This museum holds artefacts from Ephesus' Terraced Houses, including scales, jewellery and cosmetic boxes, plus coins, funerary goods and ancient statuary. The famous effigy of Phallic god Priapus, visible by pressing a button, draws giggles, and a whole room is dedicated to Eros in sculpted form. The punters also get a rise out of the multi-breasted marble Artemis statue, a very fine work indeed.
Finds from a gladiators' cemetery excavation are displayed, with commentary on their weaponry, training regimes and occupational hazards. Also worth seeing is the frieze from the Temple of Hadrian that shows four heroic Amazons with their breasts cut off – early Greek writers attributed Ephesus' founding to them.
The museum is ideally visited after touring Ephesus and seeing where the finds come from. After midday, however, it fills with cruise crowds being rushed through.
