Adıyaman Museum

Adıyaman Museum has had its own modern building since 1982, a single-storey structure with a basement, set in a garden in one of the pleasanter parts of the city centre. Decades of Turkish and foreign excavations in the Lower Euphrates region, together with purchases and donations, made it one of the richest museums in the area.

The displays run from the Paleolithic, with hand axes, borers and cutting tools, through Chalcolithic clay vessels and Bronze Age ornaments to Roman and Islamic ceramics. Seals, men's and women's jewellery, human and animal figurines, mosaics, and gold, silver and bronze coins fill out the picture, and ethnographic objects show local life. Two large halls and a linking room hold the collection, with more pieces in the inner garden.

Look for the pieces that speak of Commagene. One relief stele carries a Greek inscription about a commander who thanked the god he believed had helped him win a battle. A statue of King Antiochos was found at Samsat in 1983, and a limestone cult figure from Kahta has drawn attention for its resemblance to sculptures from Göbeklitepe.