Category Archives: EUROPE

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Turkish hilltop where civilization began

Turkish hilltop where civilization began

Where exactly did our civilization emerge? Some will say our modern civilization emerged in Mesopotamia. Others will say there are underwater ruins much older and predate the Sumerian civilizations. Yet, another group will argue the first traces of civilization can be found in entirely different places.

Turkish hilltop where civilization began
Göbekli Tepe.

Is it really possible to say where civilization started? A team of scientists is confident a  hilltop in Turkey is arguably the most important archaeological site on Earth and the place where civilization began. Known as Gobekli Tepe, which means “Potbelly Hill” in Turkish this place is home to the world’s oldest known religious sanctuary that is slowly giving up its secrets. Thousands of our prehistoric ancestors gathered around its highly-decorated T-shaped megalith pillars to worship more than 7,000 years before Stonehenge or the earliest Egyptian pyramids.

“Its significance is hard to overstate,” Sean Lawrence, assistant professor of history at West Virginia University, told AFP.

Some years ago, scientists discovered evidence of a mysterious 12,000-year-old skull cult at Göbekli Tepe. As previously reported on AncientPages.com, “three odd early Stone Age skulls carry artificial modifications of a type so far unknown from contemporaneous sites. The discovery now raises the question of whether inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe were involved in religious rituals related to death, midsummer, or midwinter. The carved skulls deepen the mystery surrounding the ancient site.”

As reported by AFP, ”academics believe the history of human settlement began in these hills close to the Syrian border some 12,000 years ago when groups of Stone Age hunter-gatherers came together to construct these sites. Gobekli Tepe, which some experts believe was never actually inhabited—may be part of a vast sacred landscape that encompasses other nearby hilltop sites that archaeologists believe maybe even older.

None of which anyone would have guessed before the German archaeologist and pre-historian Klaus Schmidt began to bring the first discoveries to the surface in 1995. German and Turkish archaeologists have been labouring in the sun there since, with lengthening queues of tourists now joining them to ponder its many mysteries.

When exactly it all began is even unclear.

“Exact years are nearly impossible to verify,” Lawrence said.

“However, the oldest Egyptian monument, the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, was built around 2700 BCE,” more than seven millennia after Gobekli Tepe.

“This was the end of what is often thought of as Stone Age hunter-gatherer societies and the beginning of settled societies,” Lawrence added.

“There remain endless mysteries surrounding the site, including how labour was organized and how the sites were used,” he said.

Gobekli Tepe has even inspired the Netflix sci-fi psychological thriller series “The Gift”, which turns on one of the ancient inscriptions on its pillars.

Schmidt—who often wore a white traditional turban on the dig—puzzled over the megaliths carved with the images of foxes, bears, ducks, lizards and a leopard for over two decades until his early death at the age of 61 in 2014.

‘Zero point in time’

The site was initially believed to be purely ritual in nature. But according to Clare, there is now “good evidence” for the beginning of settled life with some buildings similar to those of the same age found in northern Syria. Turkey—which in the past has not been renowned for making the best of its vast archaeological heritage—has wholeheartedly embraced the discoveries.

The items excavated from Gobekli Tepe are shown in the impressive archaeological museum in the nearest city, Sanliurfa, which is itself so ancient that Abraham is believed to have been born there. Indeed its new museum built in 2015 boasts “the most extensive collection of the neolithic era in the world,” according to its director Celal Uludag. “All of the portable artefacts from Gobekli Tepe are exhibited here.”

“This is a journey to civilization, (to the) zero point in time,” said Aydin Aslan, head of Sanliurfa Culture and Tourism Directorate.

“Gobekli Tepe sheds light on pre-history, that’s why it’s a common heritage of humanity,” he said proudly.

‘Go deeper

Last year Turkey’s culture ministry boosted funding for further excavations in the region as a part of its “Stone Hills” project, including cash for the Karahan Tepe hilltop site—around 35 kilometres from Gobekli Tepe—which some suspect is even older.

Reproduction of the central pillars of Enclosure D.

“We will now go deeper because Gobekli Tepe is not the one and only,” Culture Minister Nuri Ersoy said last year. The extra funding “gives us a fantastic opportunity to compare our results from Gobekli Tepe with new sites in the Sanliurfa region of the same age,” Clare said.

