Exhibition sheds light on ancient daily life

ISTANBUL

Istanbul’s Rezan Has Museum opened a new exhibition titled “Archeology of Daily Life,” which reveals a history of 9,000 years through 400 pieces of daily life, covering 6,500 B.C. and 1,300 A.D., on display that peeps into the lifestyle of Anatolia and the surrounding civilizations back then.

The exhibition gives a glimpse of the ordinary days of the civilizations that formed Anatolia and left an everlasting impression on the Turkish culture and traditions.

Speaking about the exhibition, Rezan Has Museum’s Coordinator Zeynep Çulha said that the exhibition comprises a selection of daily life items from the museum’s collection of 3,000 pieces and that the works in the exhibition shed light on the everyday lifestyle of Anatolian civilizations. She stated that the work for the exhibition lasted about four months and that the meeting with visitors was postponed due to the pandemic.

Talking about how the exhibition came about and what all it includes, Çulha said: “This exhibition is actually a continuation of the previous exhibit ‘Heritage of the Land.’ We also wanted to include the exhibition ‘Whispers of Extinct Languages,’ which we planned to introduce last year but could not physically open due to the pandemic. It was presented online on our website instead.”

Noting that the exhibition ”Archeology of Daily Life” deals with a life story of nearly 9,000 years from the Neolithic period to the Seljuk, Çulha said: “We called this exhibition ‘Archeology of Daily Life’ because we have an uninterrupted archeology, and we made the display in the same style. We started with the Neolithic period and continued until the end of the Seljuks. The content of our collection generally covers the Anatolian region, but of course, we can see artifacts from civilizations close to Anatolia as well.”

“We especially display the same tools and equipment used in different periods in order to be able to recognize and understand the changes. We tried to put oil lamps, censer, and bowls of each period so that the viewers of the exhibition will be able to see the change in aesthetic understanding between periods,” Çulha said, describing the different items that one can see at the exhibit.

The exhibition tours are held three times a day, at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., in accordance with the new type of coronavirus measures, allowing a limited number of participants at a time.

Visitors can enjoy this visual delight to feel the essence of the ancient lifestyle through the medium of the exhibition at Rezan Has Museum until May 31, 2021.