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A newly translated inscription, dating back about 1,800 years, reveals that Oinoanda, a Roman city in southwest Turkey, turned to a mixed martial art champion to recruit for the Roman army and bring the new soldiers to a city named Hierapolis, located hundreds of miles to the east, in Syria. His name was Lucius Septimius Flavianus Flavillianus and he was a champion at wrestling and pankration, the latter a bloody, and at times lethal, mixed martial art where contestants would try to pound each other unconscious or into submission. Flavillianus proved to be so successful as a military recruiter that...

Numerous archaeological excavations are underway at a huge site in Anatolia which will uncover an ancient and rich yet forgotten kingdom known as Tuwana from the darkness of history, which will be featured in an open-air museum. The news was reported by Lorenzo d'Alfonso, an Italian archaeologist leading the joint mission by the University of Pavia and NYU, who provided details on the excavation campaign in a press conference in Istanbul this month, during which the details of the Italian archaeological missions in Turkey were explained. This "new discovery" from the pre-classical age which "needs to be continued" in southern...

Skeletal collections with trauma found from the Neolithic period in Anatolia suggest that injury was caused by daily activities and lifestyle, rather than systematic violence. However, shortly after this period there is an increase in trauma associated with violence that may suggest an increase in stress within and between populations in this area... The human remains come from the site of Titris Hoyuk, dating to 2900-2100 BCE. The site grew very quickly in this period from a small farming community to an urban centre within a large mud-brick fortification wall built over a stone foundation. Within one of the house...

A team of archeologists has begun working on examining the site of the ancient city of Isos in southern Turkey by making use of ground-based sensors to visualize the underground features of the city's structures, the district governor has said... a team of four archeologists got to work at the reported site of the ancient city of Isos, which has been underground for some 500 years in the southern province of Hatay, as part of the work of unearthing the ancient city... Approximately five months ago, excavations at the site where Isos is believed to be revealed ruins of baths...

Some 5,200 years ago, in the mountains of western Iran, people may have used takeout windows to get food and weapons, newly presented research suggests. But rather than the greasy hamburgers and fries, it appears the inhabitants of the site ordered up goat, grain and even bullets, among other items. The find was made at Godin Tepe, an archaeological site that was excavated in the 1960s and 1970s by a team led by T. Cuyler Young Jr., a curator at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, who died in 2006... The idea that they were used as takeout windows...

A group of scientists and archeologists from Canakkale (Dardanelles) University have found traces of a lost city, older than famed Troy, now buried under the waters of Dardanelles strait. Led by associate professor Rustem Aslan, the archeology team made a surface survey in the vicinity of Erenkoy, Canakkale on the shore. The team has found ceramics and pottery, what led them to ponder a mound could be nearby. A research on the found pottery showed that the items belonged to an 7000 years old ancient city. The team has intensified the research and discovered first signs of the lost city...

New excavation work in the ancient city of Tlos in MuÄŸlaÂ’s Fethiye district has unearthed several ancient sculptures of Roman emperors. The archaeological team found sculptures of Roman emperors Hadrian; Antonius Pius and his daughter Faistinaminor; Mareus Aurellus as well as the Goddess Issis, according to Taner Korkut, who is leading the dig.

Associate Professor Mehmet Ozhanli, the head of Suleyman Demirel University's Archeology Department who heads excavations in the ancient city of Pisidian Antioch, said they had discovered remains of a church during their excavations. "We have found the remains of a three-nave church one and a half meters below the surface," Ozhanli told AA correspondent. Ozhanli said the building was constructed as a Pagan temple, however it was converted to a church after the spread of Christianity. "This is the fifth church we have brought to daylight in this ancient city," Ozhanli said. Ozhanli said this recently found church was also...

Remember the two underground cities we visited south of the "central" Cappadocia area? We headed off in that direction, but instead of going to the same ones because they're now just another parking lot crowded with white tour buses, we turned east to explore a town called Guzulyurt. It means beautiful home and is mentioned in Lonely Planet as also having an underground city and church frescoes, but much less visited because it's a little out of the way. What a delight. Drove through some very stark landscape that at times reminded me of our long sweeps through the emptier...

Most Ancient Case Of Tuberculosis Found In 500,000-year-old Human; Points To Modern Health IssuesView of the inside of a plaster cast of the skull of the newly discovered young male Homo erectus from western Turkey. The stylus points to tiny lesions 1-2 mm in size found along the rim of bone just behind the right eye orbit. The lesions were formed by a type of tuberculosis that infects the brain and, at 500,000 years in age, represents the most ancient case of TB known in humans. (Credit: Marsha Miller, the University of Texas at Austin)" ScienceDaily (Dec. 7, 2007) —...

