The painstaking restoration of glass and ceramic artifacts from the Hatay Museum damaged during the devastating earthquakes in February 2023 earthquake in Turkey is underway at the Erzurum Restoration and Conservation Regional Laboratory. Expert teams are meticulously piecing together 205 artifacts that suffered damage when the earthquakes struck southeastern Turkey.
“After the great earthquake [...] the damaged artifacts were sent to laboratories,” said restorer and art historian at the Erzurum Restoration and Conservation Regional Laboratory, Rabia Genç, according to T24.
Genç is part of an expert team that includes specialists such as Muhammed Kırmaç, Erol Usman, Mete Efe Candar, and Ömür İmamoğlu. Together, they are working to restore priceless artifacts that reflect the rich history of the Hatay region.
The artifacts, some over a thousand years old, include glass and ceramic items shattered during the earthquakes. The staff at the laboratory have been carefully sorting through hundreds of fragments, searching for matching pieces. “We are trying to find the broken pieces of the artifacts sent to us from Hatay and to restore them,” Genç stated.
“Currently, we are applying the processes of gluing and lifting the ceramic and glass artifacts,” Genç explained. They carefully separated the glass artifacts, which were especially broken into small pieces, completing the missing parts.
In the aftermath of the earthquakes, numerous artifacts of historical significance were damaged. The Hatay Museum, which housed important artifacts from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Hittite, Hellenistic, Roman, Eastern Roman, Seljuk, and Ottoman periods, was among the affected sites.
“These are artifacts carrying important traces of history. We are making intense efforts to eliminate the damages caused after the earthquake and to re-exhibit them in the Hatay Museum. We are trying to find the individual pieces of ceramic and glass artifacts,” Genç said, according to Haberler.
The earthquakes on February 6, 2023, centered in Kahramanmaraş, caused severe destruction across 11 provinces and directly affected the lives of 13 million people. According to official data, more than 53,000 people lost their lives. Buildings collapsed, homes were destroyed, and neighborhoods vanished.
“Generally, looking at Hatay's culture, it has a very deep-rooted history, so the artifacts we are working on are also very valuable artifacts,” Genç explained. She added that they are working to re-exhibit artifacts that are at least a thousand years old.
“We are working to bring them back to our museums,” Genç said.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.