Last week in order to get the new students on the project, like myself, better acquainted with the archaeology of the area we all took a trip to the Sinop Archaeological Museum.
We were led by our fearless director Owen who gave us a tour of the museum. He first
told us the story of the patron goddess of the city, Sinope. According to mythology she
resisted the advances of the mighty and charming Zeus and his son Apollo. She is an
important figure in Sinop because she epitomizes the peoples strong will and their
independence. We next saw the history of Sinop through pottery. Displayed in the hall
was pottery from all different time periods starting from the bronze age up until the
Byzantine era. In this collection we saw the different types of artifacts that were used in
the area and what types of pottery we would be looking for once we started our field
survey. Some of my favorites were the small Hellenistic pots, because of how fine they
are and the geometric motifs they had depicted on them. We next saw a brilliant mosaic
floor which depicted personifications of the seven muses and the four seasons.
Depicted around the figures was a wave motif and fish emphasizing the importance that
the sea play in the lives of the people here. The next room was filled with sarcophagi.
They were all highly decorated and demonstrated the wealth some people that lived in
ancient Sinop possessed. One Sarcophagus I found particularly interesting had a boat
rendered in relief on one side. Not only was this very different from the other sarcophagi
in the room but it was also made for a man Arrianus, which is the male form of my name
which was very cool to see. We later saw a room filled with amphora. This once again
showed us some of the material we could possibly see in the field. He explained to us
that the toe of the amphora was very helpful in dating it. Also the different inclusions such as Black Sand temper was distinct to Sinop and that amphora found with that type of inclusion in the clay was found throughout the ancient world. This shows how important a port Sinop was and how much oil they produced and exported. This not only shows how important Sinop was for boats to dock not only today but in the ancient
times and that they were a major producer of olive oil and major role player in the
economy of the ancient world. This trip to the museum was an enlightening one and
helped us see the importance of the place we will be working in this season. -Arianna