Free Republic

New artifacts have been found during excavations in Bodrum’s Ortakent and Gümüşlük neighborhoods. The artifacts will shed light on the history of Bodrum Peninsula, according to officials. The Bodrum Underwater Archaeology Museum Director Emel Özkan said that they had discovered 49 artifacts from the Mycenean era. “The number of Mycenean artifacts increased to 248 with these ones. This made our museum the richest one in terms of Mycenean artifacts among the Turkish museums,” she said. Özkan said that the artifacts, which date back to 3,500 years ago, were very important for Anatolian history, adding, “The amphora and gifts found in...

How the life Herodotus lived affected his history writing is a subject of dispute among many experts The question of how social conditions affecting Herodotus’s personal life affected his writing history may raise many disputes among historians. “The state where Herodotus was born in was under Persian Empire at that time; it was governed by Lygdamis, who put to death the poet Panyasis, a relative of Herodotus, for opposition and riots against Persia. Following this event, Herodotus had to leave his native city and went to Samos Island in Athena, and ever since he inhabited in Greek lands. But since...

The murky water in Dock No.1 in Cospicua has witnessed much history over the years. Nobody ever imagined, however, that lying underneath could be the remains of an ancient Turkish wonder - the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. No one, that is, but oncologist Stephen Brincat, who came across this precious piece of information while reading an article about the excavations of the site by the British in the 19th century in the Turkish magazine Cornucopia. "There was one sentence which said that the wall of the mausoleum was dismantled to build a dock in Malta," Dr Brincat said. Blocks of marble...

The restoration of backstage rooms and tunnels discovered three years ago underneath the 2,500-year-old theater in the ancient city of Halicarnassus (modern-day Bodrum) has been completed, with the opening of the rooms to visitors planned for the coming tourism season... Three huge backstage rooms as well as two long tunnels -- one measures 30 meters and the other 150 -- used by spectators and artists to pass underneath the theater were restored... There are three nearly 40-square-meter backstage rooms carved out of the rock in the area, and archeologists estimate that there are at least 10 more backstage rooms underneath...