Gobekli Tepe has also breathed life back into a poor and long-neglected region, which has been further hit by the civil war just across the border. Syrian refugees now make up a quarter of Sanliurfa’s population. Over one million tourists visited Sanliurfa in 2019 and the city expects to reach pre-pandemic levels this year.

“Today Gobekli Tepe has started directly touching the economy of the city,” Aslan said, who hopes that its glorious past could be a key part of the city’s future.”

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Medieval Prayer Beads Discovered on England’s Holy Island

Medieval Prayer Beads Discovered on England’s Holy Island

The first-ever example of prayer beads from medieval Britain has been discovered on the island of Lindisfarne, one of Britain’s most historic ancient sites, to the excitement of archaeologists.

Medieval Prayer Beads Discovered on England’s Holy Island
These are the oldest prayer beads ever found in England, which were recently unearthed on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne as part of an ongoing crowdfunded archaeological project.

Dating from the 8th to 9th century AD, they were made from salmon vertebrae. Fish an important symbol of early Christianity were clustered around the neck of one of the earliest skeletons – possibly one of the monks buried within the famous early medieval monastery.

Archaeologists are seeking to unearth the lost history of Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, off the coast of Northumberland. It was established by the Kings of Northumbria in the 7th century as an important religious centre and became the scene of the first major Viking raid on Britain in the 8th century.

It was there that monks created the Lindisfarne Gospels – the most spectacular manuscript to survive from Anglo-Saxon England – but there have been few tangible finds at the site.

Dr David Petts, the project co-director and a Durham University specialist in early Christianity, told The Telegraph that the fish vertebrae appear to be prayer beads for personal devotion: “We think of the grand ceremonial side of early medieval life in the monasteries and great works like the Lindisfarne Gospels. But what we’ve got here is something which talks to a much more personal side of early Christianity.”

© Provided by The Telegraph Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island in Northumberland – Brian A Jackson/Brian A Jackson
The Lindisfarne Priory is viewed from above.

He paid tribute to Marina Chorro Giner, a zooarchaeologist, for recognising the significance of the vertebrae: “This bright, eagle-eyed researcher looked at them and said, actually these aren’t just fish bones, they’ve been modified and turned into something.”

Discussing the significance of fish and the sea to the island’s medieval inhabitants, he referred to a monk called Cuthbert, who joined Lindisfarne in the 670s and went on to become the most important saint in northern England in the Middle Ages: “We also have the stories of Christ and the Apostles being fishermen and going on the Sea of Galilee and calming storms. We see in Bede’s Life of St Cuthbert, that Cuthbert calming storms. So the sea is symbolically important.”

The beads offer significant information for understanding how people in the past lived and expressed their beliefs through objects.

Their position around the neck suggested that they had been strung like a necklace. The naturally-occurring hole through the centre of salmon vertebrae had been widened, either before threading or through wear.

The discovery follows ongoing excavations at Lindisfarne by DigVentures, an archaeology social enterprise in which volunteers work alongside professionals, as well as Durham University.

‘Remarkable find’

Lisa Westcott Wilkins of DigVentures described it as “a remarkable find”: “Clearly it was important enough that this person was buried with it. This is the only artefact from within a grave on Lindisfarne, so it’s a significant item. As far as we’re aware, it’s the first example of prayer beads found anywhere in medieval Britain.”

She added: “We believe these beads were used as a personal object of faith, especially given that our modern word bead comes from the Old English gebed, meaning ‘prayer’.”

READ ALSO: ANCIENT CHRISTIAN SETTLEMENT DISCOVERED IN EGYPT’S BAHARIYA OASIS

Such is the enormity of the site that the team will continue their excavations for another four years. Other finds have included runic namestones, coins and copper rings.

Mrs Westcott Wilkins said that they are now focussed on the earliest layer within a cemetery that lies next to the ruins of the 12th-century priory: “There are just so many human remains.”

In 1997, at the nearby medieval chapel at Chevington, Northumberland, fish vertebrae were found with similar modifications. But they were from Atlantic cod, among other fish, and that burial dated from the 13th or 14th century, whereas this is so much earlier.

