Turkey: Statue of Roman Emperor Hadrian found in southwestern Aydin province
The news was released today that an ancient statue of the famous Roman emperor Hadrian was found in the southwestern Aydin province of Turkey, where the ancient city Alabanda once stood. It has been dated to the 2nd century CE, some 1900 years ago.
This discovery is being placed among the most important archaeological discoveries ever made in Turkey.
The statue is fragmented but the head has survived to our present-day and the original is believed to have been about 2.5 meters tall (8.2 feet).
“The statue, which we found in six pieces, will be one of the most important works in the museum. … For more detailed information about the statue, we are working to find inscriptions containing honorifics.” Ali Yalcin Tavukcu,
lecturer in the Department of Classical Archaeology at Ataturk University.
Hadrian is commonly believed to have ruled from 117 CE until his death in 138 CE.
Ali Yalcin Tavukcu reported that Hadrian visited the city in 120 CE and that this statue was likely created for the occasion.
The culture and tourism director for Aydin, Umut Tuncer, expressed his hope that this discovery will increase the amount of tourism in the area.
The Romans had taken control of the region around the turn of the first millennium CE and their successors maintained control until the Ottomans seized Constantinople in 1453.
Hadrian might be most popularly known today for the wall he is credited with building in Britain, known as Hadrian’s Wall. He built this as a divider and defence against the northerners that he saw as barbarians.
As of now, I have not seen any reports of forensic sciences being applied to the statue to confirm the 2nd century CE date.
Any mentions of dating methods, as well as why they think it’s Hadrian, has been absent from the reports I’ve seen.
More information is sure to be released about this discovery so stay tuned.
2,200 year-old mythological masks unearthed in Turkey’s Mugla
Archaeologists in southwestern Turkey’s Muğla have recently uncovered 10 rock carvings of mythological masks in the ancient city of Stratonikeia.
An archaeologist works on a face mask in the ancient city of Stratonikeia, Muğla, southwestern Turkey.
An excavation team, headed by professor Bilal Söğüt of Pamukkale University, continues year-round work at the ancient city, where artefacts from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Anatolian beyliks (principalities), Ottoman and Republican periods have been found.
The team had already cleaned and repaired 33 face carvings, unearthed them over the last two years, and prepared them for display. Their latest efforts uncovered 10 more masks at a 2,200-year-old ancient theatre, taking the total number of masks to 43.
An aerial view from the 2,200-year-old theatre in the ancient city of Stratonikeia, Muğla, southwestern Turkey
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Söğüt said the 3,000-year-old ancient city, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, bears traces from every period of history.
He added that they have been working on different structures, some dating back to antiquity, in the city.
“We have been working at the ancient theatre for two years. We found 33 face moulds during our excavations here.
Today, we unearthed 10 more. Hopefully, we will be able to find all the masks at the theatre in their own places and arrange them in their original order. That will be very pleasant for us,” he said.
Two masks in the ancient city of Stratonikeia, Muğla, southwestern Turkey.
Söğüt explained that the masks surround the stage of the ancient theatre.
“When people came here in ancient times, they were impressed by the splendour and magnificence of the theatre even before entering it. We have been slowly uncovering its richness and splendour.
This also the value ancient people gave to culture, art and architecture.”
He said besides the characters in the plays performed at the theatre, the masks depict ancient gods and goddesses, as well as animal figures.
“We have brought the blocks with face masks to the city’s ‘stone hospital’ for cleaning and conservation.” The newly discovered masks will also be put on display once the work is complete, said Söğüt.
Study Estimates Life Expectancy in Bronze Age Turkey is 35 to 40 Years
Analysis of the remains of more than 40 people suggests that 35 to 40 years of age was the average life span in central Anatolia some 5,000 years ago, according to a Hurriyet Daily News report.
