Remains Of A 2,200-Year-Old Roman Fountain Discovered In Assos, Turkey

Archaeologists have been continuously involved in excavations in the ancient city of Assos for 42 years. Assos ancient site has much to offer. A recent discovery at the ancient site of Assos, a 2,200-year-old Roman fountain,  informed the head of archaeological digs on Monday.

Located within the borders of the village of Behramkale in the Ayvacik district of Çanakkale province, the ancient city of Assos sheds light on its long historical past. Long-lasting excavations have already revealed a large number of Roman and Byzantine artefacts.

“Since the working conditions in the field were a bit intense in the winter, we continued to document the archaeological materials we previously found during that period. In addition, we prepared for the restoration of the city walls,” the head of excavations Professor Nurettin Arslan from the Faculty of Science and Letters at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University’s Archaeology Department, said, as cited by Daily Sabah.

“With the arrival of summer, our active work on the land has started. We are excavating different areas in the ancient city.”

These excavations are extremely valuable and drew the attention of scientists and academics from some universities in Germany and a team of 30 people that took part in the latest excavations, Arslan informed.

This season, the team is focused on home to a gymnasium dating back to the Hellenistic period. He stated that they are focusing on the cisterns built as an add-on during the Roman period in the well-protected gymnasium, which was the high school of the Hellenistic era.

Assos is located on a high hill, in an area devoid of natural water resources. For this reason, there are underground water tanks and cisterns made by carving or cutting rocks in both official buildings and homes in the ancient city.

The fountain structure, Arslan informed, has its location in front of the Roman-era cisterns of the gymnasium.

“According to our initial findings, we learned that it was a magnificent fountain structure. We know of many cisterns in Assos, but this is the first time we’ve come across a monumental fountain structure, ” the researcher said, adding that in terms of urban architecture, the fountain, is no doubt, an important structure, however, it had been seriously damaged during the Byzantine period.”

The team will do their best to re-erect the existing fragments of the 2,200-year-old Roman fountain.

Once the excavation is complete, one day in the near future, visitors will get the opportunity to see the ancient Roman work and feel the atmosphere around it.

Assos (also known as Behramkale), was once one of the most important port cities of its era and dates back to the period of Roman rule in the region. The ruins of Assos include an ancient theatre, agora, necropolis and the city’s protective walls. The theatre was discovered on the south slope of the ancient city across Midilli (Lesbos) and is thought to have been destroyed during an earthquake. From its construction technique and plan, it is understood that the theatre – with the capacity to hold 2,500 people – also dates back to the Roman era.

The agora is a central public space in which people would meet and gather while stoas are closed areas that protect people from the sun and rain. Also, there is a gymnasium and bouleuterion (assembly building) around the agora.

Among other archaeological finds within the area of the necropolis, the team found the oldest remains were found in jars as ashes. There were some items found placed beside the bodies as presents.

Then sarcophaguses were used as graves. The most interesting gift to the dead inside the sarcophaguses was a sculpture of a women’s orchestra.

Assos – where Turkish archaeologists started excavations in 1981 – was added to UNESCO’s Tentative World Heritage List on April 15, 2017.

7,800-year-old female figurine discovered in Ulucak Höyük in western Turkey

A clay statuette of a female figure dating back 7,800 years were unearthed during the Ulucak Mound excavation in the Kemalpaşa district of the western province of Izmir.

Professor Özlem Çevik from the Department of Protohistory and Pre-Asian Archeology at Trakya University’s Faculty of Letters, who is leading the excavations in Ulucak, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the mound is the site of the first farmer village settlement of Izmir.

“It is among the oldest settlements in Western Anatolia, and we have unearthed findings dating back 8,850 years in the mound,” Çevik said.

Noting that the team discovered that the Ulucak Mound had been inhabited continuously for 45 generations with villages established one on top of the other, Çevik added: “During the excavations of a house this year, we found a whole female figurine made of clay.

We have previously found similar statuettes but they were usually broken.

The latest figurine is important for us as it is the third figurine found in an intact form here.”

According to Çevik, these kinds of statuettes were previously thought to depict gods and goddesses, however, they were also found in the dumpsite of the ancient mound which leads researchers to believe that they were not sacred pieces.

Archaeologists think that the figurines may be related to important events like births, deaths or the harvest and may be used to increase abundance and fertility or for witchcraft.

