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Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,300-year-old clay tablet depicting a catastrophic foreign invasion of the Hittite Empire in Büklükale, about 100 km from Turkey’s capital Ankara. A translation of the tablet’s cuneiform text indicates that the invasion occurred during a Hittite civil war, presumably in an attempt to support one of the fighting factions. Previously, only broken clay tablets had been found in the excavations at Büklükale, but this one is in almost perfect condition. Based on the typology and distribution of the collected pottery shards, Büklükale is thought to be a single-period city belonging to the Hittite Empire Period and...

Median era ring discovered in Iran Sat, 10 Nov 2007 09:56:15 A Faravahar, a symbol of Zoroastrianism A unique ring belonging to the Median era adorned with a carved Farvahar, a symbol of Zoroastrianism, has been found in western Iran. Archeological excavations in Iran's western province of Lorestan resulted in the discovery of a ring which dates back to the Bronze Age and is decorated with a symbol of Zoroastrianism. The figure in the Farvahar is wearing Mede attire and a hat. The long-bearded man is facing the left as he emerges from the Sun. Wide open wings are seen...

A team of German and Kurdish archaeologists have uncovered a 3400-year-old Mittani Empire-era city once located on the Tigris River. The settlement emerged from the waters of the Mosul reservoir early this year as water levels fell rapidly due to extreme drought in Iraq. The extensive city with a palace and several large buildings could be ancient Zakhiku – believed to have been an important center in the Mittani Empire (ca. 1550-1350 BC)....The south of the country in particular has been suffering from extreme drought for months. To prevent crops from drying out, large amounts of water have been drawn...

Takafumi Matsui, director of the Chiba Institute of Technology’s Planetary Exploration Research Center in Japan, and his colleagues visited the weapon at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo in 2020 to find out... their chemical analyses of the dagger's blade and gold hilt, combined with historical knowledge of ancient manufacturing techniques, now cast doubt on whether it was crafted in ancient Egypt at all...Four years later, aided by the Grand Egyptian Museum’s conservation center, Matsui and his colleagues used a portable scanning X-ray fluorescence instrument to map out the elements on the surface of the blade; not just iron, nickel and...

A 3,250-year-old seal belonging to a Hittite prince and an ancient cuneiform tablet dating back 3,400 years were discovered in Turkey's southern Hatay province... in Accana Hoyuk of the Reyhanli district...Murat Akar, the head of the excavation team and Mustafa Kemal University's Protohistory and Near East Archeology Department chair, said... "The tablet, around 3,400 years old, and the accompanying cylinder seals give us information about the administration and administrative practices of the region, especially during a period when the region was under the rule of the Mitanni Empire."He said they had found a 3,250-year-old seal during the latest excavation, adding...

Hasanlu developed into a significant commercial and production center during the early Iron Age (1400-800 B.C.), owing to its location on important trade and communication routes between Mesopotamia and Anatolia. The citadel at the center of the settlement contained an array of monumental buildings, including palaces, temples, and large multi-columned halls. The evidence Danti is studying confirms that the citadel met with a violent end. Many buildings were ransacked and burned, which caused them to collapse. In addition, the remains of more than 250 people were uncovered, some with signs of systematic execution. "The horrific level of violence evident in...

University of Tübingen archaeologists headed by Professor Peter Pfälzner have made sensational finds in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. The researchers from the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies found a cuneiform archive of 93 clay tablets dating from... the Middle Assyrian Empire. The tablets were found at the Bronze Age city site of Bassetki, which was only discovered in 2013... The researchers unearthed a layer from the little-known Mittani Kingdom (approx. 1550 - 1300) for the first time at this location. Two Mittani cuneiform tablets found in this level document intense trade conducted by the city's inhabitants around...

Archaeologists have discovered a small ancient statue of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen in Kurdish Northern Iraq. The discovery was made by a team led by noted Iraqi archaeologist Mr Hassan Ahmad in an area known as Dohuq Valley in a place referred to by locals as 'Pharaoh's Palace'. Experts have estimated the age of the statue at around 3500 years old, dating from around 1400 BC. The statue confirms historical data that the ancient Egyptians, during the 'New Kingdom' period, enjoyed warm relations with the Hittite Mitanni Kingdom and often travelled into their territory many hundreds of miles from the...

Contrary to what archeologists and historians had previously believed about the existence of Medians at Ecbatana Hill, latest archeological studies at this ancient hill have so far revealed no single evidence from the Median Empire (728 BC-550 BC)... Masoud Azarnoush told CHN that stratigraphy works and dowsing operations in five places on the hill have only revealed evidence of the Parthian civilization (248 BC–224 AD)... "The present theory is proposed based on findings in the area in which soundings were made and it is possible to find evidence of the Medes somewhere else on the hill," said team director Azarnoush......

"Kerkenes is supposed to be a part of Phrygian culture. The ancient city of Pteria implied a date later than that of the Phrygian period in Kerkenes; however, the establishment of the ancient city couldn't be wholly realized and it served as a settlement area only for a period of 50 years. The founder of the city chose this particular location due to its geographical convenience for defense and travel routes. The administrative, religious and military structures in the city indicate that it was originally established for long-term settlement. But archaeological surveys show that the city was burned, destroyed and...

Capital city of ancient superpower discovered By David Keys Archaeology Correspondent 26 October 2002 British archaeologists have discovered a capital city of one of the ancient world's most mysterious superpowers. The metropolis, covering more than a square mile, was the main western administrative centre of the ancient Median Empire, a vast Middle Eastern imperial state which flourished in the first half of the 6th century BC between the fall of the Assyrian empire and the rise of Persia. The discovery reveals the sheer scale of the threat which would soon be posed to Europe by the ancient Middle East. For...