Archaeological excavations at the Küllüoba Mound, which dates back to the first Bronze Age in the Seyitgazi district of the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir, have unearthed more than 40 burial sites, including women and children, and research has found that people lived there an average life of 40 years 5,000 years ago.
The mound is believed to be the first urbanization structure of 5,000 years ago in Anatolia.
Hacettepe University Anthropology Department lecturer Professor Yılmaz Selim Erdal said the examinations on the skeletons revealed that people lived to 40 years of age 5,000 years ago.
“The life expectancy of the Early Bronze Age and its contemporaries is around 35-40 years. Infant and child mortality is very high. The limited food sources and the infectious diseases were important factors,” he added.
Excavations in Küllüoba were initiated in 1996. In the past, objects revealing the cultural characteristics of the Early Bronze Age, as well as animal bones and settlements, were found in the excavation area. During the excavations, sarcophaguses and potteries dating back to 3,000 B.C. were found.
A team of 35 faculty members and students from Batman and Hacettepe universities, led by Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University, that have been carrying out works at the Küllüoba Mound have discovered a new cemetery area.
Believed to date back 5,000 years, some 40 tombs were unearthed in the area. Inside the tombs were the skeletons of children with their knees pulled to the abdomen, which is often referred to as the position in the mother’s womb. Seals, hair rings and jewelry, known as gifts to the dead, were also found in the tombs.
Erdal said that they saw the traces of the transition from the Late Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age in great detail during the excavations in Küllüoba, which means a historical transition.
Stating that different types of tombs were found in the mound, Erdal said, “The most important element we see here is an area where human communities from different regions coexist and there is a variety of burial traditions due to the coexistence of different cultures, perhaps different ethnic groups. We can say that it is the only settlement where different burials are seen all together.”
People died at 40
Stating that the skeletons provided important data on the historical transition, Erdal explained that the skeletons dating back to the 3rd millennium B.C. showed that people lived only 40 years of age at that time, and then lost their lives.
Explaining that the significant part of the skeletons were children and women, Erdal said, “Most of the skeletons are of infants, children and young individuals. Of course, if we consider that the life expectancy of the people of this period was extremely limited, that is, they lived an average of 35-40 years, we can actually say how painful this transformation was. Wars and fights were also effective in this.
The life expectancy of the Early Bronze Age and its contemporaries is around 35-40 years. People died at a very young age. Infant and child mortality was very high. The limited food resources and infectious diseases were also factors, too.”
A Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University academic and the head of the excavations, Murat Türkteki said that during the Küllüoba excavations, the first urbanization structure in Anatolia 5,000 years ago was unearthed.
Stating that this year’s works, mostly structures and tombs dating back to 3,000 B.C. were unearthed, he said, “We work in two areas. There was an important breaking point in Anatolia 5,000 years ago, especially in terms of the beginning of urbanization. Küllüoba also gives us important information on this subject.
The excavations this year help us to understand the changes at this stage; we see that the boundaries are wider and larger. We started working in the cemetery area in previous years.
We reached more than 40 graves. Especially the fact that different types of tombs are seen together makes Küllüoba different and special in this sense.
The skeletons were sent to Hacettepe University Ancient DNA Laboratory for examination. It will provide data such as diseases, causes of death and living conditions. Ancient DNA studies will reveal kinship relationships more clearly.”
An ancient statue of the mythological goddess Hygieia – seen as the guardian or personification of health – has been discovered in an ancient city in western Turkey, according to a researcher.
“We unearthed a statue of Hygieia, known as the goddess of health and cleanliness, the daughter of Asclepius, the god of health in Greek and Roman mythology,” Gökhan Coşkun, who coordinates the dig in the ancient city of Aizanoi, told Anadolu Agency.
Noting that the marble statue’s head is missing – the fate of much ancient statuary – Coşkun, an archaeologist at Dumlupinar University in central Turkey, said: “Unfortunately, it hasn’t survived to the present day, but in its current form, we can see that this statue is about the size of a human.”
