Guide
The Erimtan Archaeology and Art Museum shows objects of the Hittite, Urartian, Roman and Byzantine periods from the collection of the businessman Yüksel Erimtan, and holds interdisciplinary events across the arts. It is the first private museum in Ankara and opened on 14 March 2015.
The museum stands near Ankara Castle, with the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations to its west and the Çengelhan Rahmi Koç Museum to its south. It is overseen by the directorate of the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations.
It was founded within the Yüksel Erimtan Culture and Art Foundation. Three old buildings on the castle square were turned into the museum under the architects Ayşen Savaş, Can Aker and Onur Yüncü. To fit the historic fabric around it, the outside was faced with stone recalling the castle walls and given narrow windows. Inside, the walls are laid out with inscriptions in the Roman manner, and the display space was planned as a single large hall.
The collection is a private archaeological one of about two thousand objects, most of them from Anatolia. The greater part is Late Hellenistic and Roman, with material of the Hittites, the Urartians, the Assyrians, the Achaemenids and the Byzantines alongside it: bowls, jugs, cups, measuring vessels, perfume bottles, tweezers, jewellery, mirrors and coins.
The Roman material is arranged so that visitors can form an idea of everyday Roman life, and the objects are presented together with the written sources that mention them.
Exhibitions, concerts and cultural events of various kinds are held to build a bridge between modern material and the archaeological works. Since the museum opened in 2015 it has run a series of chamber music concerts through the year under the name Music at the Museum, held in a hall seating about 160, with Şefik Kahramankaptan as artistic director.
Visit status for this record: open to visitors.