The Ulucak Mound, located 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of Izmir, features cultural artifacts from the early Neolithic period to the late Roman-early Byzantine era.

The site was discovered by British archaeologist David French in the 1960s but it remained unexplored until excavations began in the middle of 1990s.

The very first excavation period between 1995 and 2008 was headed by archaeologist Altan Çilingiroğlu and the Izmir Archaeological Museum.

Since 2009, Çevik of Trakya University has been directing the studies at the archaeological site.

The excavations in Ulucak have already produced valuable insights into the emergence and development of prehistoric cultures in western Türkiye.

An 8,500-year-old human skeleton and musical instrument were found in the garden of the apartment

An approximately 8,500-year-old human skeleton and a three-hole musical instrument were found during an excavation in the garden of an apartment in the Bahçelievler District of Bilecik.

This place, which is likely to be one of the first points of human settlements in Western Anatolia, was discovered for the first time when a resident of Bilecik reported some ceramic pieces found here to the Archeology Museum.

As a result of two years of work, 11 human skeletons estimated to be 8,500 years old and musical instruments with three holes from the same period were found in the garden of the apartment.

Archaeologists also found grains such as lentils, barley and vetch, as well as varieties of wheat used to make bread and pasta.

Stating that this year’s most important find is a three-hole wind instrument, Fidan added: “We also found religious objects such as ornamented boxes made of terracotta, human-shaped amulets and animal figures during the excavations. In addition, a skull we found in the courtyard gives us information about the religious life of that period.”

Fidan said, “We think that this musical instrument, which has 3 holes, is a part of a musical instrument that makes sounds and changes sound notes. He also stated that the tool can be used thanks to an appliqué mouthpiece attached to this piece.

The head of the excavation, Assoc. ErkanFidan said, “The human skeletons found in the excavation area belong to the oldest adolescent people in the Neolithic Age in Western Anatolia.

“Fidan stated that “the human communities that came here 9 thousand years ago and stayed here for about a thousand years, unearthed the first villages.” In addition, Fidan said that people living in the region who know how to do agriculture also domesticated animals.

Fidan also noted that they found other human skeletons in the excavation area and that these skeletons were examined in detail at the Hacettepe University Anthropology Department Laboratory.

He also stated that they aim to learn a lot about these people in the near future, about their age, gender, illness and the food they eat.

The finds found in the excavation will be exhibited in the Bilecik Archeology Museum after the restoration and research works are completed.

Remains of Mongol Summer Palace Investigated in Turkey

Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered the remains of an ancient palace that may have belonged to Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan. The site in eastern Turkey’s Van province, in the Çaldıran district, is currently being excavated.

Hulagu Khan, a Mongol warlord who lived from about 1217 to 1265, achieved military renown for leading several expeditions, including the sack of Baghdad in 1258.

After the Mongol Empire splintered in 1259, Hulagu Khan became the ruler of the Mongol Ilkhanid State in the Middle East, which at its height included territory in what is now Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Dagestan, and Tajikistan.

Historical sources state that during the 1260s, Hulagu Khan built a summer palace in Çaldıran.

The newly discovered ruins have yet to be definitively identified as the lost residence, but the excavation team, led by Ersel Çağlıtütuncigil of the Izmir Katip Çelebi University Turkish-Islamic Archeology Department, is optimistic about the site, where scholars have unearthed shards of glazed ceramics and pottery, porcelain, bricks, and roof tiles.

The researchers, who are working under Turkey’s General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, believe this could be the first known architectural remains of the Ilkhanid State.

“No Ilkhanid work has been encountered until now. In this sense, this study was a first. It excited us and our friends from Mongolia,” Çağlıtütuncigil told Turkish publication the Daily Sabah.

Important clues pointing to Hulagu Khan’s ownership are a number of “‘s’-like symbols on the roof-ending tiles” known as the “svastika pattern or tamga,” Munkhtulga Rinchinkhorol, a Mongolian Academy of Sciences archaeologist working on the dig, told Live Science.

“[That is] one of the power symbols of the Mongol Khans.”

The site, which appears to have been heavily looted, also contains the remains of a caravanserai, one of the travellers’ inns that would have dotted the Silk Road trade route.

Through further excavations, researchers hope to uncover the church that historical sources say Hulagu Khan built for his wife.