“During past digs in Aizanoi, finds related to Hygieia were also found,” he said. “This situation makes us think that there may have been some construction and buildings related to the health cult in Aizanoi during the Roman era.”
Located near the town of Cavdarhisar in the Kutahya province, the site is also home to one of the best-preserved temples in Anatolia dedicated to Zeus, the thunderbolt-wielding king of the Greek Olympians.
Groundbreaking ancient site
Seen as boasting a history rivaling Ephesus, another iconic ancient city in Turkey, Aizanoi was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2012, with excavation efforts ongoing now for almost a decade.
Coşkun said that around 100 workers and 25 technical personnel are working on digs at the nearly 5,000-year-old site.
“We’re trying to reveal the columned galleries on the west and south wings of the agora (bazaar) and the shops right behind them,” he added.
Coşkun added that the statue of Hygieia – related to the modern word “hygiene” – was unearthed inside the columned gallery on the south wing of the agora.
Located 57 kilometres (35 miles) from the Kütahya city centre, the ancient site saw its golden age in the second and third centuries AD and became “the centre of the episcopacy in the Byzantine era,” according to the website of the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry.
Recent excavations around the Temple of Zeus indicate the existence of several levels of settlement in the city dating from as far back as 3000 BC. In 133 BC, it was captured by the Roman Empire.
In 1824, European travellers rediscovered the ancient site.
Between 1970 and 2011, the German Archeology Institute unearthed a theatre and a stadium, as well as two public baths, a gymnasium, five bridges, a trading building, necropolises and the sacred cave of Metre Steune – a cultist site thought to be used prior to the first century BC.
Since 2011, Turkish archaeologists have been carrying out the work at the ancient site. This year, the excavations were transferred to the Kutahya Museum Directorate.
When German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt first began excavating on a Turkish mountaintop 25 years ago, he has convinced the buildings he uncovered were unusual, even unique.
Atop a limestone plateau near Urfa called Gobekli Tepe, Turkish for “Belly Hill”, Schmidt discovered more than 20 circular stone enclosures. The largest was 20m across, a circle of stone with two elaborately carved pillars 5.5m tall at its centre. The carved stone pillars – eerie, stylised human figures with folded hands and fox-pelt belts – weighed up to 10 tons. Carving and erecting them must have been a tremendous technical challenge for people who hadn’t yet domesticated animals or invented pottery, let alone metal tools. The structures were 11,000 years old, or more, making them humanity’s oldest known monumental structures, built not for shelter but for some other purpose.
The structures were 11,000 years old, or more, making them humanity’s oldest known monumental structures
After a decade of work, Schmidt reached a remarkable conclusion. When I visited his dig house in Urfa’s old town in 2007, Schmidt – then working for the German Archaeological Institute – told me Gobekli Tepe could help rewrite the story of civilisation by explaining the reason humans started farming and began living in permanent settlements. The stone tools and other evidence Schmidt and his team found at the site showed that the circular enclosures had been built by hunter-gatherers, living off the land the way humans had since before the last Ice Age. Tens of thousands of animal bones that were uncovered were from wild species, and there was no evidence of domesticated grains or other plants.
Schmidt thought these hunter-gatherers had come together 11,500 years ago to carve Gobekli Tepe’s T-shaped pillars with stone tools, using the limestone bedrock of the hill beneath their feet as a quarry.
Situated in modern-day Turkey, Gobekli Tepe is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world
Carving and moving the pillars would have been a tremendous task, but perhaps not as difficult as it seems at first glance. The pillars are carved from the natural limestone layers of the hill’s bedrock. Limestone is soft enough to work with the flint or even wood tools available at the time, given practice and patience. And because the hill’s limestone formations were horizontal layers between 0.6m and 1.5m thick, archaeologists working at the site believe ancient builders just had to cut away the excess from the sides, rather than from underneath as well. Once a pillar was carved out, they then shifted it a few hundred metres across the hilltop, using rope, log beams and ample manpower.