EUROPE, SLOVAKIA, WORLD

Axe from Early Bronze Age found in Skalica

Axe from Early Bronze Age found in Skalica

The Skalica district in Slovakia is a well-known archaeological site where scientists have previously unearthed many interesting ancient objects.

“According to archaeological discoveries Skalica, as part of the region Záhorie, was populated 3,500 years ago. The area’s development was conditioned by the flow of the River Moravia.

The territory on the left bank of the river became known as the Amber Road.

The Amber Road was an ancient route used for transferring amber from the costs of the North and Baltic Seas. This could be seen as a sign of the importance of this area since prehistoric times.

As regards its Slavic population, it presumably settled in this territory between the sixth and eighth century.” 1

The Skalica archaeological site needs an increase in its protection, and while conducting work at the site, scientists unearthed a rare axe from the Early Bronze Age.

Axe from Early Bronze Age found in Skalica

“So far, it is the oldest metal object from this researched site, Monuments Board Trnava informed. The research was carried out by archaeologists of the Monuments Board Trnava and enthusiasts of archaeology from civic associations.

The smaller axe is 9.5 cm long and has an enlarged fan-shaped cutting part, shallowly-grooved flat sides with hints of the side rails and a pointed tulle. It belongs to the so-called Saxon-type axe, the oldest specimens of which were still made of copper.

READ ALSO: BRONZE DAGGER DISCOVERED IN SLOVAKIA

Similar axes were found in several locations in Slovakia, especially in Central Germany and Saxony. They are often part of a larger collection but also as individual objects as well,” the Slovak Spectator reports.

Recently, two other unique but accidental finds from older sections of the Bronze Age have been found in the Trnava region, both in the territory of Hlohovec. In 2017, a bronze blade from a so-called dagger on a club and in 2021 a short sword (long dagger).

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

41,500-Year-Old Mammoth Ivory Pendant Found in Poland

41,500-Year-Old Mammoth Ivory Pendant Found in Poland

The ancient pendant made from mammoth bone was found in 2010 along with a horse-bone tool known as an awl. This piece of jewellery shows the great creativity and extraordinary manual skills of members of the group of Homo sapiens that occupied the site, said Dr. Wioletta Nowaczewska, a researcher at Wrocław University.

41,500-Year-Old Mammoth Ivory Pendant Found in Poland
Dorsal views of the 41,500-year-old decorated ivory pendant from Stajnia Cave, Poland.

“The thickness of the plate is about 3.7 mm showing an astonishing precision on carving the punctures and the two holes for wearing it.”

Using advanced methods of radiocarbon dating, Dr. Nowaczewska and colleagues dated the pendant, awl and bone fragments from Stajnia Cave to the Early Upper Paleolithic.

The objects are the earliest known evidence of humans decorating jewellery in Eurasia and the emergence of symbolic behaviour in human evolution.

The decoration of the pendant included patterns of over 50 puncture marks in an irregular looping curve and two complete holes.

The researchers suggest that the pattern of indentations, similar to later jewellery found in Europe, could represent hunting tallies (a mathematical counting system) or lunar notations which correspond to the monthly cycle of the Moon or Sun.

“If the Stajnia pendant’s looping curve indicates a lunar analemma or kill scores will remain an open question,” said Dr. Adam Nadachowski, a researcher in the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

“However, it is fascinating that similar decorations appeared independently across Europe.”

The presence of animal bones alongside the pendant and bone awl may indicate that humans were beginning to produce small and transportable art 41,500 years ago as they spread across Eurasia.

“Determining the exact age of this jewellery was fundamental for its cultural attribution, and we are thrilled with the result,” said Dr. Sahra Talamo, director of the BRAVHO Lab in the Department of Chemistry Giacomo Ciamician’ at Bologna University.

“This work demonstrates that using the most recent methodological advances in the radiocarbon method enables us to minimise the amount of sampling and achieve highly precise dates with a very small error range.”

“If we want to seriously solve the debate on when mobile art emerged in Paleolithic groups, we need to radiocarbon date these ornaments, especially those found during past fieldwork or in complex stratigraphic sequences.”

“The ages of the ivory pendant and the bone awl found at Stajnia Cave finally demonstrate that the dispersal of Homo sapiens in Poland took place as early as in Central and Western Europe,” added Dr. Andrea Picin, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

“This remarkable result will change the perspective on how adaptable these early groups were and call into question the monocentric model of diffusion of the artistic innovation in the Aurignacian.”