The ancient Vespasianus Titus Tunnel of Turkey

In the Samandağ district of southern Turkey’s Hatay province, the Vespasianus Titus Tunnel, or simply the Titus Tunnel, is a magnificent ancient structure constructed by 1,000 slaves to prevent floodwaters in the area, has been garnering particular attention from tourists.

The Titus Tunnel was a mega project 2,000 years ago carved into the mountain, and it still stands as an unbelievable engineering marvel.

The tunnel, which was built to prevent floodwaters that carried sand and gravel down the mountains from filling the city’s harbour and threatening it, was first conceived by the Roman Emperor Vespasian, who started its construction in A.D. 69. Its construction continued during the reign of his successor and son Emperor Titus and in the times of his other successors.

It was finally completed during the era of Antoninus Pius in the second century. It was built by digging the rocks using human resources only.

The tunnel is part of a water diversion system consisting of a dam, a short approach channel, the first tunnel section, a short intermediary channel, the second tunnel section and a long discharge channel.

It hosts an inscription elegantly carved into the rock at the first tunnel entrance that reads the names of Vespasianus and Titus, while there is another one at the discharge tunnel for Antonious.

It stands today as a must-see site for anyone that visits Hatay as it takes visitors on a wonderful journey through time. The tunnel is 1,380 meters (4,527 feet) long with a height of 7 meters and a width of 6 meters, attracting admiration from local visitors and abroad with its architecture in the middle of nature.

The tunnel is part of a water diversion system consisting of a dam, a short approach channel, the first tunnel section, a short intermediary channel, the second tunnel section and a long discharge channel.

It is located at the foot of the Nur Mountains, near the modern village of Çevlik, 7 kilometres (4.3 miles), northwest of central Samandağ (the medieval port of Saint Symeon) and 35 kilometres southwest of Antakya.

Beşikli Cave is also right next to the tunnel, standing only 100 meters away, boasting a particularly flashy architectural structure and decoration. In the cave, there are tombs from the ancient Roman period, believed to belong to a nobleman and his family.

Those who come to visit the tunnel also get the chance to see the tomb chambers here.

Ayşe Ersoy, director of the Hatay Archaeology Museum, said that it was evident from these sites as well that Hatay occupied a significantly important historical and cultural value.

Ersoy stated that the city had hosted several civilizations throughout its history and that now it was receiving great interest from both domestic and foreign visitors. She noted that the Titus Tunnel was one of the most remarkable places in the city.

She also said that the number of visitors to the tunnel was increasing day by day.

“The 1,380-meter-long Titus Tunnel, an important Roman ruin of our city, takes its visitors on a journey in time,” Ersoy said and added, “More than 28,000 local and foreign visitors have been to Titus Tunnel over the last eight months in Samandağ.”

Cafer Tayyar Demirci, who came from Gaziantep, said, “Titus Tunnel is a place of a natural wonder; everyone should definitely stop by here.”

Celal Karadavut, who came from Mersin to visit the tunnel with his family, said that Hatay is an important city that has left its mark on history.

Karadavut stated that he was pleased to visit the city that has hosted many civilizations. “Hatay is a city that has a different place in Turkey both in terms of history, nature and gastronomy,” he said.

Şükran Naz Karadavut also noted that she liked the tunnel very much and that everyone should see it.

7.5 Million Annual Elephant Skulls Fossil Were Found in Turkey “Choerolophodon Pentelic”

A complete skull fossil from 7.5 million years ago was discovered on the bank of the Yamula Dam in the central Kayseri Province of Turkey. This is a major discovery. The skull belongs to Choerolophodon Pentelic, known as the ancestor of elephants.

The study of the fossils found last year was carried out by one of the few experts on Proboscidea – the taxonomic order of African mammals – in the world, Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality said in a statement.

The statement stated that Juha Saarinen, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences and Geography at the University of Helsinki, came to Kayseri and completed the final examination of the skull.

Okşan Başoğlu, head of the excavation team which continues working at the discovery site, said the Finnish scientist Saarinen “worked on the big and complete skull for two full days.”

“This will be published in a very respected journal abroad because it is a very significant fossil,” she quoted Saarinen as saying.

Başoğlu said it would be a benchmark for them and soon the names of Kayseri and Yamula would take their place in the world’s literature on the subject.