Schmidt thought that small, nomadic bands from across the region were motivated by their beliefs to join forces on the hilltop for periodic building projects, hold great feasts and then scatter again. The site, Schmidt argued, was a ritual centre, perhaps some sort of burial or death cult complex, rather than a settlement.
That was a big claim. Archaeologists had long thought complex ritual and organised religion were luxuries that societies developed only once they began domesticating crops and animals, a transition known as the Neolithic. Once they had a food surplus, the thinking went, they could devote their extra resources to rituals and monuments.
Gobekli Tepe, Schmidt told me, turned that timeline upside down. The stone tools at the site, backed up by radiocarbon dates, placed it firmly in the pre-Neolithic era. More than 25 years after the first excavations there, there is still no evidence for domesticated plants or animals. And Schmidt didn’t think anyone lived at the site full-time. He called it a “cathedral on a hill”.
More than 25 years after the first excavations there, there is still no evidence for domesticated plants or animals.
If that was true, it showed that complex ritual and social organisation actually came before settlement and agriculture. Over the course of 1,000 years, the demands of gathering nomadic bands together in one place to carve and move huge T-pillars and build the circular enclosures prompted people to take the next step: to regularly host large gatherings, people needed to make food supplies more predictable and dependable by domesticating plants and animals. Rituals and religion, it seemed, launched the Neolithic Revolution.
The next day, I drove with Schmidt to the hilltop before dawn. I wondered, mystified and awestruck, among the pillars as Schmidt, his head wrapped in a white cloth to protect it from the blazing sun, oversaw a small team of German archaeologists and workers from the small village down the road.
Gobekli Tepe’s circular structures have changed the way archaeologists look at the beginnings of civilisation
Schmidt had just published his first reports on Gobekli Tepe the year before, setting the small world of Neolithic archaeology experts abuzz. But the site still had a sleepy, forgotten feel, with excavation areas covered by makeshift corrugated steel roofs and potholed dirt roads winding up to the mountaintop dig site from the valley below.
Schmidt’s take on the site’s striking T-pillars and large, round “special buildings” captivated colleagues and journalists when they were first published in the mid-2000s. Breathless media reports called the site the birthplace of religion; the German magazine Der Spiegel compared the fertile grasslands around the site to the Garden of Eden.
Soon, people from around the world were flocking to see Gobekli Tepe for themselves. Within a decade, the hilltop was totally transformed. Until the civil war in nearby Syria disrupted tourism in the region in 2012, work on the site often slowed to a crawl as busloads of curious tourists crowded around open excavation trenches to see what some were calling the world’s first temple and made it impossible to manoeuvre wheelbarrows on the narrow paths.
Over the past five years, the mountaintop on the outskirts of Urfa has been reshaped once again. Today, roads and car parks and a visitor’s centre can accommodate curious travellers from around the world. In 2017, corrugated steel sheds were replaced by a state-of-the-art, swooping fabric-and-steel shelter covering the central monumental buildings. swooping fabric-and-steel shelter covering the central monumental buildings. The Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum, , built-in 2015 in central Urfa, is one of Turkey’s largest museums; it features a full-scale replica of the site’s largest enclosure and its imposing T-pillars, allowing visitors to get a feel for the monumental pillars and examine their carvings up close.
In 2018, Gobekli Tepe was added to the Unesco World Heritage register, and Turkish tourism officials declared 2019 the “Year of Gobekli Tepe”, making the ancient site the face of its global promotion campaign. “I still remember the site as a remote place on a mountaintop,” said Jens Notroff, a German Archaeological Institute archaeologist who began working at the site as a student in the mid-2000s. “It’s changed completely.”
