Guide
Erzincan Museum was founded by the Ministry of Culture in 1986, after the Erzincan earthquake, to display the archaeological and ethnographic material gathered in the region. It opened in the provincial public library building and later moved to the Erzincan 75th Year Cultural Centre. About 350 objects are shown, reaching from the Palaeolithic through the Bronze Age and the Urartian, Persian, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman periods.
The archaeological section holds terracotta, marble and metal works of prehistory, stone works of the Akkoyunlu, Karakoyunlu and Mengücek periods — sheep and ram statues in particular — and gravestones of various periods. The ethnographic section shows local clothing, edged weapons and firearms, flat-woven coverings, and carpets and kilims.
There is a display area given to the earthquake of magnitude 7.9 that struck on 27 December 1939, with models of the historic buildings it destroyed in whole or in part, newspapers of the time and images of the event.
The works in the museum are described aloud for blind visitors, and the museum is part of the Virtual Museum system set up by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
