Iron Age Rock Art Discovered During Rescue Excavation Beneath House in Turkey

An unexpected discovery has revealed ancient artwork that was once part of an Iron Age complex beneath a house in southeastern Turkey. The unfinished work shows a procession of deities that depicts how different cultures came together.

Looters initially broke into the subterranean complex in 2017 by creating an opening on the ground floor of a two-story home in the village of Başbük. The chamber, carved into the limestone bedrock, stretches for 98 feet (30 meters) beneath the house.

When the looters were caught by authorities, a team of archaeologists did an abbreviated rescue excavation to study the significance of the underground complex and the art on the rock panel in the fall of 2018 before erosion could further damage the site. What the researchers found has been shared in a study published Tuesday by the journal Antiquity.

The artwork was created in the 9th century BC during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which began in Mesopotamia and expanded to become the largest superpower at the time.

This expansion included Anatolia, a large peninsula in Western Asia that includes much of modern-day Turkey, between 600 and 900 BC.
“When the Assyrian Empire exercised political power in south-eastern Anatolia, Assyrian governors expressed their power through art in Assyrian courtly style,” said study author Selim Ferruh Adali, associate professor of history at the Social Sciences University of Ankara in Turkey, in a statement.

An example of this style was carved monumental rock reliefs, but Neo-Assyrian examples have been rare, the study authors wrote.

Combining cultures

The artwork reflects an integration of cultures instead of outright conquest. The deities have their names written in the local Aramaic language. The imagery depicts religious themes from Syria and Anatolia and were created in the Assyrian style.

“It shows how in the early phase of Neo-Assyrian control of the region there was a local cohabitation and symbiosis of the Assyrians and the Arameans in a region,” Adali said. “The Başbük panel gives scholars studying the nature of empires a striking example of how regional traditions can remain vocal and vital in the exercise of imperial power expressed through monumental art.”

The artwork shows eight deities, all unfinished. The largest is 3.6 feet (1.1 meters) in height. The local deities in the artwork include the moon god Sîn, the storm god Hadad and the goddess Atargatis. Behind them, the researchers could identify a sun god and other divinities.

The depictions combine symbols of Syro-Anatolian religious significance with elements of Assyrian representation, Adali said.

“The inclusion of Syro-Anatolian religious themes (illustrates) an adaptation of Neo-Assyrian elements in ways that one did not expect from earlier finds,” Adali said. “They reflect an earlier phase of Assyrian presence in the region when local elements were more emphasized.”
Upon discovering this artwork, study author Mehmet Önal, a professor of archaeology at Harran University in Turkey, said, “As the dim light of the lamp revealed the deities, I trembled with awe as I realized I was confronted with the very expressive eyes and majestic face of the storm god Hadad.”

Mysteries remain

The team also identified an inscription that may show the name of Mukīn-abūa, a Neo-Assyrian official who served during the reign of Adad-nirari III between 783 and 811 BC.

The archaeologists suspect that he had been assigned to this region at the time and was using the complex as a way to win over the appeal of the local population.

But the structure is incomplete and has remained unfinished for all this time, suggesting that something caused the builders and artists to abandon it — perhaps even a revolt.

“The panel was made by local artists serving Assyrian authorities who adapted Neo-Assyrian art in a provincial context,” Adali said. “It was used to carry out rituals overseen by provincial authorities. It may have been abandoned due to a change in provincial authorities and practices or due to an arising political-military conflict.”

Adali was the epigraphist of the team who read and translated the Aramaic inscriptions in 2019 using photos captured by the research team, who had to work quickly to study the site.

“I was shocked to see Aramaic inscriptions on such artwork, and a sense of great excitement overtook me as I read the names of the deities,” Adali said.

The site was closed after the 2018 excavations because it is unstable and could collapse. It is now under the legal protection of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The archaeologists are eager to continue their work when excavations can safely resume and capture new images of the artwork and inscriptions and possibly uncover more artwork and artefacts.

Neolithic figurine, over 7,000 years old, unearthed at Turkey’s Çatalhöyük

An 8,000-year-old statuette of what could be a fertility goddess has been unearthed at a Neolithic site in Turkey, according to archaeologists.

The figurine, discovered at Çatalhöyük in central Turkey, was wrought from recrystallized limestone between 6300 and 6000 B.C. That material is rare for an area where most previously discovered pieces were sculpted from clay, the researchers said.

