Historical artifacts in Turkey's Antalya not registered officially over past decade at archeology museum

Published 02 Apr,2021 via Hürriyet Daily News - An investigation launched by the local directorate of culture and tourism of the southern province of Antalya has revealed that none of the 17,000 historical artifacts in the city’s Archeology Museum have been registered officially for 13 years and no inventory work has been done since 2009.

The investigation dates back to the early months of 2020 when local officials complained that some of the historical artifacts were missing in the museum.

As the investigation started, the museum manager, Mustafa Demirel, was removed and replaced by Harun Güllü.

In July 2020, Güllü highlighted some major deficiencies during the previous manager’s period in a report.

“After the retirement of an archaeologist in 2008, the artifacts were not registered to the responsibility of anybody. The latest inventory work for the artifacts has been done in 2009,” said the report.

According to the report, Güllü established a commission to count and record the artifacts.

“The work is ongoing. There may be some missing artifacts,” he added in the report.

In six months, the inventory work was finished, and the commission stressed that “there were some 17,000 artifacts” in the museum.

Within this number, some 500 artifacts were of high value, the commission said in their report.

Demirel, who served as the museum manager between 2010 and 2020, said he had started the registration process in 2011.

He alleged that the personnel at the time had insistently not prepared the required documents for the process.

© 2021 Hürriyet Daily News. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info)

DISCLAIMER: This content is provided to us “as is” and unedited by an external third party provider. We cannot attest to or guarantee the accuracy of information provided in this article from the external third party provider. We do not endorse any views or opinions included in this article.