Meanwhile in the Mountains: Sagalassos

Yapı Kredi Cultural Activities, Arts and Publishing Inc. is hosting the exhibition Meanwhile in the Mountains: Sagalassos. Occupying three floors at Yapı Kredi Cultural Centre in Beyoğlu, the exhibition introduces visitors to the ancient city of Sagalassos, founded on the southern slopes of the Taurus mountain range, and the history of the region of Pisidia. The most comprehensive archaeological project carried out in recent years Meanwhile in the Mountains: Sagalassos is the result of a collaboration of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Directorate General for Cultural Heritage and Museums and KU Leuven University, Belgium, and their support of the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project. Displaying 368 objects from Burdur Archaeology Museum, the exhibition is open to visitors at Yapı Kredi Cultural Centre November 27, 2019–May 28, 2020. One of the best-preserved ancient cities of the Mediterranean, Sagalassos is included in the Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

From Statues of Gods and Goddesses to Mammoth Bones
The exhibition, Meanwhile in the Mountains: Sagalassos, contains many and divergent historical objects: from mammoth bones from the Burdur region proving that they lived in prehistorical Anatolia, to the massive statues of the Roman emperors Marcus Aurelius and Hadrian. 

Visitors Will Be Welcomed by Rome’s Last Good Emperor
At the entrance to the museum visitors will be received by the statue of emperor Marcus Aurelius that was unearthed at the Roman Baths at Sagalassos. Originally approximately five metres high and carved in white marble, the head, arms and legs are displayed at the exhibition. The restoration of the Antonin Fountain at Sagalassos, which was built in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, was completed in 2010. The head of emperor Hadrian, who named Sagalassos Pisidia’s “first city,” can also be seen at the exhibition. The emperors Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius are among Rome’s Five Good emperors.

Meet the Pisidians
Experts have recreated the faces belonging to the skulls found during the Sagalassos excavation of a Roman man dated to the 3rd century CE and to a Byzantine woman dated to the 11th century. 

The Exhibition Extends Across Three Floors of the Yapı Kredi Cultural Centre
Meanwhile in the Mountains: Sagalassos is shown across three floors of Yapı Kredi Cultural Centre. On the first floor is a multifaceted presentation of the Sagalassos excavations, which is an interdisciplinary research project that commenced in 1990. Shown with the excavations are also Sagalassos and the Pisidian terrain it is part of, along with the geology, vegetation cover, belief system, gods, people, fauna and flora.

On the second floor are the primeval periods with artefacts from the Bronze Age, when Sagalassos was founded, the Hellenistic Period, the Roman Period and the Byzantine Period arranged chronologically. The Upper Agora unearthed during the Sagalassos excavations as well as the best examples of statues of emperors, gods and heroes recovered there are also on show here.

The third floor comprises thematic sections about ancient economy, quality of life, dietary habits and kitchen utensils, how people dealt with death, and the characteristics of death.  Visitors are received by a statue of the goddess of agriculture and abundance, Demeter with the beautiful hair. This section also contains a reconstruction of the rock temple to which it is believed the people of Sagalassos focused their votive observance and from which hundreds of terracotta figurines were recovered. 

The project’s scientific consultancy is undertaken by professor at KU Leuven University and Sagalassos Excavation Director Jeroen Poblome, the coordination by Director of Yapı Kredi Museum Nihat Tekdemir and the design by Pattu Mimarlık. The photographs of the objects brought to the exhibition and all the landscape photographs used at the exhibition were shot by the Belgian photographers Bruno Vandermeulen and Danny Veys.