Splendors of the Izmir Museum of Archaeology

Here we go on a special post on the wonders of the Izmir (Smyrna) Museum of Archeology, which I visited this summer. Although not well-known, this place hosts some of the best preserved metal statues from Antiquity. Take a look at this athlete figure, made all the more beautiful through its imperfections.

Most statues of ancient Greek and Hellenistic periods were possibly made out of bronze like these, but over time greedy bastards have scavenged most of them for the metal. The examples that remain have almost all been recovered from shipwrecks.

I think their centuries-long slumber under the sea makes such statues even more haunting. Just look at this nameless lady, staring at us through black eyes that open up to her hollow insides. Had it been stolen by the British, this statue would have occupied a room entirely of its own in the British Museum. Instead, it lies gathering dust in the corner of this run-down museum, ignored but safely at home.

The museum is full of many other wonderful artifacts, but it is in the garden that you'll find the most dazzling works. These faces, all representing different individuals and expressions, were carved in a nearby settlement that boasted a school of sculpture in antique times.

This foundation stone, adorned with mysterious serpentine designs, was also one of my favorites. Who would have commissioned it? Why? What was it used for? Did they get it on with cultist virgins on top of it? Such questions, sadly, will never be answered with certainty.

Due to lack of fundings and the sheer profusion of archaeological artifacts, the level of neglect in Turkish museums is sometimes downright appalling. Take a look at this magnificent Hellenistic tomb, chucked outside the museum's front lawn like some redneck's broken-down pickup engine.

Right next to the Archeology museum lies an old French orphanage that was transformed into a "Museum of Ethnography" after the Turkification of Smyrna. It looks pretty impressive from the outside...

...but inside, it is full of moth-eaten folk clothes and depressing mannequins re-enacting household scenes from old Ottoman life. This plastic boy was representing an old circumcision scene, so no wonder why he looks scared out of his wits.

Izmir or Smyrna, this is a wonderful city, all the more because of its profound history. Be sure to visit the Archeology museum if you ever make your way there. (You can skip the lame-ass Ethnography museum, tough.)