Hundreds of miles inland from Istanbul is the ancient city of Ankara, now Turkey’s capital. The museum there was voted the best in the world in 1999! It has been adapted from an old building surrounded by Archaeological sites. Alan was of course fascinated, happily photographing the reconstruction of the earliest settlement there, with the accompanying Catalhoyok “Mother Goddess”.

I enjoyed the marvellous ceramics: a large handled floor vessel, a two-headed duck, one of those ancient elegant Turkish jugs (which I certainly plan to make, if only to see if I can!) and two birds with detailed painting. All are centuries older than glaze.

And this last one is just wonderfully large!

Perhaps some of these images can be inspiration for other potters too.