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Among the most surprising finds is that the inhabitants of the earliest cities of the Bronze Age (3500–1200 b.c.) were enthusiastic pig eaters, and that even later Iron Age (1200–586 b.c.) residents of Jerusalem enjoyed the occasional pork feast. Yet despite a wealth of data and new techniques including ancient DNA analysis, archaeologists still wrestle with many porcine mysteries, including why the once plentiful animal gradually became scarce long before religious taboos were enacted...In the 1990s, at the site of Hallan Çemi in southeastern Anatolia, archaeologists unearthed 51,000 animal bones dating to about 10,000 b.c. Of these, boar bones made...

A piece of bread baked millennia ago was recently unearthed in Turkey — and now a local bakery is recreating it. Scientists recently uncovered an ancient bread recipe in Turkey, and a local bakery has successfully brought it back to life. The bread, dating back roughly 5,000 years, was discovered as a piece of charred loaf buried beneath the threshold of a house in Eskisehir, a city in central Turkey. Archaeologists found this remarkable artifact in September 2024 during an excavation at Kulluoba Hoyuk, a Bronze Age settlement that has been studied for decades. An Ancient Discovery Preserved Through Millennia...

The Roman theater at Aspendos, now in southern Turkey, is better-preserved than any other in the classical world. It is still routinely used for performances. The Best-Preserved Roman Theater | 4:21 Toldinstone Footnotes | 41.7K subscribers | 5,896 views | June 3, 2025

Hürriyet Daily News reports that after six years, archaeologists have completed excavation of the theater in the ancient city of Prusias ad Hypium, known as the "Ephesus of the western Black Sea." Located in ancient Bithynia near modern-day Düzce, the settlement was an important trade hub along the road from Nicomedia to Amastris. Its large theater dates back to the third century b.c. and eventually held a capacity of 10,000 people. Over the past several seasons, the excavation team has uncovered several extraordinary works of art, including the head of a Medusa statue, a sculpture of Alexander the Great, and...

Luxury and prestige objects have existed in all human societies, and the Neolithic was no exception. Among the most intriguing artifacts of this period are the obsidian mirrors, finely crafted pieces whose function remains a subject of debate. Recent archaeological studies have allowed researchers to reconstruct their manufacturing and distribution process in Southwest Asia, particularly in Central Anatolia, where findings at the Tepecik Çiftlik site suggest that it may have been the key center for the production of these unique objects.The mirrors, circular and highly polished, were not utilitarian tools but items with a strong symbolic component. Their rarity is...

Anatolian Archaeology reports that Turkish officials announced the discovery of a decorated rock-cut tomb that was hidden in the courtyard of a house in the Sanlıurfa's Eyyübiye neighborhood. The single-chamber structure is adorned with various relief sculptures, including a reclining male figure leaning on his left arm and a pair of winged women. In the past, excavations in Sanliurfa have uncovered more than 100 tombs that were carved into rock outcroppings at various times from the late Hittite period, from the ninth to seventh century b.c, through the Roman era of the first to fourth century a.d. Archaeologists have not...

Excavations at Göbekli Tepe continue to yield findings. Researchers found living quarters of an ancient civilization, which disproved earlier theories that the site served solely as a ceremonial pilgrimage destination.Göbekli Tepe, a Neolithic archaeological site situated in the Germuş mountains of southeastern Anatolia, close to the border of Syria... its construction occurring up to 15,000 years ago.The enormous T-shaped pillars at Göbekli Tepe, some reaching heights of up to 5.5 meters, are the oldest examples of monumental architecture discovered to date. These pillars were carved from flint at a time when metal tools were not yet used, demonstrating architectural skills.So...

Paleoanthropologists from the University of Vienna and Harvard University have analyzed ancient DNA from 435 individuals from Eurasian archaeological sites... They've discovered a previously unknown group, called Caucasus-Lower Volga (CLV) people, and found out that this population can be connected to all Indo-European-speaking populations.Indo-European languages, which number over 400 and include major groups such as Germanic, Romance, Slavic, Indo-Iranian, and Celtic, are spoken by nearly half the world's population today...These migrations out of the steppes had the largest effect on European human genomes of any demographic event in the last 5,000 years and are widely regarded as the probable vector...

Archaeologists have discovered a 1,500-year-old shipwreck near the ancient Greek city of Kydonies, now known as Ayvalık, on Turkey’s Aegean coast. This remarkable find, part of the “Turkish Sunken-Ships Project: Blue Heritage,” sheds new light on ancient maritime trade and the region’s historical significance. Researchers from Dokuz Eylül University’s Underwater Research Center (SUDEMER) identified the shipwreck located 2.5 miles offshore at a depth of 43 meters. Led by Associate Professors Harun Özdaş and Nilhan Kızıldağ, the team worked with the approval of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Underwater robotic systems were crucial in locating and studying the site. Largest...

Two inscriptions from Hierapolis provide evidence of how gladiatorial contests were supervised. Gladiators were not, in fact, engaged in the chaotic, savage massacre of many people's imagination. On the contrary, the games were governed by detailed sets of rules and overseen by arbiters, or referees. These inscriptions, dedicated to local arbiters named Apollonios Menandros and Zosimos, describe the men as secunda rudes, or second umpires. If the city provided gladiators and referees for the games, it's possible there was a permanent gladiatorial organization in Hierapolis. This interpretation is supported by a grave stela found at the end of the nineteenth...

