Don't just call it a clay pot: It is both a witness and evidence

HEAVY IN ITS PLACE-140. LET US NOT FORGET, LET US NOT LET BE FORGOTTEN.

When you come across a clay pot left over from the past, you should not underestimate it or ignore it!

It can be both a witness to history and a piece of data, a piece of evidence for researching and learning about the unknown!

How?

It is known that the first traces of the making and use of clay pottery in Anatolia date back 11 thousand years, and its widespread entry into human life dates back 9 thousand years.

In the beginning, as hunters and gatherers, humanity found food for its daily needs and sustained its life.

Especially with the warming of the glacial climate, it developed agriculture and animal domestication, increased its food supply, established villages, and transformed into a settled society.

The emergence of surplus products created the need to accumulate and store food and goods.

For this, it used clay, which was the most suitable material and which they also used in shelter construction, as it easily took shape when mixed with water.

Clay, softened with water, was shaped for various needs, and pots and pans were obtained by drying them first in the sun and later in hot kilns.

The first clay pots made by hand were produced faster with the invention of the potter's wheel, and their use spread rapidly.

Just as humanity used clay tablets as a writing tool, it turned the clay pots it used in its kitchens, warehouses, and ceremonies into works of art over time with the skill of its mind and hands.

Is art not the most refined form of human talent?

In the Hellenistic Age (2nd-4th centuries BC), Pergamon/Bergama was one of the most important centers for pot making using clay.

Pergamon's clay pots had different shapes decorated with magnificent ornaments.

The attractiveness of its jars and goblets was legendary.

And especially the figurines made of clay!

There were large ceramic kilns on the northern slope of the Pergamon Acropolis.

Now, a clay goblet that remained underground until recently or survived in a secluded corner of a house fell into the hands of German Imperialism, which stripped Bergama bare at the end of the 19th century.

140-160 years ago, German smugglers had plundered Bergama by forming an organized smuggling network led by an engineer named Carl Humann.

Not only did they take Bergama's artifacts and parts of the famous Zeus Altar to Berlin, completely in secret from 1864 to 1878, and with dubious permits from 1878 to 1886, but they also continued their historical artifact theft in the following years.

One of the most prominent pieces of evidence of this is a "clay pot-shaped goblet," covered with the unique patterns of the Pergamon/Bergama culture and shaped with a different understanding.

The shape of this goblet, which is "14.2*15.8 cm" in size and modified by Pergamon artists, is generally called the "Megara type."

In the Ancient Age, goblets made by taking these types of clay pots, which were developed in Megara, a coastal city east of Athens in Greece, as an example, were used all over the Mediterranean.

This stolen goblet, manufactured in Bergama, had become more elegant and useful in the hands of local artists inspired by Megara-type pots.

It had been widened by making a belly, original patterns had been drawn on it, and it had been turned into a goblet by adding a flat base to the bottom.

Its upper edges were pulled inward, thick lips were formed at its mouth, and the surface of the vessel, which was darkened by being kept in the fire for a long time, was decorated with "Eros=god of love" figures walking in a row.

Pleasing, noble-looking shapes were drawn above and below the Eros figures.

In ancient art, Eros was depicted as a child-like figure with wings, usually shooting arrows with the bow in his hand, making couples fall in love with each other. It is the origin of the word "Erotic" used today.

The Pergamon goblet with Eros is kept today in the Berlin Museum/Prison with the registration number "Ident.Nr. V.I. 5863".

According to the Museum/Prison records, it entered the museum inventory in 1910.

When we pay attention to this date, interesting relationships and a clear case of theft emerge.

There is no harm in asking this question:

How did this magnificent goblet, which is still shamelessly defined as "Prussian (the old name of Germany) Cultural Heritage/Property" in the documents of the Berlin Museum/Prison today, fall into the hands of the German State?

According to the 3rd Regulation on Antiquities (Asar-ı Atika Nizamnamesi) issued by the Ottoman Empire in 1884, it is forbidden to take historical artifacts abroad.

This period was extended until 1886 with dubious permits to take the works that remained in Bergama "so-called" and could not be smuggled out.

After this date, German institutions were given excavation permits in Bergama, but it was forbidden to take the findings abroad.

However, the date the Bergama goblet was placed in the Berlin Museum/Prison is 1910.

In other words, there is a smuggling incident here!

Come on now!

The artifact is forbidden, but it was taken to Berlin. Now it is in Berlin!

There is no explanation regarding the legitimacy of the presence of Bergama's unique clay goblet in Berlin.

However, documents tell us that German State officials continued the Pergamon/Bergama excavations even after 1886, the date of the absolute ban.

Those who continued these excavations are suspects named Alexander Conze from Carl Humann's smuggling network and Wilhelm Dörpfeld, who later joined this team.

German archaeologists have been digging up Bergama from that time to this day.

The year is 2023, they are still digging!

They cannot take what they find today abroad according to the laws of the Republic of Turkey. It is forbidden! If they did/are doing it, the sin is on their own heads.

However, they have such a tradition of committing sins!

Most of them have diplomatic passports and cannot be checked according to international rules when going abroad.

So what happened in 1910?

What is this beautiful clay goblet from Bergama doing in the Berlin Museum/Prison in 1910, even though it was forbidden to take it abroad?

The head smuggler Carl Humann is no longer alive. He died in İzmir in 1896.

According to official Ottoman records, German archaeologists A. Conze and W. Dörpfeld excavated in Bergama for 3 more months, starting on May 26, 1909.

Was it then that Bergama's elegant goblet was smuggled to Germany with a sleight of hand?

In 1910, it was added to the Museum/Prison records among those smuggled earlier.

Or was it during the time of W. Dörpfeld, who started excavating in Bergama on April 21, 1910, and stayed for 6 months?

Or did they buy it from another local thief and pocket it?

So, in any case, the presence of Bergama's clay goblet in Berlin is illegal.

Don't let anyone be offended! This is a theft!

Is there any other way to explain this?

It means that the previously accustomed smuggling continued openly/secretly.

The spirit of Carl Humann, who was guilty of theft, continued to fly over Bergama, and perhaps it still does.

These are ugly things!

It does not fit humanity, being cultured, or the understanding of protecting historical artifacts at all.

How can a person, institution, or organization stomach theft?

Especially a State that represents all its people!

THE ZEUS ALTAR AND BERGAMA ARTIFACTS DO NOT BELONG TO COLD AND FOGGY BERLIN, BUT TO BEAUTIFUL BERGAMA. THEY MUST DEFINITELY COME BACK, THEY MUST RETURN HOME!

(Source: http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseum, Database-Antikensammlung/// Ali Sönmez (2020): “Yitik Miras Zeus Sunağı” (Lost Heritage Zeus Altar). (Istanbul: İdeal Yayıncılık) : p.239)