The team’s paper was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Metal detectorist believes he’s found King John’s 800-year-old lost treasure

Metal detectorist believes he’s found King John’s 800-year-old lost treasure

A metal detectorist has begun excavating a farm field where he believes he has found the 800-year-old long-lost treasure of King John. Raymond Kosschuk, 63, has been waiting for two years to get approval from the relevant authorities to begin digging at the site in Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire.

Metal detectorist believes he’s found King John’s 800-year-old lost treasure
Raymond Kosschuk with some of the artefacts found in a field he believes holds King John’s treasure.

The mechanical engineer says he is ‘100 per cent certain’ that the medieval artefact uncovered in 2020 at the undisclosed location belonged to the former King of England. King John, who signed the Magna Carta a year before his death in 1216, lost the treasure during an ill-fated crossing of Wash – an estuary that divides Lincolnshire and Norfolk on October 12, 1216.

Dying only a week later at Newark Castle in Nottinghamshire, from dysentery – or according to some historians by drinking poisoned ale – the hoard has been undiscovered ever since. Raymond is convinced he has struck gold after his equipment picked up ‘overwhelming evidence of the controversial monarch’s lost treasure.

Raymond and the farmer have now begun digging out their findings and will submit them to archaeologists and Lincolnshire’s Finds Officer.

Raymond has been waiting to start digging for the last two years

He said: ‘With many ups and downs, the time has finally arrived for what looks and tested to be the prized lost possessions of King John to be excavated from its deep grave of 15 feet below the ground.

‘It will be finally recovered finally this year before the 810th anniversary of its being lost.

‘Nearly two years on from finding the site, and many weeks of testing, and finding other carts of interest but only one proved positive for multiple high-value targets.

‘There is a strong indication that the Royal Regalia is present, along with King John’s 55 rings and many items which have not been seen since, October 1216.

‘All the legal authorities have been contacted as respect to the legal requirements under the 1996 Treasures act, guidelines protocol which are required are being followed.

‘I am excited to be digging.’

Raymond first discovered the site in 2020 after equipment he had invented began to pick up anomalies in the readings of magnetic fields.

So far he has recovered a wealth of artefacts during a quick sweep with a metal detector including hammered blots, nails, an eyelet and even a metal buckle.

Coastal geologists have looked at the core samples taken from the site.

He added: ‘The geologist has confirmed that the ground is consistent with quicksand and they would have gone down quickly.’

He believes that King John had set off from King’s Lynn without a guide and the baggage train, made up of 2,000 people and more than a mile long, was then caught up in a thick fog.

Raymond, of Keighley in West Yorkshire, said previously: ‘In the 13th century they did not have compasses.

‘If the sun was blocked out because of the fog, they would have meandered off.

‘I am 100 per cent certain that this is it. This is the real thing. When I gained access, I isolated an area of high-value targets and it tested positive for elements of gold, silver, emeralds, sapphires and rubies.

‘The biggest attraction of this area I detected an is an accumulation of silver.

‘This tells me there is between 60lb-120lb of silver but it could be more. I believe this was the cash box that King John was carrying.

‘It is sitting out there and if it was so easy to find it would have been found. This has been hidden for 800 years.’

EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

Man Finds Secret Window Hidden Behind Wallpaper in 19th-Century Home

Man Finds Secret Window Hidden Behind Wallpaper in 19th-Century Home

A man discovered a secret window hidden behind wallpaper in his house, thought to date back to the 19th century, as he lovingly renovated the property. Alex Howard is restoring the antique grandeur to his home, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has been sharing progress to his TikTok page, @housedoctoralex.

Howard, an author, has been painstakingly removing all the woodchip wallpaper throughout the house—similar to popcorn style—when he found something unusual lurking behind the hardboard. He shared a clip of himself up a ladder armed with a wallpaper scraper, as he pokes a hole through the covering, and realizes there’s something on the other side. Howard immediately rips off the wallpaper, shouting “window” as he uncovered the black-rimmed frame. He captioned the video, which can be seen here: “Wtf I found a hidden window in my flat,” adding: “Well that was unexpected.”