The 13-line inscription about the wrestler, which was found complete and intact measuring 120 cm (47 inches) by 50 cm (19 inches) and weighing half a ton, is believed to be 2,000 years old. The condition of the inscription makes it the first discovery of its kind for the region. The stone was found in the Harbor Bath where last year a Roman period statue was found. Tekocak said "Just like last year, the Harbor Bath has provided us with significant discoveries." The discovery suggests that the city was important as more than just a maritime trade centre.The inscription praises...

ArtNews reports that the J. Paul Getty Museum has repatriated to Turkey a bronze funerary couch dated to 530 B.C. Provenance records suggest that the bed had been in several European collections from the 1920s through the 1980s, when the museum purchased the artifact from an antiquities dealer. However, Gökhan Yazgı of Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism and officials from the Getty Museum confirmed that the records had been falsified by a former owner. Recent research determined that the couch had been illegally excavated in the early 1980s in western Turkey's Manisa region, where Turkish archaeologists have excavated a...

According to a Hürriyet Daily News report, excavations at the site of the ancient port of Andriake uncovered the remains of decorative millefiori panels, a glasswork technique fusing different sizes and colors of glass rods which are then cut into sections and re-fused together to form patterns. Nevzat Çevik of Akdeniz University said that each of the hundreds of small, flat glass fragments measures about one and one-half inches square. They were found in the city's agora, in a building thought to have been the port's administrative center in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., based upon the coins and...

In November 2023 we we visited Çatalhöyük as part of the Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge project (https://buymeacoffee.com/prehistoryguys). We were not there for long, but as you can imagine, we were left with a lasting impression.Here we present an introduction to and an overview of the site - coupled with our own personal observations and reflections. We hope you find it valuable and enlightening. For too long, it has lived in the shadow of the other Turkish mega-site some 500 miles to the east! Çatalhöyük: "it's about the people" - 7,000 BC mega-site revealed. | 35:20The Prehistory Guys | 84K subscribers...

Archaeologists working at a site in Turkey uncovered a rare, threatening seal from the ancient Hittite empire, according to a report published Sunday. The terracotta seal was found throughout excavations at the Büklükale (Kaman-Kalehöyük) site in Turkey and is believed to have belonged to the Hittite royal family, according to Anatolian Archaeology. Inscribed on the seal are the words (roughly translated): “Whoever breaks this will die.” Archaeologists led by Dr. Kimiyoshi Matsumura reportedly found the seal in 2023 and translated the cuneiform, finding the surprising threat. Researchers believe that Hittite laws were focused on fines rather than the death penalty...

More than 40 years ago, a Turkish sponge diver named Mehmet Çakir caused a stir among Anatolian archaeologists when he showed them sketches of objects that he had seen lying 150 feet deep on the seafloor off the coast of Kas, in southwestern Turkey. He described them as "metal biscuits with ears," but experts immediately recognized them as a type of metal bar known as an oxhide ingot that was commonly traded during the Bronze Age, 3,500 years ago.Authorities immediately began to search for the site, and soon came across the artifacts that Çakir had spotted not far offshore of...

Doliche was founded as a Hellenistic colony during the 2nd century BC in the present-day province of Gaziantep, Turkey. During antiquity, the city was located in the ancient region of Cyrrhestica, which was annexed by the Roman Empire in AD 72.Previous excavations in the city have unearthed the remains of a Mithraic temple, rock cut graves, and a stele depicting a previously unknown Iron Age deity.A recent study by the Asia Minor Research Centre has found over 2,000 seal impressions used to seal documents from the city municipal archive. The impressions consist of stamped clay lumps that range from 5...

The remains of a Byzantine abbey were identified during the excavation of several Roman tombs near the coast of the Black Sea, according to a Hurriyet Daily News report. “Through historical records, documents and insights gleaned from various travelers and explorers who mentioned specific details, we determined that this site was a [Christian] monastery church, an abbey, dedicated to Roman Emperor Constantine and his wife Helena,” said archaeologist Seçkin Evcim of Ordu University, who directs the project under the supervision of the Ordu Museum with the permission of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of the Republic of...

Upon the information that illegal excavations were carried out in a house in the İscehisar district of Afyonkarahisar in western Turkey, the teams raided the house and found that the determined that illegal diggers had uncovered an underground city under the house.According to the news of Ali Fuat Güçlü from DHA; Police raided a house in the İscehisar district of Afyonkarahisar and detained 7 people who were digging illegally. It was stated that the suspects dug a tunnel under the house and uncovered the underground city where historical artifacts and columns were found.The teams of Afyonkarahisar Police Department Anti-Smuggling and...

Archaeologists working at the ancient Roman city of Aizanoi in Turkey's Kütahya province have made an exciting discovery of rare 2,000-year-old makeup and jewelry products.The excavations, carried out in collaboration with the Kütahya Governorate and Dumlupınar University, have revealed a cosmetics and jewelry shop located east of the Temple of Zeus.Professor Gökhan Coşkun, the head of the Archaeology Department at Dumlupınar University, stated that they have found perfume bottles, pieces of jewelry, and remnants of makeup including blushes and eye shadows.Evidently, the ancient Romans used oyster shells to store their makeup products, and these shells were found abundantly in the...