Marmaray exhibition opens at Koç Museum

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

An exhibition at Rahmi Koç Museum will display artifacts discovered and excavated during the Marmaray metro project in Yenikapı in 2004.

Artifacts from Theodosius Pier, which were discovered during construction for the Marmaray metro project, have become the subject of a photography exhibit. Taken by archeologists, the photographs raise new questions about Theodosius Pier, a landmark which no previous evidence had been able to prove actually existed.

“In the past, this area was a pier. Later on with the raise of the Marmara Sea, those artifacts were [buried] under water. During the Ottoman era this area was a valley and now we’ve experienced a very important era in excavating all the [lost] artifacts,” the excavation team president Ufuk Kocabaş said.

A team of photographers worked in partnership with Istanbul University and the Yenikapı Project to document the excavation of artifacts and areas construction project. Their work reveals the piers existence through archeological artifacts. The exhibit also contains 31 photographs from the Archeology Museum’s archives as well as illustrations of what the pier might have looked like.

The team photographed the first moments of the artifacts excavation process along with the artifacts, which are believed to have originated some 1,000 and 1,500 years ago.

“The region is like a phenomenon. There are many excavations still going on and there are many artists to be revealed. There will be a lot to see in the future about those excavations,” Kocabaş said.

The exhibition will continue until September 16.