Through the Outer Gardens of the Saray - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 98

Byzantium and its Neighbours has exhibits from archaeological
sites in Thrace and Bithynia, the regions that bordered the ancient
city of Byzantium on its European and Asian sides, respectively. The
most fascinating exhibits from Thrace were found in tumuli covering
royal graves, particularly a superb bronze head of a warrior with a
tightly-fitting helmet, from the fourth century B.C. A notable exhibit
from Bithynia is a colossal head of Oceanus from Nicomedeia (Izmit),
dating from the second century A.D. Other exhibits are from the
ancient Thracian cities of Selymbia (Silivri), Perinthos and Eleonte,
and from the Bithynian cities of Chalcedon (Kadıköy), Nicomedeia
and Claudiopolis (Bolu), including funerary reliefs, portait busts and
marble statues. The exhibits from Byzantine Constantinople include
two large marble pedestals, monuments to the famous charioteer
Porphyrios commemorating his victories in the Hippodrome. These
pedestals, each of which once bore a bronze statue of Porphyrios, were
commissioned by the Emperor Anastasius (r. 491-518), and give
some measure of the enormous popularity which this charioteer once
enjoyed in the Roman era. The pedestals are chiefly of interest because
of the sculptures in low relief on their sides, in which are represented
lively scenes from the ancient Hippodrome of Constantinople.
The exhibits from the Marmaray Project include objects found in
both the old city and in Üsküdar. The main area of excavation has
been in the Yeni Kapı district on the Marmara shore of the old city,
where a large harbour was established when Constantine the Great
founded Constantinople in A.D. 330, and which eventually silted
up through alluvial earth deposited by the Lycus River. A team of
archaeologists led by Professor Ismail Karamut, head of the Istanbul
Archaeological Museum, has discovered the well-preserved remains of
more than 30 ships, along with the remnants of piers, warehouses and
other structures, including part of the city walls built by Constantine.
The most spectacular find was made in 2008, when the skeletons of
two adults and two children were unearthed along with the remains
of a small Neolithic settlement on the harbour dating from between
6400 B.C. and 5800 B.C., predating the formation of the Bosphorus
strait by several centuries. The exhibit includes numerous objects of
all types found in the excavations, along with photographs of the