The archaeologists think this figurine, which is conventionally associated with fertility goddesses, is also representative of an elderly woman who had risen to prominence in Çatalhöyük’s famously egalitarian society.

Goddess figurines were common in the Neolithic period, with those found at Çatalhöyük usually depicting a plump woman with her hair tied in a bun, sagging breasts and a pronounced belly, they said. 

The newfound figurine differentiates itself from similar statuettes not only in its material and quality but also in its craftsmanship, according to Ian Hodder, a professor of anthropology at Stanford University who is overseeing the Çatalhöyük site. Hodder said that he “realized immediately that it was a very special find.”

At 6.7 inches tall (17 centimetres) and 4.3 inches (11 cm) wide, the figurine has fine details such as elaborate fat rolls on the limbs and neck.

Unlike other goddess statuettes, the limestone figurine also depicts the woman with her arms separated from her torso and an undercut below the belly to separate it from the rest of the body.

These finer details would have only been possible with thin tools, like flint or obsidian, the researchers said, which suggests that the carving could only have been made by a practised artisan.

With its fine artistry and its discovery in the newer, shallower parts of the site (meaning that it was likely buried later), Hodder said that the figurine might signal a shift from a sharing economy to an exchange economy, where resources could be accumulated unevenly.

“We think society was changing at this time, becoming relatively less egalitarian, with houses being more independent and more based on agricultural production,” Hodder said in a statement.

The archaeologists think that the figurine was made after Neolithic Çatalhöyük, where resources were often pooled, and changed toward a more stratified society.

The fatness of the goddess statue could represent high status rather than an elevated place in a society of equals, Hodder said.

Whatever the shift, it did not happen overnight. Humans first settled in Çatalhöyük around 7500 B.C., with the society reaching its peak around 7000 B.C., according to archaeologists. The ancient settlement was abandoned around 5700 BC.

Historical artefact from AD 250 returns to Türkiye after 140 years

Discovered 140 years ago and taken to England from Türkiye, the Eros Head was put in its place at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum as a result of the initiatives of the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

The artefact, which was brought to Türkiye on June 10, was reunited with the historical Sidamara Sarcophagus to which it belonged.

The Sidamara Sarcophagus is considered one of the largest sarcophagi of the ancient world. The sarcophagus, which is weighing tons, was discovered in 1882 in the ancient city of Sidamara in Ambar Village of the Central Anatolian province of Karaman by British Military Consul General Charles Wilson.

The sarcophagus was buried under the ground again because it was too heavy to be carried. Sometime later it was understood that it was “Eros Head,” one of the reliefs separated from the sarcophagus, that had been taken to London.

The sarcophagus, which was rediscovered by a villager in the ancient city of Sidamara in 1898, was reported to the Müze-i Hümayun, which is now the Istanbul Archeology Museum.

As a result of the Ottoman archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey’s investigations in the region, the giant sarcophagus was decided to be moved to the museum in Istanbul. Then it was carried to the centre by buffaloes under the conditions of the time.

The magnificent work, which made a gruelling journey in specially arranged train wagons, reached the Istanbul Archaeology Museum in 1901.

The “Eros Head” relief in London was donated by Marion Olivia Wilson to the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1933 in memory of her father, Charles Wilson.

A plaster copy of the Eros Head was placed in the giant sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum as a result of the negotiations with the Victoria & Albert Museum officials in the 1930s.

With the research of archaeologist Şehrazat Karagöz, who brought the issue back to the agenda in 2010, the Culture and Tourism Ministry and the Foreign Ministry made talks with the Victoria & Albert Museum for the display of the Eros Head to be exhibited together with its sarcophagus.

As a result of the meetings between the ministry and the Victoria & Albert Museum Director Tristram Hunt and his team, the Eros Head was reunited with the sarcophagus. The Eros Head was transported from London to Türkiye on 10 June with the support of the Foreign Ministry and Turkish Airlines (THY).

With scientific studies jointly carried out by the expert restorers of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Eros Head was placed in the giant sarcophagus, which weighs more than 30 tons.

The columned sarcophagus, dating back to 250 B.C. in the Roman era, is now open to visitors in its original form at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum today.

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.

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.

“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.”

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.”

Rare Byzantine Plates Found Off Coast Of Southern Turkey

One of the world’s richest plate sets from the Eastern Roman Empire has been discovered off the coast of the southern province of Antalya’s Adrasan district. 

