Elazig Museum was established on April 30, 1965 as the "Harput Museum" in Alacalı Mescit in the Harput district. Museum building in Fırat University was started in 1971 for the display and preservation of the artifacts found in the surveys and excavations of Keban and Karakaya Dam projects, and it was opened as the Elazig Archeology and Ethnography Museum on July 28, 1982.
Elazig Museum is a regional museum responsible for movable and immovable historical artifacts (cultural assets) in Elazig and Bingöl provinces. Our mission is to determine, preserve and inspect historical artifacts in the region, to prevent illegal excavations and smuggling, to develop the region's historical and cultural awareness.
Museum building consists of three sections: archaeological artifacts and coin hall, carpet and rug gallery, and ethnography hall. We has a total of 32,021 items registered in the inventory, 15,578 archaeological, 5,356 ethnographic and 11,087 coins.
Among the archaeological artifacts in the museum are the coral fossil belonging to the Paleozoic Age, finds from the Paleolithic period, which is accepted as the beginning of human history in our region, obsidian tools from the first settlements and the Neolithic period, terracotta orchards indicating that the region was an important agricultural and livestock center, embroidered animal motifs, spindle whorls used in wool spinning, Bronze Age terracotta human idols, bull figurines, paint decorations, seals belonging to the Hittite, Urartu and Assyrians, and bottles belonging to the Roman Period, reflecting the knowledge, artistic understanding, thought and design power of their periods. are coins. In addition, The Harput Relief, which was moved to our Directorate in the Harput Nevruz Forests area in 2016, is one of our unique and special artifacts.
In the Carpet and Ethnographic hall, unique hand-made carpets and rugs belonging to the region, ethnographic works promoting the culture of the region, and stone artifects of various periods are exhibited in the museum garden.
As of December 2019, our museum has a total of 447 registered immovable cultural assets, 375 in Elazig and 72 in Bingöl.
In addition, 10 collectors affiliated with our museum are regularly inspected and regularly informed about the works stolen in the country.
Our museum serves students and researchers with 1697 books on general culture and regional history within the specialized library.