The tombstone was donated to the Musee du Cinquanternaire in Brussels, Belgium, shortly before World War I. It shows an image of a gladiator holding what appear to be two swords, standing above his opponent who is signalling his surrender. The inscription says that the stone marks the spot where a man named Diodorus is buried. "After breaking my opponent Demetrius I did not kill him immediately," reads the epitaph. "Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me." ...Though the exact rules are not well understood, some information can be gleaned from references in surviving texts and...

"This tomb of a man in his 30s from the early Chalcolithic period did not seem unusual at first glance. He was buried in accordance with the burial traditions of the period. ... On closer examination of the skeleton, we discovered a deep arrow wound in the bottom of his spine," paleoanthropologist Songül Alpaslan Roodenberg from the excavation team told the Anatolia news agency. "The arrow tip explained the cause of this Aktopraklik man's death almost precisely," she said... Adding that it is very probable that the man died quickly due to excessive bleeding, the paleoanthropologist said: "it seems that...

German archaeologists have made new discoveries at modern day Hisarlik, northwest Turkey -- ancient Troy. The finds further confirm the area occupied during the Bronze Age was not limited to the citadel; Troy VI and VII were much larger than originally thought. The three year research project at Troy -- lead by Prof. Ernst Pernicka, from the University of Tubingen's Institute of Pre- and Early History -- sees scholars focus on the analysis and publication of materials found since the university started excavations at the site in 1988... smaller excavations... in combination with geophysical surveying and the drilling of test...

Ancient bodies believed to be 8,500 years old have been unearthed at a burial mound in the Akçalar area of the Marmara province of Bursa. The five bodies, reportedly belonging to two adults and three children aged between 3 and 5, were found at the Aktopraklek mound... One of the children were hogtied while the other children were found between the legs of the adults, he said... Karul said it was too early yet to determine whether the bodies belonged to a single family, whether they had been punished, their exact age or any other particular details... "We have...

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- An ancient city in Turkey's Aegean area will be covered with sand instead of silt and clay then inundated with reservoir water from a new dam, officials say.Environmentalists say the decision to use sand to cover the ancient city of Alliaonoi will mean the ultimate destruction of an architectural treasure, Hurriet Daily News reported Friday.Despite efforts by environmentalists, a Turkish preservation board said sand would be used to cover the city before waters from the Yortanli Dam flood the region.The Allianoi Initiative, spearheading a legal fight against the construction of the dam, objected to...

Ancient Thermal City to Be Flooded in Turkey 23/06/2005The 1,800-year-old city of Allianoi will be flooded in November by the Yortanli Dam. [File] Archeologists, environmentalists and international NGOs are joining together to try to find a way to save an 1,800-year-old archeological site, due to be flooded this November by the waters from a new dam. By Allan Cove for Southeast European Times – 23/06/05 The world's oldest known ancient thermal city, Allianoi, stands to be flooded when the Yortanli Dam begins operation this November. Located in the very centre of the planned dam lake, it will be submerged under...

German archaeologists are looking at a new find which could suggest a second temple close to the Temple of Apollo. They have extended their excavations away from Apollon and have discovered a wall which they consider to be part of another temple -- maybe that the Temple is for Artemis -- the twin of Apollon. Representative of Ministry of Culture and Tourism Ferhan Büyükyörük said: "An illegal dig was done in the area previously, which revealed the remains of a wall. "The excavations team is searching this year to see if there is more to the wall and if it...

Prof. Dr. Christian Marek... said that according to inscriptions, Roman emperors also participated in these festivals, most of which were religious. Marek said several competitions, shows and plays had been held within the scope of these festivals which had been started by Roman Emperor Alexander Severus... The antique city of Pompeipolis is situated in the county of Taskopru of the province of Kastamonu. According to the historical records, the Romans after winning the battle against Mitridates. Pontus Pilate and his army in the northern valley of Gökirmak in 64 B.C. settled in this region. The Roman commander Pompeius built...