In the comments, he revealed the woodchip was “getting steamed off and re-lined next month,” explaining the window was covered by flimsy sheets of hardboard. Speaking to Newsweek, Howard explained the two-bedroom apartment was built around 1890, and he and his wife are slowly returning it to its former glory after it’s “no doubt been home to countless students and tyrannical landlords over the years.”

He said: “There’s nearly always a window connecting the kitchen alcove and a box room (which has often been converted into a kitchen bathroom). Presumably, it was the Victorian idea of giving that little interior space some natural light. In fact, I learnt only yesterday they are called ‘borrow windows,’ presumably because you’re borrowing light from another room.

“When we arrived, I did that classic ‘dad’ thing of tapping up the wall to hear if the tone changed. Sure enough, I discovered that the window had just been dry-walled over. The fact that there was then a layer of woodchip on top of that, suggests that it was done at least as far back as the 70s.”

He added the glass was single-glazed, saying: “They’re that old pre-war ripply glass like all the windows in this flat. All our windows make things look a bit wibbly, and distorted when you look through them because of the more unrefined, pre-war glazing techniques. You can see the oddly replaced pane because it doesn’t distort.”

Photo of the hidden windows. Alex Howard discovered secret windows lurking underneath wallpaper in his 19h-century house.

The clip, shared in June, amassed more than 400,000 views, and people were so intrigued that Howard shared a follow-up clip. It shows he found a pair of windows, with two panes each, covered up between two rooms.

“So some of you have been asking about the backstory to these here windows that I discovered yesterday,” he said.

Howard, who moved in two months ago, gave viewers a mini-tour, saying: “I’ve worked it out, follow me down the hall, and into the box room. But why you might say might one block windows to a box room.

“It was once a bedroom. The reason I know is that up here there’s a light switch which controls the lights in the room. This means at some point there was a mezzanine level up here with a bed installed when this was rented out as its own separate bedroom.

“Some of you may have heard of HMO, or houses in multiple occupancies, before this was introduced any room could be rented out to someone regardless of whether or not it had a window in it. Thankfully we live in more enlightened times now and you can only let out a room if it’s got a window.”

It’s thought that as the window connects two rooms, rather than leading to the outside, they were covered to give each tenant privacy.

Howard explained: “This is what we’re putting the blocked-up window down to—the room on the other side is a box room with its plug sockets/switches mounted high up the wall. We reckon it was rented out as a room with a mezzanine bed, pre-HMO regulations when landlords crammed these flats full of students to cash in.

“But what is clear is that the blocked-up window is an attempt to make that postage stamp of a box room ‘private.’ Pretty sad to think that tiny, windowless space was some poor student/servant’s room at one point!”

He added that the smaller room was what the U.K. refers to as a “box room,” which is essentially a glorified cupboard, which is why the bed was on a mezzanine.

READ ALSO: UNDERGROUND LABYRINTH WITH SECRET PASSAGES, AND TUNNELS IN DOBROGEA PLATEAU, ROMANIA

Howard clarified they’re “just a bit bigger than a walk-in cupboard,” adding: “They’re small rooms, bigger than a cupboard but smaller than a conventional room, that was traditionally used for lodgers. This one’s about 6×5.'”

Numerous people commented on the original clip, with Liam Burgeson asking: “Who does these things.”

Mecha_genki said: “We had this too! Didn’t notice it because it was on the side we never went down”

While MissMisty wrote: “Why was the window covered in craft paper? Lean against it too hard and your arm would go through.”

Marvin Harold joked: “Previous owner must have worked nights.”

EUROPE, SERBIA, WORLD

Burial Mounds in Serbia reveal skeletons of 5,000-year-old painted men

Burial Mounds in Serbia reveal skeletons of 5,000-year-old painted men

Archaeologists have discovered dye-coloured bones dating back around 5,000 years at a burial site in southeastern Europe where unusually tall men were laid to rest.

Burial Mounds in Serbia reveal skeletons of 5,000-year-old painted men
A reconstruction of the tomb and one of the immigrants from the northeast steppes was found in the sacred burial mounds on the plains of Serbia.

The burial site, located in Vojvodina in northern Serbia, was excavated by researchers between 2016 and 2018. However, only recently was expert analysis carried out.