“For this reason, it is a very essential development for us. Kayseri, in one sense, will be a centre of palaeontology,” she said, referring to the study of the history of life on Earth based on fossils.

She said studies in the laboratory are continuously ongoing.

Saarinen, who has worked in many areas from Europe to the Middle East and China to the US, stated that the complete skull fossil belonging to Choerolophodon Pentelic is the only specimen in the world and it is larger in mass than any fossil elephant found in other contemporary fossils. localities of the world.

When it comes to the fully preserved and unique skull specimens and other fossils found in the province, he said that Kayseri will become a reference point for international palaeontology.

In previous studies in the region, samples of giraffes, 4-5 species known as the ancestors of elephants, rhinoceros, triple hoofed horses, and wasp were found.

This Ancient Underground City Was Big Enough to House 20,000 People

Chicago, like a lot of other modern cities, has a hidden secret: It’s home to miles of passageways deep underground that allows commuters to get from one place to another without risking nasty weather.

Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and Dallas all have their own networks of underground tunnels, as well.

But there’s a place in Eastern Europe that puts those forgotten passages to shame. Welcome to Derinkuyu — the underground city.

A Subterranean Suburb

Picture this. It’s 1963, and you’re on a construction crew renovating a home. You bring your sledgehammer down on a soft stone wall, and it all crumbles away, revealing a large, snaking passageway so long that you can’t see where it ends.

This is the true story of how the undercity at Derinkuyu was (re-)discovered. While those workers knew they’d found something special, they couldn’t know just how massive their discovery had been.

Stretching 250 feet (76 meters) underground with at least 18 distinct levels, Derinkuyu was a truly massive place to live. Yes, live. There was room for 20,000 people to stay here, complete with all necessities (and a few luxuries) — fresh water, stables, places of worship, and even wineries and oil presses. It isn’t the only underground city in the area known as Cappadocia, but it’s the deepest one we know of, and for many years, it was believed to be the largest as well. (Another recently discovered location may have been home to even more people.)

Derinkuyu and the other 40-ish underground cities nearby are made possible thanks to the prevalence of tuff in the area, a kind of volcanic rock that solidifies into something soft and crumbly. That makes it relatively easy to carve enormous subterranean passages — but why would you want to? The answer lies in the cities’ origins.

Defense Against the Sword Arts

Derinkuyu isn’t exactly inhospitable on the surface level (after all, that’s where the people who found it were living). So why did ancient people decide to build their living quarters below the surface? Because they weren’t hiding from the broiling sun or annual meteor showers.

They were clearly hiding from invading forces, with massive, rolling stone doors to block off each floor should any armies breach the fortress. But who were the people of the caves, and who were they defending themselves against? The answer to the second question depends on the answer to the first.

The earliest known people to live in the area were the Hittites, who ruled the Turkish Peninsula from about the 17th to 13th centuries B.C.E. — well over three millennia ago.

Some scholars point to artefacts with Hittite cultural elements, such as a small statue of a lion, found in the underground caves. That suggests these ancient people would have been taking refuge from invading Thracians.

If they were, it didn’t work forever: A tribe of Thracians, the Phrygians, conquered the area next. It’s possible that the Hittites never lived underground, however; an alternate theory says that it was the Phrygians, not the Hittites, who spawned the subterranean city.

Since the construction of many of the immense underground complexes is dated to some time between the 10th and 7th centuries B.C.E., and the Phrygians lived there until the 6th century B.C.E., they’re generally regarded to have created the first caves. In that case, they may have been hiding from the Persian host under Cyrus the Great that eventually did take over the region.

Lost and Found

The Persians would have used those caves as well, as would all of the people to come after. Eventually, according to some sources, early Christians around the 2nd century C.E. took root in the caves as they fled Roman persecution. This pattern continued throughout the centuries and millennia to come — in fact, Greek Christians were still using the caves as late as 1923.

It’s pretty incredible, then, that the caves would have been forgotten in the 40-odd years between their last residents and their “re-discovery.”

It’s more likely, then, that it wasn’t the caves themselves, but the extent of the caves that were forgotten. While the holes burrowed into the area’s fairy chimneys would have been obvious even from a distance, it’s likely that the people living in more modern accommodations never realized that the caves in the wilderness outside of the urban area reached 18 stories down.

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.