GAZİANTEP ZEUGMA MOZAİK MÜZESİ

among them the priceless Nereid and Payava monuments.
In 1857 Charles Newton was to discover the 4 th
century BC Mausoleum of Halicarnassos, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and equally
transferred various treasures, among them, friezes from
the Mauseleion and statues of King Maussollos and
Queen Artemisia, riding a chariot drawn by four horses
from the crest of the monument to the British Museum.
The dilapidation was continuing through further excavations
in other parts of Ottoman territory. Several valuable
pieces from the Nineveh Assyrian settlement near Mosul
and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos were transferred
to Britain.
Two more wings were added to the building between
1900 and 1925. Ethnographical fieldwork was carried out
in places as diverse as New Guinea, Madagascar, Romania,
Guatemala and Indonesia and there were excavations
in the Near East, Egypt, and Sudan, adding to the
museum’s majesty.
Today, the British Museum has grown to become one of
the largest museums in the world, covering an area of
over 75,000 m 2 of exhibition space, hosting yearly over
6 million tourists. The Department of Ancient Egypt
and Sudan alone houses over 110,000 objects. The
museum is a monument sheltering world’s most
outstanding marvels of culture and art. Against the
background of intense controversy over the acquisition
circumstances of a large portion of its treasures and
calls for their restitution to their countries of origin, the
British Museum continues to attract world’s attention
as a cosmopolitan ‘Temple of Art and Culture’.
BRITISH MUSEUM
NOTLARI
• British Museum’un dünyaca ünlü kütüphanesi, Marks ve Lenin’in de araştırmalarına
ev sahipliği yaptı.
• 18’inci yüzyıldan bu yana müzedeki tadilat çalışmaları ve yeni bölümlerin eklenmesi hiç
bitmedi. Bu durum, İngilizler ’in müzeyi, ‘dünyanın en büyük şantiyesi’ olarak anmasına
neden oldu.
• Müzenin sahip olduğu eser sayısı 7 milyonu aşsa da alan yetersizliği nedeniyle bunların
sadece 50 bin kadarı sergileniyor.
• Giriş ücreti alınmayan müzenin kafeteryası ve sosyal alanları özel sektör tarafından
işletiliyor.
• Müzenin elinde bulundurduğu koleksiyonlarla ilgili olarak İngiltere çok sayıda ülkeyle
diplomatik gerginlik yaşadı. Yunanistan Elgin Mermerlerini, Mısır Rosetta Taşı’nı,
Çin Mogao Mağarası’ndan çalınarak İngiltere’ye götürülen 24 binden fazla el yazması,
resim ve mücevheratı, Nijerya Benin Bronzlarını, Tacikistan Oxus Hazinesi’nden
Achaemenid İmparatorluğu’na ait altın ve gümüşlerini geri istiyor. Ancak İngiltere’den
kültürel mirasını kurtarabilen sadece Tazmanya oldu. Aborjinler’den kalan bazı fosilleşmiş
beden parçaları İngiltere’den ait oldukları topraklara geri döndü.
Notes on the British Museum
• World-famous British Museum Library hosted Marx and Lenin in the course of their
research work.
• Addition of new wings and renovation work has been permanent since the 18 th
century, inciting the British to refer to their museum as, ‘world’s largest construction
site’.
• Although in possession of a large collection of objects exceeding the number of 7
million, only 50 thousand of them are put on display due to lack of further exhibition
space.
• The entrance to the museum is free of charge, its cafeteria and social compartments
are operated by private business.
• Diplomatic tensions remain on the agenda concerning various collections of the
museum; Greece claiming the Elgin Marbles, Egypt the Rosetta Stone, China the 24
thousand manuscripts, jewellery and paintings stolen from the Mogao cave, Nigeria
the Benin Bronzes, Tajikistan the Oxus Treasure, a collection of 170 gold and silver
items from the Achaemenid Persian period which were found by the Oxus river. Up to
this date, only Tasmania’s (region in Australia) claim was brought to a successful
conclusion, resulting in the restitution of the fossilized human body parts belonging to
the Aborigines to their country of origin.
Charles Bowman Robert Harding World