“We were not hopeful of finding anything considerable,” said Selçuk University Archaeology Department academic Hakan Öniz. “Just then, we found a solid, very beautiful plate with its own colours. It made us very happy.

We were amazed by the designs on it. As we found the others, we were surprised by the motifs on each plate. There are fish and flower motifs unique to the era. The workmanship was very good. All of them were 800-900 years old.”

Among the most striking plates in the set are unique ones that are in the same design and colour but in different sizes. The ship that was carrying the plates is thought to have sunk after hitting a rock sometime in the 12th century.

The Byzantine Empire underwater excavations started in 2014 in collaboration with Dokuz Eylül University, Selçuk University and the Antalya Museum. 

The finds are being cleaned of salt at the Antalya Museum Directorate’s laboratory. When the work is done, the plates will be displayed at the Antalya Museum. 

Öniz said the plates off Adrasan were scattered over an area of 15 to 20 meters. 

“The ship was loaded with plates from two different plate factories. We don’t know where these factories are. I say two different factories because there are two different techniques used on the plates. We see that the plate set existed 900 years ago, too, and that women took care of their sets,” he said.

He said they had found the plates underwater on top of each other. Most of them were broken, while some had been taken by people, he added.

There are a number of other plates along the coasts of Antalya and Mersin, but many are too deep to retrieve, he said.

He said the ship carrying the plates had possibly been caught in a storm while en route. “The region where the ship wreckage was found looks like a harbour in which to shelter during storms. These harbours are called false harbours because when you look at these harbours, you would think they would protect you from the storm. The captain of the ship thought it was a safe place and anchored there, but even though the wind stopped, the current did not, and the ship hit a rock and was broken into pieces.”  

‘We have not reached the ship’ 

Öniz said they had not yet reached the wood of the ship during the underwater excavations. “There is a type of worm called Teredo Navalis in the Mediterranean Sea. It eats the wood. If wood is close to the surface, this worm will eat it. For example, you can find all artefacts in the Baltic Sea in one piece because this worm does not live there, but it does in the Mediterranean.” 

The academic said they had found an unbroken plate during work in 2014. “The plates on the surface were broken as if some people had used a hammer when trying to remove them from the rocks. 

Largest one in the world 

The plates that were discovered are exceedingly rare, Öniz said.

He said a plate set excavation had also been conducted underwater in Greece but the set in Adrasan was one of few rich plate set wreckages in the world. 

He said 100 unbroken and 300 broken plates had been removed and highlighted the importance of the laboratory at the Antalya Museum. 

“The materials like an amphora and ceramic plates have micro holes, and salt piles up in these holes. When the plate is left under direct sunlight, the salt swells and breaks the artefact. The plates removed from under the water will be cleaned from the salt over the next months and then become ready for display,” Öniz said. 

He also said diving had been banned in the region of the wreckage 10 years ago by the Culture and Tourism Ministry. “It has been under protection for 10 years, but how can it be protected in a cove? Maybe some people came and dove here after this ban.”

The current excavations in the area are expected to finish next year.

Shattered Skeletons of Man and Dog From Eruption and Tsunami 3,600 Years Ago

The remains of a young man and a dog who were killed by a tsunami triggered by the eruption of the Thera volcano 3,600 years ago have been unearthed in Turkey. Archaeologists found the pair of skeletons during excavations at Çeşme-Bağlararası, a Late Bronze Age site near Çeşme Bay, on Turkey’s western coastline.

Despite the eruption of Thera being one of the largest natural disasters in recorded history, this is the first time the remains of victims of the event have been unearthed. Moreover, the presence of the tsunami deposits at Çeşme-Bağlararası show that large and destructive waves did arrive in the northern Aegean after Thera went up.

Previously, based on the evidence available, it had been assumed that this area of the Mediterranean only received ash fallout from the eruption of Thera.

Instead, it now appears that the Çeşme Bay area was struck by a sequence of tsunamis, devastating local settlements and leading to rescue efforts.

Thera — now a caldera at the centre of the Greek island of Santorini — is famous for how its tsunamis are thought to have ended the Minoan civilisation on nearby Crete.

Based on radiocarbon dating of the tsunami deposits at Çeşme-Bağlararası, the team believe that the volcano’s eruption occurred no earlier than 1612 BC. The study was undertaken by archaeologist Vasıf Şahoğlu of the University of Ankara and his colleagues.