Gobekli Tepe was constructed more than 11,000 years ago, right on the cusp between a world of hunter-gatherers and a world of farmers
Schmidt, who died in 2014, didn’t live to see the site’s transformation from dusty mountaintop dig to major tourist attraction. But his discoveries there spurred global interest in the Neolithic transition – and in the last few years, new discoveries at Gobekli Tepe and closer looks at the results of earlier excavations are upending Schmidt’s initial interpretations of the site itself.
Work on foundations needed to support the site’s swooping fabric canopy required archaeologists to dig deeper that Schmidt ever had. Under the direction of Schmidt’s successor, Lee Clare, a German Archaeological Institute team dug several “keyhole” trenches down to the site’s bedrock, several metres below the floors of the large buildings. “We had a unique chance,” Clare said, “to go look in the lowest layers and deposits of the site.”
New discoveries at Gobekli Tepe and closer looks at the results of earlier excavations are upending Schmidt’s initial interpretations of the site.
What Clare and his colleagues found may rewrite prehistory yet again. The digs revealed evidence of houses and year-round settlement, suggesting that Gobekli Tepe wasn’t an isolated temple visited on special occasions but a rather a thriving village with large special buildings at its centre.
The team also identified a large cistern and channels for collecting rainwater, key to supporting a settlement on the dry mountaintop, and thousands of grinding tools for processing grain for cooking porridge and brewing beer. “Gobekli Tepe is still a unique, special site, but the new insights fit better with what we know from other sites,” Clare said. “It was a fully-fledged settlement with permanent occupation. It’s changed our whole understanding of the site.”
Meanwhile, Turkish archaeologists working in the rugged countryside around Urfa have identified at least a dozen other hill-top sites with similar – if smaller – T-pillars, dating from around the same time period. “It’s not a unique temple,” said Austrian Archaeological Institute researcher Barbara Horejs, an expert on the Neolithic who was not part of the recent research efforts. “That makes the story much more interesting and exciting.” Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy went as far as saying that this area could be referred to as the “pyramids of south-east Turkey“.
New discoveries made over the last few years may rewrite prehistory yet again
Rather than a centuries-long building project inspiring the transition to farming, Clare and others now think Gobekli Tepe was an attempt by hunter-gatherers clinging to their vanishing lifestyle as the world changed around them. Evidence from the surrounding region shows people at other sites were experimenting with domesticated animals and plants – a trend the people of “Belly Hill” might have been resisting.
Clare argues the site’s stone carvings are an important clue. Elaborate carvings of foxes, leopards, serpents and vultures covering Gobekli Tepe’s pillars and walls “aren’t animals you see every day,” he said. “They’re more than just pictures, they’re narratives, which are very important in keeping groups together and creating a shared identity.”
When I first wandered across the site more than 15 years ago, I remember a feeling of great distance. Gobekli Tepe was built 6,000 years before Stonehenge, and the exact meaning of its carvings – like the world the people there once inhabited – is impossible to fathom.
That, of course, is part of the Gobekli Tepe’s tremendous magnetism. As thousands of visitors marvel at a place most people had never heard of a decade ago, researchers will continue trying to understand why it was built in the first place. And each new discovery promises to change what we now know about the site and the story of human civilisation.
“The new work isn’t destroying Klaus Schmidt’s thesis; it stands on his shoulders,” said Horejs. “There’s been a huge gain of knowledge, in my view. The interpretation is changing, but that’s what science is about.”
TURKEY: Discovery of Ancient Relief depicting Greco-Persian wars
Archaeologists in northwestern Turkey discovered a relief on Aug. 16 depicting a war between the Greeks and Persians in the fifth century B.C.
The figures on the relief show fighting Greek soldiers beneath the hoofs of Persian warhorses said archaeologist Kaan Iren, who leads the dig site of the ancient city of Dascylium found in the modern-day Bandırma district of Balıkesir province.
“Here is a scene of propaganda under the pretext of war. We can say these reliefs are a scene from the Persian-Greek wars,” İren told the state-run Anadolu Agency.