For a twelfth season in a row, archaeologists have begun this year's excavations of the ancient city of Soloi Pompeiopolis, located in the present-day south-central Turkish province of Mersin, with view to making the area an open-air museum. This season's excavations, carried out with the cooperation of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Dokuz Eylul University, will focus on the Road with Pillars and the Soli Hill Town, the World Bulletin reported today. The twelfth excavation at the site began on July 15 and it is aimed at making new discoveries in the ancient city, Dr. Remzi Yagci,...

Archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Parion in northwest Turkey have revealed the sarcophagus of an ancient warrior. The sarcophagus contains an inscription of a warrior pictured saying goodbye to his family as he leaves for war. It is believed that the sarcophagus could belong to Paris, the prince of Troy who triggered the Trojan War. Excavators made this discovery in the necropolis of the ancient city located in the Turkish province of Canakkale, located close to Troy. After the initial discovery of Parion in 2005, archaeologists have uncovered many artifacts such as gold crowns and sarcophagi that shed...

Istanbul - A top Catholic Church official in Turkey was stabbed to death in his home on Thursday, Turkish television broadcasters reported. The reports said Vicar Apostolic for the Anatolia region, Bishop Luigi Padovese, was killed by a driver in the bishop's home in Iskenderun. Further details were not immediately known. In recent years, nationalist extremists in Turkey on several occasions have attacked or kidnapped Christian clergymen in the country. Luigi Padovese took up his post in Iskenderun in southern Turkey in November 2004.

When Herodotus toured the known world during the fifth century BC to compile his international history, he did not forget his hometown Caria, now Bodrum in Turkey. Caria (the name means "the steep country") stood in the western part of Anatolia, whose coast, according to the ancient world map, stretched from mid-Ionia to Lycia and east to Phrygia. Mountains and valleys were the main features of the country's scenery, and it was poor in agriculture in comparison with its counterparts at the time: Egypt and Babylonia. Its hilltops were fortified, while villages were scattered in valleys and it was hard...

In 1963, an inhabitant of Derinkuyu (in the region of Cappadocia, central Anatolia, Turkey), knocking down a wall of his house cave, discovered amazed that behind it was a mysterious room that he had never seen, and this led him room to another and another and another to it ... By chance he had discovered the underground city of Derinkuyu, whose first level could be excavated by the Hittites around 1400 BC Archaeologists began to explore this fascinating underground city abandoned. It managed to forty meters deep, but is believed to have a fund of up to 85 meters. At...

The inscription reads in part: "I, Kuttamuwa, servant of Panamuwa, am the one who oversaw the production of this stele for myself while still living. I placed it in an eternal chamber(?) and established a feast at this chamber(?): a bull for [the storm-god] Hadad, ... a ram for [the sun-god] Shamash, ... and a ram for my soul that is in this stele. …" It was written in a script derived from the Phoenician alphabet and in a local West Semitic dialect similar to Aramaic and Hebrew. It is of keen interest to linguists as well as biblical scholars...

New excavations have revealed that Izmir, once believe to be 5,000 years old, may be as old as 8,500 years. Associate professor Zafer Derin of the Ege University archeology department, the head of the excavation team, said in a written statement his team had removed 150 artifacts discovered at the Yeflilova Tumulus excavation site, reported the Anatolia news agency. Saying the findings discovered in the excavation played an important role in identifying those who lived in the area 8,500 years ago, Derin said: "Findings obtained from the excavation determined that those who lived in this area 8,500 years ago had...

Today, excavators at the Oymaagac mound in the Black Sea city of Samsun's Vezirkopru district are reveling in their potential find, believing the evidence is mounting and Oymaagac will be unveiled as the holder of Nerik. The geographical location of Oymaagac, the impressive representative building on top of the acropolis, and especially the tiny cuneiform writing style on the tablet fragments all suggested the excavators might find Nerik here... the tiny cuneiform writing resembled that on clay tablets from the Bogazkoy/Hattusha archives dealing with Nerik... the writings, along with several ritual texts from the Hittite period, suggested Oymaagac had to...

The coasts of Anatolia are sprinkled with ancient cities whose harbours bustled with ships engaged in the thriving sea trade of the Aegean and Mediterranean. But not every ship made it safely to harbour. Many were wrecked in storms and sank with their cargoes to the seabed, and the remains of these have lain hidden on the seabed for long centuries. Wrecks of both merchant and warships each have their historical tale to relate, and are among the underwater sights that fascinate divers today. No other region of the world is so rich in sunken history as the seas around...

