another section on the ground floor where
you will find hundreds of artefacts relating to domestic life in
Anatolia, and a room devoted to womn'se jewellery.
 These
pieces of jewellery, gleaming seductively and gracefully, seem to
be tranquilly awaiting the return of their owners. Your face reflects
on the jewellery in the display cases, and the jewellery reflects
back on your face. You realise in astonishment how closely your
own necklace resembles that behind the glass. A necklace dating
from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, bracelets of similar
age, and a belt from Alacahoyuk are all made of gold. The Anatolian
womn'sa love for this bright yellow metal shines both in the museum
cases and on the arms of Turkish women today, such as Ummuhan from
Akcakoca, a lady from Sivas, and Emine Hanim who rolls out gozleme
at the nearby Pirinc Han. Neighbours, friends, acquaintances and
strangers, mothers, aunts, and nieces all jangle spiral bracelets
very similar to those in the museum. Next to the gallery of jewellery
is another filled with glass objects, predominantly green in colour.
As if in defiance of their materiaean fragility,
they appear to jig and dance cheerfully on their beds of black velvet:
bottles, jugs, cups, vases, miniature amphoras, tear bottles and
perfume bottles. In the room devoted to Ankara, the city which stood
on the crossroads of Anatolia, linking east and west, south and
north, the last display cases are filled with magnificent examples
of Turkish tiles. In the wake of archaic, classical, and Hellenistic
pottery came Seljuk and Ottoman Turkish tiles and plates with their
characteristic turquoise blue.
Next to the late period Kutahya and Iznik tiles
is a pair of oil lamps with large globe shades, and a pair of bath
pattens intricately decorated with mother-of-pearl and silver filigree.
 If
you live in Ankara you probably pass the bronze sculpture in the
form of a solar disc every day. It stands in Sihhiye, in the centre
of the main boulevard running from Ulus to Cankaya.
The bronze stags encircled by a pair of bull's horns
is an inalienable part of the cityscape. You will see the same figure
again throughout the day in many parts of modern Ankara, because
this magnificent work of art and ceremonial symbol dating from the
second half of the 3rd millennium in the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations
has been adopted as the symbol of the Turkish capital. The original
figure is only 24 cm in height, but it looks on proudly at the visitors
streaming through the Bronze Age Gallery.When you leave the museum
you look at the panorama over Ankara for the last time, and head
back for the city. You are filled with the moving sense of being
the latest heir to the many layers of cultures which lie buried
but not forgotten beneath this soil.
* Cigdem Ulker is a lecturer at Hacettepe University
Faculty of Education
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