Ancient relief depicting Greek-Persian war unearthed in NW Turkey
“We think these reliefs were probably made for propaganda purposes during the wars,” he added.
Iren, who has been working at the excavation site in Dascylium with a team of 30 people since June 22, said they had unearthed parts of a stone and mudbrick wall dating back to the eighth century B.C. this year.
“Of the eighth-century-B.C. wall left from the Phrygian age, this year we unearthed an area of 4 meters high and 40 meters long. We think that this wall had a height of 7 to 8 meters.
We prepared a protection roof project for this place. We will present it to the Balıkesir Cultural Heritage Preservation Regional Board. If approved, we will take this place until protection,” said Iren, who is also a faculty member of the Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University.
The 5-meter-wide wall is believed to have been built by the ancient Phrygian civilization to protect its territory, Iren said.
Stating that the first settlers of the ancient city were the Phrygians, İren mentioned that the last place where this civilization was seen in the north and west of Anatolia was Dascylium.
“The wall is a 5-meter-wide fortification wall that these people built to protect their own space. Our work continues here.
There is a tower just ahead. We will continue to work until this tower. If the sponsors continue in the coming seasons, we will open this area completely and bring it to tourism,” he said.
İren said that the discovery of reliefs during the wall excavation this year was a surprise. Stating that the reliefs carved into the stone were cleaned by the restorers in the excavation house, İren said: “The relief, dating from the Persian era in the fifth century B.C., depicts the war between the Persians and the Greeks.
This was one of the most important findings of the season for us. In the figures on it, there are Greek soldiers fighting and Persians on horseback fighting them. Greek soldiers are depicted under the hoofs of Persian horses.
There is a propaganda scene here under the pretext of war. We can say that these reliefs are a scene from the Persian-Greek wars. We think that these reliefs were probably made for propaganda purposes during the wars.”
Archaeologists find child’s skeleton in Turkey’s Tozkoparan Mound
A child’s skeleton discovered during continuing archaeological excavations at Tozkoparan Mound, a first-degree archaeological site in the Pertek district of Tunceli’s eastern region, has been kept in the city’s newly opened museum.
An archaeologist inspects the remains of a skeleton during excavations at the Tozkoparan Mound site in Tunceli, Turkey, Aug. 11, 2021.
The excavation has been initiated because the mound, which is located in Tozkoparan village of the district and considered to have traces of thousands of years of history, remained in the village settlement area and has been damaged by the houses built on it.
Academics from various universities are working at the excavations, carried out under the leadership of the Tunceli Museum.
The remains of a skeleton are marked during excavations at the Tozkoparan Mound site in Tunceli, Turkey, Aug. 11, 2021.
A team of about 15 people, consisting of anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians and intern students, take part in the excavations. For the first time since 1968, scientific methods are now used in the excavations.
While working in the field, the team has recently discovered a skeleton, thought to belong to a child. The skeleton pieces, which were removed from their place with the help of a brush and spatula, were taken under protection at Tunceli Museum.
In addition to terracotta potteries obsidians, bones, stone tools and arrowheads were also found during the excavations. Artefacts that shed light on history will be exhibited in the museum.
Speaking to the state-run Anadolu Agency, Düzce University Archeology Department academic Yasemin Yılmaz said that they have been conducting surveys in Tunceli for about six years and have identified all archaeological periods in the city starting from the Lower Paleolithic period.
Stating that they completed the survey this year, Yılmaz said that they carry out excavations in Tozkoparan Mound with a delegation under the supervision of academics from universities in Tunceli, Düzce, Erzurum and Diyarbakır.
Ancient historical artefacts can be seen during excavations at the Tozkoparan Mound site in Tunceli, Turkey, on Aug. 11, 2021.
Yılmaz noted that they carry out work in the areas where the mound was destroyed.
“Here we are working to determine the boundaries of the archaeological sites. Archaeological remains began to be found just below the surface soil.
