Niğde Archaeological Museum

The Niğde Archaeological Museum (Turkish: Niğde Arkeoloji Müzesi) is an archaeological museum in the centre of Niğde, the provincial capital of Niğde Province in south-central Turkey. Situated between Dışarı Cami Sokak and Öğretmenler Caddesi, it houses material from regional excavations spanning the Palaeolithic to the Ottoman period. Its holdings are especially significant for understanding the prehistory of central Anatolia *& the Neo-Hittite/Luwian successor states, as well as the Graeco-Roman city of Tyana. The museum also maintains an ethnographic section.

The museum's origins date to the Second World War, when part of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum's collection was evacuated to the Akmedrese, the main Quran school in Niğde on Ak Medrese Caddesi. The building continued to serve as a museum after 1950, but the space eventually proved inadequate. Construction of a new museum building began in 1971; the Akmedrese closed in 1977, and the new museum opened to visitors on 12 November 1982. The collection soon outgrew this structure as well, prompting a further rebuilding and renovation. The present museum reopened in 2001. The museum has been or remains active in excavations at Köşk Höyük, Porsuk Hüyük, Kestel, Göllü Dağ, Andaval, Eskigümüş, and Kınık Höyük.

The museum organises its displays chronologically across six rooms. Room 1 presents Stone Age material, including obsidian spearpoints and arrowheads from Göllü Dağ, Köşk Höyük, Pınarbaşı Gölü, and Kaletepe, some dating to the 12th millennium BC, alongside Neolithic and Chalcolithic pottery from the 6th and 5th millennia BC, chiefly from Köşk Höyük. Room 2 covers the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC), with finds from Göltepe, the Kestel tin mines, and Middle Bronze Age pottery from the Assyrian trade colonies at Acemhöyük near Çamardı. Room 3 is devoted to the Neo-Hittite/Luwian and Phrygian periods. Room 4 contains Graeco-Roman material, predominantly from Tyana. A smaller annexe at the entrance to Room 5 displays coins from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods. Rooms 5 and 6 hold medieval and ethnographic collections, respectively.

Among the museum's signature objects is the Niğde Stele, discovered near the city's citadel, which depicts the weather god and bears a dedication by Muwaharanis, son of Warpalawas, king of Tuwana, at the end of the 8th century BC. A plaster cast of the Andaval Stele, found at Andaval (modern Aktaş) northeast of Niğde, also mentions Warpalawas. A second stele from Keşlik, approximately 30 km west of Niğde near Altunhisar, shows the weather god in similar fashion, though its inscription is no longer legible. The museum also displays Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions from Porsuk and Veliisa, Neo-Hittite door lions from Göllü Dağ, and Phrygian pottery and small finds from Porsuk, Tepebağları, Kaynarca, Kemerhisar, and the Niğde citadel. From the Graeco-Roman period, Room 4 contains inscriptions, statues, reliefs, terracotta and marble sarcophagi, and pottery, mostly from Tyana. Room 5 preserves the mummies of a woman and four children from the 10th century AD, found in the Yılanlı church in the Ihlara Valley.

The museum occupies a purpose-built structure in central Niğde, constructed after the earlier Akmedrese proved insufficient. The current building, opened in 2001 after extensive rebuilding and renovation, replaced the 1982 museum building. Its location between Dışarı Cami Sokak and Öğretmenler Caddesi places it in the heart of the provincial capital.

The Niğde Archaeological Museum is located in the city of Niğde, Niğde Province, Turkey, with coordinates 37°58′06″N 34°40′21″E. It operates under the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as indicated by its inclusion on the official museum portal. The museum's website is accessible through the national museum system.