Adıyaman Archaeological Museum

The Adıyaman Archaeological Museum (Turkish: Adıyaman Müzesi) is an archaeology museum located in Adıyaman, southeastern Turkey. Situated at the corner of Atatürk Boulevard and Cumhuriyet Avenue in the city center, the museum houses archaeological finds from the surrounding region as well as materials recovered from rescue excavations conducted in connection with the Southeastern Anatolia Project. Founded in 1982, the institution serves as the principal repository for the rich and multi-layered cultural heritage of the Adıyaman area, spanning from the Palaeolithic era through Islamic times.

The museum's origins trace to the late 1970s, when planning for the Southeastern Anatolia Project necessitated urgent archaeological intervention. The construction of hydroelectric dams threatened numerous sites in the Euphrates basin around Adıyaman, prompting rescue excavations across the region. From 1978 onward, finds from these operations were stored in the city library building. The present museum structure was completed in 1982, and Emin Yener was appointed its first director. The museum actively participated in rescue excavations at the tumuli of Levzin and Sofraz and at Haraba, as well as in the excavation of the Commagenian city of Perrhe, which lies within modern Adıyaman. Since 2008, the museum has collaborated with the Research Centre for Asia Minor, working with Margherita Facella of the University of Pisa and Charles Crowther of Oxford to record and process its inscribed holdings. In 2010, the director Fehmi Erarslan reported annual attendance of approximately 30,000 visitors.

The museum's collections encompass an exceptionally wide chronological range, from Palaeolithic tools through to Seljuq and Ottoman objects. The holdings derive from the broader Adıyaman region, particularly the lower Euphrates area, and include material from rescue excavations as well as from systematic archaeological work. The assemblage covers the Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman, and Islamic periods. Notable categories include lithic tools, pottery, weaponry, cooking utensils, jewelry, statuary, mosaics, stone and ceramic vessels, glassware, coins, and inscriptions. The museum also maintains an ethnographic section. Significant provenanced groups come from the Commagenian settlements of Perrhe, Samosata, Ancoz, and Direk Kale.

Among the museum's most significant individual pieces is a votive relief of Jupiter Dolichenus from Perrhe. The outdoor display area features a Stele of the Weathergod and numerous additional stelae and stones bearing Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions, including the documented monuments known as Stele Adıyaman 1 and Stele Adıyaman 2. The inscription corpus also includes texts from Ancoz (Inschriften Ancoz 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10) and Stele Samsat 1. The basement stores extensive epigraphic material from all periods since the Bronze Age, as well as numismatic collections. Of particular scholarly note, Donald H. Sanders, editor of the Nemrut Dağı excavation reports, indicated that 37 crates containing sculpture and inscription fragments from that site were held in the museum basement as of 1985.

The museum occupies a single-story building in the heart of Adıyaman, at the intersection of Atatürk Boulevard and Cumhuriyet Avenue. The structure is functionally organized with archive, photo-lab, and workshop spaces in the basement, administrative offices on part of the ground floor, and two exhibition halls connected by a linking room. The outdoor area serves as an open-air display space for large stone monuments, particularly the Luwian hieroglyphic stelae that constitute one of the museum's distinguishing features.

The Adıyaman Archaeological Museum is located in the city center of Adıyaman, the provincial capital in southeastern Turkey, at the corner of Atatürk Boulevard and Cumhuriyet Avenue. As a state archaeological museum, it functions as a public institution under Turkish cultural heritage administration. The museum is accessible within the urban core of Adıyaman and serves both local visitors and researchers, including international collaborative projects such as the ongoing inscription documentation with the Research Centre for Asia Minor.