Refinements of radiocarbon dates appear to rob the monumental tomb at Gordion of its claim to having been the final resting place of the illustrious King Midas, researchers reported last week in the journal Science. American and European scientists analyzed the effects of the sun's cycles on amounts of radioactivity absorbed from year to year, as recorded in tree rings. They said the research had given archaeologists and historians a more precise chronology for the Middle East and Aegean regions in the Bronze and Iron Ages. One of the researchers, Dr. Peter I. Kuniholm, an archaeologist at Cornell University, said ...

Turkish site a Neolithic 'supernova' By Nicholas Birch April 21, 2008 Archaeologist Klaus Schmidt was among the first to realize the significance of the Gobekli Tepe site, which is 7,000 years older than Stonehenge. URFA, Turkey - As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, as a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable. "This place is a supernova," said Mr. Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on...

DNA sheds light on Minoans Crete’s fabled Minoan civilization was built by people from Anatolia, according to a new study by Greek and foreign scientists that disputes an earlier theory that said the Minoans’ forefathers had come from Africa. The new study – a collaboration by experts in Greece, the USA, Canada, Russia and Turkey – drew its conclusions from the DNA analysis of 193 men from Crete and another 171 from former neolithic colonies in central and northern Greece. The results show that the country’s neolithic population came to Greece by sea from Anatolia – modern-day Iran, Iraq and...

Ancient city in Çorum Monday, January 28, 2008ÇORUM - Doğan News Agency Remnants of an ancient city from the Byzantine period have been found during surface excavations carried out in the Anatolian city of Çorum. The location of the ancient city Avkat has been determined to be within the borders of the Beyözü village in the Mecitözü district. Excavation works will start this year, said Mehmet Demir, an official from the Ankara Ethnography Museum. A team of 32 scientists from the United States, Britain, Italy and Switzerland and led by the Byzantine Empire expert, Professor John Haldon, carried out a...

Istanbul's Yapi Kredi Vedat Nedim Tor Museum is hosting an archaeology exhibition called "Phrygia," showcasing a selection of major Phrygian artifacts on loan from various museums in Turkey, including the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara and the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. The exhibit, held under scientific advice from archaeologist Taciser Sivas, will run until April 13.

The statue turned out to be part of a larger discovery: of a Neolithic temple. This and the statue have now been dated to 10,000BC, making the 'Snowman' possibly the oldest statue in the world. The veracity of this claim depends on semantics. What is a 'statue'? The Venus of Willendorf dates back to 20,000BC. But the Venus is just 11cm long: surely not a statue. So the Balikli Gol Snowman is the first sizeable sculpture of a man. Arguably, it is the oldest sculptural representation of humanity, the oldest self-portrait in stone. In the accepted sense of the word,...

Contact: Mary Rice mary@mrcommunication.org European Society of Human Genetics Ancient Etruscans were immigrants from Anatolia, or what is now TurkeyGeneticists find the final piece in the puzzle Nice, France: The long-running controversy about the origins of the Etruscan people appears to be very close to being settled once and for all, a geneticist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today. Professor Alberto Piazza, from the University of Turin, Italy, will say that there is overwhelming evidence that the Etruscans, whose brilliant civilisation flourished 3000 years ago in what is now Tuscany, were settlers from...

Earliest horse figures of Anatolia in Eskiºehir Tuesday, February 27, 2007 ANKARA – Turkish Daily News Horse figures painted on rock formations in Eskiºehir are the oldest in Anatolia, according to new archaeological research. The research revealed that the first known horse figures date back to 6,000 B.C. and that the area was settled in the early Neolithic period. The excavation and studies of Anatolia in Eskiºehir's Sivrihisar district were conducted jointly by Eskiºehir-based Anadolu University and the Eskiºehir Archaeology Museum. The Eskiºehir province lies directly to the west of Ankara.Ali Umut Türkcan of Anadolu University said rock paintings featuring...

Unique rock paintings reveal traces of prehistoric human settlement in Anatolia Thursday, January 18, 2007 ANKARA – Turkish Daily News On the shores of Lake Bafa in southwest Turkey, prehistoric rock paintings found on Mt. Latmos in the Five Fingers Mountains have been classified as unique anthropological works because of their use of language and social themes. Archaeologist Annelise Peschlow has been conducting a survey of the area, the ancient city of Miletusare, since 1974 as part of the Latmos Project to find early traces of human settlements in the area. The city's evolution extended from prehistoric times to the...

