AN ODYSSEY OF ARTIFACTS: TURKISH MUSEOLOGY CHRONICLES – PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE NARRATIVES

Abstract

While heritage sites, theme parks, and urban/rural areas provide diverse cultural experiences, museums offer a more specialized and tightly defined avenue for cultural display. In the context of tourism, the historical narrative can be conveyed through five distinct avenues, namely monuments, archaeology museums, ethnography museums, libraries, and folklore institutes (ġapolyo, 1972). Museums, in general, are defined as institutions dedicated to collecting, documenting, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting material evidence and associated information for the benefit of the public (Selwood et al., 1995; Dicks, 2003). Museums can be broadly categorized into open-air museums, traditional museums, science centers, and art galleries (Beech and Chadwick, 2006). ICOM-International Council of Museums identifies various types of museums, including national museums, specialized museums, general and local museums, open-air museums, working museums, site museums, and virtual museums (ICOM, 2004). The nature of a museum is intrinsically linked to the character of its collections. Consequently, Smith (2003) delves into the role of museums in the exhibition of dark tourism, ethnic and indigenous minority heritage, industrial heritage, and ethnographic collections. Smith also highlights the concept of ecomuseums, which seeks to integrate multiple disciplines commonly involved in museology, such as archaeology, social history, and the study of people and places. This research investigates the diverse landscape of museums in the context of cultural tourism. It explores the unique attributes and roles of various types of museums, shedding light on how they contribute to the broader narrative of history, culture, and heritage in the tourism domain. The study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the significance and impact of museums in enriching the tourist experience.