‘The Late Bronze Age Thera eruption was one of the largest natural disasters witnessed in human history,’ the researchers wrote in their paper.

‘Its impact, consequences, and timing have dominated the discourse of ancient Mediterranean studies for nearly a century.

‘Despite the eruption’s high intensity and tsunami-generating capabilities, few tsunami deposits [have been] reported.

‘In contrast, descriptions of pumice, ash, and tephra deposits are widely published.’

Amid stratified sediments at the Çeşme-Bağlararası site, the researchers found the remains of damaged walls — once part of a fortification of some kind —  alongside layers of rubble and chaotic sediments characteristic of tsunami deposits.

Within these were two layers of volcanic ash, the second thicker than the first, and a bone-rich layer containing charcoal and other charred remains. 

According to the team, the deposits represent at least four consecutive tsunami inundations, each separate but nevertheless resulting from the eruption at Thera.

Tsunami deposits associated with the eruption are relatively rare — with three found near the northern coastline of Crete and another three along Turkey’s coast, albeit much further south than Çeşme-Bağlararası.

Traces of misshapen pits dug into the tsunami sediments at various places across the Çeşme-Bağlararası site represent, the researchers believe, an ‘effort to retrieve victims from the tsunami debris.’

‘The human skeleton was located about a meter below such a pit, suggesting that it was too deep to be found and retrieved and therefore (probably unknowingly) left behind,’ they added.

‘It is also in the lowest part of the deposit, characterized throughout the debris field by the largest and heaviest stones (some larger than 40 cm [16 inches] diameter), further complicating any retrieval effort.’

The young man’s skeleton — which shows the characteristic signatures of having been swept along by a debris flow — was found up against the most badly damaged portion of the fortification wall, which the team believe failed during the tsunami. 

The full findings of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A rare 2,300-year-old tomb in Istanbul holds a partially cremated body

A 2,300-year-old brick tomb contains the cremated remains of an individual whose body was likely placed in the tomb and then set on fire, archaeologists in Istanbul have announced. A tomb-like this is a rare find, archaeologists say.

At the time this person was buried, the area was known as Chalcedon, then a flourishing city during the Hellenistic era. The tomb, which contains the cremated remains of at least one person, was found at the Haydarpaşa Train Station in Istanbul.

Archaeologists also found a terracotta goblet and a perfume bottle within it, Rahmi Asal, director of the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, told the Turkish government-owned Anadolu Agency. 

“This is very valuable. It is one of the oldest finds in this area,” Asal told the news agency, adding that “perhaps this will give us many more valuable insights” into the area’s past.

The excavation was carried out prior to the renovation and expansion of the railway system in the region and has unearthed remains throughout Istanbul’s history. 

Although the individual’s body was buried inside the tomb, some of the bones survived, a preliminary analysis revealed. “I have never seen this type of a cremation tomb from the Hellenistic period,” Asal said.

Flourishing kingdom

At the time the tomb was built, Chalcedon was a thriving city. “Chalcedon was a powerful player in international politics,” Noah Kaye, an assistant professor of history at Michigan State University who is not involved with the new excavation, told Live Science in an email. 

Kaye noted that between 235 B.C and 220 B.C., Chalcedon, along with Byzantion (a nearby city), levied heavy tolls on ships passing through the Bosphorus strait, which separates Asia from Europe, into the Black Sea.

The cities extracted the tolls with the help of Egypt’s navy, which was then under the control of the Ptolemaic dynasty. 

Despite Chalcedon’s success at the time, some ancient writers referred to Chalcedon as the “land of the blind” because there were other supposedly other areas nearby that were better suited for a city.

In the fourth century A.D., the Roman emperor Constantine founded Constantinople, a city that would eventually engulf both Byzantion and Chalcedon and become the centre of the Byzantine Empire.

The discovery of the tomb may help shed light on what Chalcedon was like, Felix Pirson, director of the German Archaeological Institute’s Istanbul branch, told Live Science in an email. “It looks like a very important discovery indeed,” Pirson said, noting that we know little about what this area was like before Constantinople was founded. 

“More information about burial customs and funerary culture in general, which sheds a light on crucial topics such as social differentiation or identities, is of utmost importance,” said Pirson, who was not involved in the discovery of the tomb.