The Museum of Underwater Archeology (Sualti Arkeolji Muzesi)

Here is an explanation of how globalization began....it is certainly not a new concept.....:-)

A recreation of the ancient pottery kilns for firing the amphorae

For my pottery-making friends, Brenda, Geoff and Barbara, here is a depiction of the firing of the ancient amphorae.

This huge cactus was covered with buds about to bloom! Wish I could see them!

A typical Muslim grave marker; I saw a whole cemetery full of these on the way to Akyarlar.

I read this on a mulberry tree....it made me wonder whether Shakespeare might have plagiarized the story of Romeo and Juliet!

This morning after breakfast, I headed for Bodrum Castle to visit the Museum of Underwater Archeology, the brilliant idea of  an American professor (named Bass) from the University of Pennsylvania who had participated in some archeological digs in Turkey while still a graduate student in the 1960’s.  Together with his Turkish counterparts, they conceived this fascinating museum in the heart of the medieval castle which was built as a stronghold by the Knights of St. John after they were chased from Rhodes and before they ended their days on the island of Malta. 

On my way to the castle, I stopped to watch Turkish children during their recess playing ball in the school courtyard.  The school is right near the sea, and all the tourist hubbub.  I wonder what it must be like to grow up in such a place which resembles a sort of paradise for both foreign and Turkish tourists.  Many of the tourists here now are Turks, though today I also heard French, German, Dutch, Russian and Bulgarian.

I spent two and a half hours exploring the excellent exhibits of artifacts found under the sea along the Turkish coast, including an ancient Egyptian cargo from the 14^th century B.C. with bronze-age tools, scarabs and a tiny golden deity figure believed to be the protector of the ship.  There was also an Anatolian ship from the 5^th century B.C. that is referred to as the glasswreck, as it was bearing a huge amount of glassware, as well as thousands of shards of broken glass.  This was an early form of recycling, as the shards were collected by peddlars and resold to be melted down and formed into new glass objects.  The museum has one of the four largest collections of ancient glass in the world.

Another of the museum’s impressive collections is that of huge clay amphorae used to store and transport oil, wine and other foods.  These vessels are tall, with two handles, and a cone-shaped, cylindrical body.  The museum has literally hundreds of them that were found in the various shipwrecks on display.  Some of the ships themselves are partly reconstructed, using the pieces of hull and plank that were found.  Since these shipwrecks are thousands of years old, not much remains of the ships themselves, but amazingly as much as 20% was found in some cases if the hull was resting in sand.  

Other treasures I viewed included coins from numerous ancient civilizations, jewelry, an ancient and primitive chess set, grooming tools including a delousing comb, cooking pots and utensils, swords,  hatchets, anchors….The history of anchors was quite interesting.  Originally, they were just huge stones, but then wooden anchors were developed.  To make them heavier, deep grooves were carved into the base of the anchor, then liquid metal was poured in.  These eventually evolved into the heavy iron anchors we normally think of.

The castle has a number of towers, each dedicated to a different language group of the Knights….hence the English, German, French, and Italian.  Inside the Snake Tower which was used as a hospital, there was a display devoted to objects related to health, life and death, including tiny carved figures displaying different maladies, some primitive surgical instruments (ouch!), and a carved figure of Priapus, son of Aphrodite and Dionysus.  If you have never seen a depiction of Priapus, here is what Wikipedia has to say about him J:

In Greek mythology, Priapus or Priapos (Ancient Greek: Πρίαπος), was a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his absurdly oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term priapism. He became a popular figure in Roman erotic art and Latin literature, and is the subject of the often humorously obscene collection of verse called the Priapeia.

Thus ended my tour of the underwater treasures museum and Bodrum castle.  I enjoyed a break from the sun in the pleasant shaded tea garden of the museum where I drank Ayran (a salty liquid yogurt drink), and ate various dried fruits stuffed with hazelnuts, almonds and pistachios.  I  reserved my place on the bus to Ephesus tomorrow morning.  I have to meet the driver in front of the new mosque (the one with the grocery store in the basement level!) tomorrow morning at 6:45 am!