Samsun Museum

Samsun's Archaeology and Ethnography Museum stands in the city's fair grounds. Construction began in 1976 and it opened on 19 May 1981, a date with special meaning in Turkish history because it is the day Mustafa Kemal landed in Samsun in 1919. Its collection covers objects from Samsun and its surroundings, from the Chalcolithic, Early Bronze, Hittite, Hellenistic and Roman periods.

The star of the museum is the Amisos treasure, found in a burial chamber in the ancient city of Amisos, the predecessor of Samsun. The gold jewellery, belonging to a man, a woman and a girl, is especially important. These Hellenistic works reflect the art and craftsmanship of their time.

Other popular pieces include a bronze spearhead with reliefs on both sides, Early Bronze Age skulls that show signs of surgery, and a bronze statue of a nude athlete, a copy of a 5th-century BC original. The coin collection runs from the Classical period through the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman eras to the Republic, and a separate section is devoted to ethnography.