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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...

...Excavations in Boğazköy-Hattusha have been going on for more than 100 years under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute. The site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986; almost 30,000 clay tablets with cuneiform writing have been found there so far. These tablets, which were included in the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage in 2001, provide rich information about the history, society, economy and religious traditions of the Hittites and their neighbors.Yearly archaeological campaigns... continue to add to the cuneiform finds. Most of the texts are written in Hittite, the oldest attested Indo-European language and the dominant language...

A Customs Inscription from the Lycian civilization, located in Andriake port in the southern province of Antalya's Demre district, tells about ancient times...The Ancient City of Andriake is 5 km away from the Demre district of Antalya. It was one of the most important ports of Lycia, such as Phaselis and Patara, in ancient times. It is known as the port of the Ancient City of Myra and a settlement formed by it, rather than being a separate city.The inscription, discovered in the vicinity of the largest Granarium in the Mediterranean, named after Emperor Hadrian (Horrea Hadriani), contains information about...

Archaeologists discovered, well-preserved brain and skin remnants of two individuals dating to the Bronze Age during excavations at Tavşanlı Höyük (Tavşanlı Mound) in western Türkiye’s Kütahya province...The excavations of the mound, which spans an area of 45 hectares, are carried out by the Archeology Department of Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University. A team of 25 local and foreign experts accompanies the research carried out under the chairmanship of Professor Erkan Fidan.According to experts, the discovery was noteworthy because it was the first time that skin remains had been found during archaeological excavations in Türkiye, whereas brain remains had only been found...

İnkaya Cave, located within the borders of Bahadırlı village in the Çan district, was found during the Muğla and Çanakkale Provinces Survey conducted in 2016 under the direction of İsmail Özer, a lecturer at Ankara University, Department of Paleoanthropology...During the excavations carried out last year, the Middle Paleolithic period workshop part of the cave was unearthed... humans from the Middle Paleolithic Period resided in the region for extended periods due to the availability of flint raw material and water resources.“Evidence of the Paleolithic era in Çanakkale was previously limited. Through our research, it became evident that Çanakkale is actually one...

A Turkish homeowner chasing his chickens through a hole in his basement during renovations came across an abandoned underground Turkish city that once housed 20,000 people. ... the ancient city of Elengubu, known today as Derinkuyu. Derinkuyu, burrowed more than 280 feet beneath the Central Anatolian region of Cappadocia, is the largest excavated underground city in the world and is believed to connect to more than 200 smaller, separate underground cities ... Inside the subterranean city — whose entrances connect to more than 600 private homes in the modern, surface-level region of Cappadocia — researchers found 18 levels of tunnels...

... what about BONCUKLU TARLA? | Uncovering the real star of Middle Eastern archaeology. | 23:21The Prehistory Guys | 63.2K subscribers | 305,710 views | May 10, 2023

...the group examined the remains of a dog found in a tomb in what was once a city called Tralleis, in what is now modern Turkey.The dog remains were found at a dig site in Aydın back in 2007, but were considered too delicate for study at the time—they were put in safe storage instead. In 2021, the team on this new effort retrieved the bones and began a slow study of the bones to learn more about the dog.Though the specimen was not complete, the research team was still able to determine that it was a dog and that...

...not everyone agrees that this is a new finding, with some experts noting that other research has already found that silver currency was being used during the Middle Bronze Age in this region...Eshel and her colleagues also attempted to determine the origins of the silver in the hoards by studying their chemical impurities and isotopes — variations in the number of neutrons in the nuclei of particular elements, which change over time at known rates due to radiation.The analysis revealed signs of a widespread transition between sources in about 1200 B.C., possibly from silver mined in Anatolia — now Turkey...

The ancient city of Aizanoi was founded as a Phrygian city on the western end of the Phrygia kingdom, in the present-day Çavdarhisar district of the western Anatolian province of Kütahya in Turkey. Aizanoi was home to the Aizanitisians, Phrygians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines and the site was rediscovered by European travelers in 1824. The German Archaeological Institute began excavating in 1926 and works resumed in 1970, with them having accelerated significantly over the last two years. At this site, that’s listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List , over the years archaeologists have unearthed ancient stone heads and...

Unique ceramic figures were discovered in the excavations carried out this year in the ancient city of Klazomenai in the Urla district of Izmir. Among the artifacts were the 2,500-year-old a rare perirrhanterion (wash-basin) and the wash-basin foot and base decorated with chariot races.Experts said An embossed and painted example adorned with figures in this way has never been found before.The perirrhanterion is a special type of louterion (water-basin) used for ritual washing in sanctuaries. Although many examples of stone (marble) and ceramics were found in previous excavations, no examples of fantastic mythological creatures and chariot races belonging to the...