The burial site consisted of two large mounds 131 feet across and between 10 and 13 feet tall.

Inside, the researchers found that some bones were marked with red colouring, thought to be due to “the use of ochre on the bodies of the dead,” according to Piotr Włodarczak from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, one of the excavation supervisors, in a statement to the government-affiliated Science in Poland public information service.

Ochre is a type of earth that has been coloured by iron oxide. This can give it a red hue and it has been used as a colouring pigment. Red in particular was considered sacred by some, Włodarczak said.

Another thing the researchers noticed about the remains is that the deceased men were over 1.8 meters tall, or around 5 ft. 11 in. This would have been an above-average height for the time—it’s thought that the men were buried around 3,000 BCE, and men living in this part of Europe then would usually have been about 1.6 meters or 5 ft. 3 in. tall, according to Science in Poland.

The height of the men, as well as the use of ochre, led the researchers to believe that they were newcomers to the region and had probably come there from the steppes of what would be south Russia or Ukraine today.

Genetic analysis of the remains suggested the men had themselves come from this region or were immediate descendants of people who did.

The influx of nomads from eastern to more western parts of Europe in this period would have had a significant impact on the culture of Europe, Włodarczak said.

READ ALSO: THREE WELL-PRESERVED ANCIENT BOATS UNEARTHED IN SERBIA

It’s not the only significant archaeological finding to be reported recently. In the United Kingdom last week, a Roman mosaic hidden beneath the streets of London for more than 1,500 years was discovered.

The 26-foot-long mosaic was found at a construction site near the capital’s largest building, The Shard. It’s set to be transported for preservation later this year and there are hopes it will be publicly displayed in future. It’s thought that the mosaic may have been part of a large dining room called a triclinium.

Archaeologists also recently unearthed a 4,000-year-old board game from the Bronze Age in Oman.

A stock photo shows an archaeologist using a brush to carefully examine something in the ground. Archaeologists in Serbia have found burial sites of people who are thought to have travelled there thousands of years BCE.
EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Possible Medieval Children’s Cemetery Found in Southern Turkey

Possible Medieval Children’s Cemetery Found in Southern Turkey

Possible Medieval Children’s Cemetery Found in Southern Turkey

A furnace for commercial production and a child’s grave with glass bracelets and gifts inside has been found for the first time during this year’s excavations in the ancient city of Kelenderis, established on the Mediterranean coast in the southern province of Mersin 2,800 years ago.

Located next to a fisherman’s shelter in the Aydıncık district on the Mersin-Antalya highway, the excavation and restoration/conservation works started in 1987 in the ancient city of Kelenderis and have been ongoing for 35 years uninterruptedly.

For the first time, the skeleton of a child, who was buried with four solid glass bracelets on his arm, gifts, clothes and a wooden coffin, has been unearthed in the ancient city, where nearly 150 tombs have also been found around the Odeon over the last 35 years.

In addition, during the excavations conducted in the region, a furnace, which is thought to be used for tile production, was unearthed for the first time, documenting commercial production.

Speaking about the exciting discovery, the head of the excavations Mahmut Aydın said, “Excavations continue for 12 months of the year in the ancient city of Kelenderis. This year, we have completed the excavation and consolidation of the caves, the sitting area, and the supporting walls behind the Odeon structure.

Now we found a furnace that excites us. We knew for years that there was production here, but we couldn’t find the oven.

The oven is 1,300 years old. We think that roof tiles were produced inside the furnace. Because during the excavations we carried out last year and this year, a large number of roof tiles, dated to the seventh century, were found around the furnace.

Since the roof tiles were faulty, we found them scattered around it. When we completely empty the inside of the furnace, we might find even more faulty roof tiles.”

Speaking about the child’s grave, Aydın said, “We have previously uncovered nearly 150 tombs here, but none of them had burial gifts. In this one, we uncovered four glass bracelets, an inscription on a ceramic piece and a cup. This was a first.

At the same time, there were several baby graves around this child’s grave. We understand from here that a part of the Odeon was used as a children’s burial area.

When the carbon 14 analysis results come, we will be able to identify them more clearly. But we believe that this area was used as a burial area in the Middle Ages. As it is different from other burials, we will only be able to determine exactly when the child died with carbon 14 analysis.”