Diyarbakır Archeology Museum

Diyarbakır Archaeology Museum is one of the 5 museums in Diyarbakır belonging to the Diyarbakır Museum Directorate. Established in 1934, it is the first archaeology museum belonging to the Diyarbakır Museum Directorate.

Diyarbakır's first museum, the Archaeology Museum, currently consists of two buildings built in the 19th century located within the Museum Complex area in İç Kale. As of 2024, the museum collection registers 36,000 inventory items.

With the conversion of 14 registered structures in İç Kale into museum space, it was officially opened on 25.05.2015. In the İç Kale area, together with the Archaeology Museum, there is also the Atatürk Museum.

The museum area has become a large complex consisting of the Thematic Exhibition Building, the Chronological Exhibition Building, Saint George Church Art Gallery, Atatürk Museum, Museum Café, Amida Mound, Lion Fountain, Artuklu Arch and the Mosque of Prophet Suleiman.

Since 2022, there has been a great increase in museum visitor numbers. In 2022, 68,000 people, and in 2023, 131,000 people visited Diyarbakır Museum.

The Diyarbakır Archaeology Museum houses cultural heritage from many civilizations from the Neolithic Period to the present. A large number of historical artifacts from important excavations such as Körtik Tepe, Çayönü Tepe, Ziyaret Tepe, Üçtepe, Gre Fılla, Zerzevan Castle are exhibited in the museum.

History

Its activity began in 1934 in the Sincariye (Zinciriye) Madrasa built during the time of Artuklu ruler el-Melikü's-Sâlih Mahmud on the west side of the Great Mosque. In 1986 it moved to a new building on Elazığ Street; exhibition arrangement work was completed in 1993 and it opened to visitors. After the İç Kale gained the function of a museum complex in 2004, it moved to İç Kale.

Collection

In addition to archaeological artifacts, the Diyarbakır Archaeology Museum also contains local ethnographic items. Archaeological artifacts from the region's Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Hittite, Assyrian, Roman, Byzantine, Early Christian, Umayyad, Abbasid, Seljuk, Artuklu, Akkoyunlu, Karakoyunlu and Ottoman periods are on display.