A current exhibition in Istanbul focuses on the archaeological findings that demonstrate a Jewish presence in what is now Turkey that goes back more than 2,500 years.
Called “Jewish Identity Engraved on Stones,” it is mounted by the Museum of Turkish Jews. The exhibit opened November 4 at the Zulfaris Synagogue and runs until November 21.
The exhibit includes photos, diagrams, information panels, a 3D reconstruction, and a video that document archaeological finds including inscriptions, gravestones, and the remains of ancient synagogues.
“Some 2,600 years ago, when Jews came to Anatolian soil, they came to Anatolia and Thrace, and settled in ancient cities, especially to trade,” the museum said on its web site.
Archaeological excavations present concrete findings such as tombstones, inscriptions, objects, and synagogue ruins that prove the Jewish presence in this region.
The concrete Jewish findings revealed by the exhibition are exhibited according to the regions, and together with the Side Synagogue, which was discovered recently, all kinds of detailed information about the synagogues of Andriake, Sardes [Sardis], Priene, Limyra and Miletos, three-dimensional restitution proposals of the buildings and models of some buildings are displayed and shared with the audience.
“I’m doing my doctoral work on ancient synagogues,” exhibit curator Cigdem Oner told the Anadolu News Agency AA.
“There are a lot of inscriptions, tombstones, (so) we thought why not share them all? And this exhibition was realized,” Oner, who is associated with Akdeniz University’s Mediterranean Civilizations Research Institute and works on excavations in the ancient city of Phaselis, in Turkey’s coastal Antalya province, said.
The Zulfaris Synagogue, built in 1823 on the site of an earlier synagogue dating from 1671, was the home of the Museum of Turkish Jews until December 2015, when the museum merged with and moved revamped exhibitions to the Neve Shalom synagogue.
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The ruins of the ancient synagogue of Sardis were discovered in 1962 and the site represents the most impressive synagogue so far excavated in the ancient Asia Minor/Aegean region. Watch October 2021 drone video from the Sardis expedition, taken during the installation of a protective roof over the site and after the cleaning of the mosaics.