On the third day of the excavation, a human skeleton was unearthed. It belongs to an individual who appears to be a child. It was lying in an oval-shaped pit, excavated in the north and south directions. This skeleton is very important because it belongs to the ancient society and provides direct information about that period,” Yılmaz said.
Yılmaz stated that there have been interdisciplinary studies on skeletons recently, adding, “We can determine the age of the skeletons and their nutritional system. If the diseases they suffered left traces on the bones, we can determine them. We cannot obtain much data with a single sample, but it is a pleasing finding to begin with.”
Yılmaz stated that they have completed the archaeological chronology of the city during their surveys, and added, “As of this year, we completed our surveys because we have achieved all our goals. Tunceli is located on the transit route of many civilizations. Our findings also confirmed this. We started to prepare our findings for publication.”
Yılmaz stated that with the publication of their scientific articles, the city will attract the attention of history and archaeology enthusiasts.
The head of the excavations and Tunceli museum director, Kenan Öncel, also emphasized that with the opening of the museum in the city, archaeological work gained momentum.
In this context, Öncel stated that they started the first salvage excavations in Tozkoparan Mound.
“We plan to work in the field for about one more month. Our aim is to determine the extent and boundaries of the mound. Tunceli Museum is currently the newest museum in Turkey. Our artefacts found in this rescue excavation will enrich the collection of the Tunceli Museum and will also contribute to understanding the cultural background of the city,” he said.
5700-year-old child skeleton unearthed in the Turkish city of Malatya
A 5,700-year-old skeleton of a noble-born child has been found buried in the ruins of a Copper Age Turkish house. Anthropologists believe the bones belonged to a six-year-old who most likely died of trauma in the fourth millennium BC.
The skeleton was found in the foetal position and the skull has been smashed, although it’s not immediately clear whether this happened before or after death.
The remains were found in what is believed to be an ancient house during an excavation of the Arslantepe Mound outside Malatya, eastern Turkey.
With its prime position near the west bank of the Euphrates River, this UNESCO World Heritage site boasted a thriving population through the Roman and Byzantine periods owing to its wetlands and agricultural resources.
Yet now it is flocked to by archaeologists who comb through the ruins hoping to learn more about Arslantepe’s rich history.
Anthropologists believe the bones belonged to a six-year-old who most likely died of trauma in the 4th millennium BC
Dr Marcelle Frangipane, of the University of Rome who led the dig, said the bones would be sent for analysis but early estimates suggested the child was very young and died of shock.
She said: ‘We found beads on the arms and neck of the child, which we have not seen before. These beads indicate that the child belonged to a noble family.’
Hailing the skeleton an ‘important find’, she added: ‘The delegation stated that the child is six or seven years old, but they need to work on it further.
‘The child may have died as a result of trauma. Such results will be determined as a result of the analysis.
‘This is a very important find. As a result of the analysis of the skeleton, we will reach more detailed information.’
The remains were found in what is believed to be an ancient house during an excavation of the Arslantepe Mound outside Malatya, eastern Turkey
Dr Frangipane also said that they are waiting for the results of the examination to discover the gender, genetic structure, age and cause of death of the child as well as the diet of the era.
The position of the skeleton suggests the child was frightened and had curled itself into the foetal position, wrapping its arms around its body.
Remarkably, the position which this infant died in has been almost perfectly preserved in the ground, although its skull has been caved in.
Over the past 50 years, since serious excavations of the Arslantepe Mound began, archaeologists are slowly unearthing what they believe to be a fourth millennium BC palace.
Interconnected mud-brick architecture sprawling over 2,000 square metres is suggestive of the first ‘public palace’, according to UNESCO.
The organisation says this ancient structure was ‘composed by two temples, a storeroom complex, administrative areas with thousands of clay-ceilings bearing the impressions of more than 220 beautiful seals, entertainment halls, a monumental gate, corridors and courtyards.