The restoration of backstage rooms and tunnels discovered three years ago underneath the 2,500-year-old theater in the ancient city of Halicarnassus (modern-day Bodrum) has been completed, with the opening of the rooms to visitors planned for the coming tourism season... Three huge backstage rooms as well as two long tunnels -- one measures 30 meters and the other 150 -- used by spectators and artists to pass underneath the theater were restored... There are three nearly 40-square-meter backstage rooms carved out of the rock in the area, and archeologists estimate that there are at least 10 more backstage rooms underneath...

In was enlightening to read Mellaart's excavation reports from the 1960s [2] as well as other early writings. Contradictions between those texts and the current work indicated more than a runaway kilim theory and an overly fertile imagination at work. Technical and stylistic problems now combined with incriminating disclosures to reveal what seemed to be careless, poorly conceived fabrications -- possibly a deliberate hoax... The current controversy is not the first instance in which James Mellaart has offered flimsy evidence as the sole "proof" of revolutionary archaeological findings. In the mysterious Dorak Affair... Mellaart claims to have uncovered a cache...

Four graves, two jugs and seven coins dating to the Hittite period were unearthed during excavations conducted in the Mediterranean province of Adana, archaeologists working at the site announced on Monday. Adana Archaeology Museum Director Kaz›m Tosun told reporters that the graves were unearthed on May 25 during the excavations in the Ceyhan village of Sirkeli. Tosun said they had found some human bones in the graves. "The excavation is still under way. The findings will be exhibited at the Adana Archaeology Museum," he said. He also said the excavations were begun at the request of Akdeniz Petrolleri Inc. prior...

The Urartians established a kingdom around Lake Van in eastern Anatolia but failed to deal with severe winter conditions, especially snow, in an effective way, said Professor Veli Sevin on Wednesday, according to archaeological findings... Urartu was an ancient kingdom in eastern Anatolia centered in the mountainous region around Lake Van that existed from about 1,000 B.C. until 585 B.C. It stretched from northern Mesopotamia through the southern Caucasus, including parts of present-day Armenia up to Lake Sevan. The name Urartu is actually Assyrian, a dialect of Akkadian, and was given to the kingdom by its chief rivals to the...

The Lycian League was mentioned twice in the Federalist Papers, once by Alexander Hamilton, once by James Madison, so it could safely be said that it entered into the history of the formation of the United States. Now, after literally centuries of neglect, teams of Turkish and German archaeologists have been working under the hot sun of this small Mediterranean seacoast town, uncovering some of its treasures. Among them, liberated from the many hundreds of truckloads of sand that covered it, is the actual parliament building where the elected representatives of the Lycian League met. It has rows of stone...

Ancestors Of Turks Came To Anatolia In 2000s B.C. AFP: 8/27/2004 ERZURUM - Various archeological and cultural findings prove that Turks had come to Anatolia around 2000s B.C., Associated Prof. Semih Guneri said on Friday. Prof. Guneri and his team recently unearthed artifacts in excavations in Turkey's eastern provinces of Erzurum and Hakkari. According to experts, steles discovered by Associated Prof. Veli Sevin in Hakkari in the past will shed light on the question of ''When did Turks first come to Anatolia?''. Experts started to discuss this matter when a statue head which was sculpted around 2000s B.C. and was...

First Toilet And Sewer System Of Prehistoric Period Found In Van Anadolu Agency: 8/22/2004 VAN - The first toilet and sewer system of prehistoric period was found in an Urartian castle in Gurpinar town of eastern province of Van. In an interview with the A.A correspondent, Istanbul University Eurasian Archaeology Institute Director Prof. Dr. Oktay Belli said on Saturday that they had unearthed a toilet in the western part of Cavustepe Castle built by Urartian King Sarduri II in 764 BC. ''We revealed that Urartian architects had formed a sewer system before building the castle. The toilet and sewer system...

[D]uring the mid-nineteenth century, William Hamilton described it as the best preserved ancient city he had ever seen. Toward the end of that century, Sagalassos and its theater became famous among students of classical antiquity... [A] British-Belgian team led by Stephen Mitchell started surveying the site in 1985. Since 1990, Sagalassos has become a large-scale, interdisciplinary excavation of the Catholic University of Leuven, directed by Marc Waelkens.

50 ancient tombs uncovered From correspondents in Athens July 18, 2004 ARCHEOLOGISTS have discovered 50 tombs dating back to the late Minoan period, around 1400 BC, and containing a number of artifacts on the Greek island of Crete, ANA news agency reported today. The tombs were part of the once powerful ancient city of Kydonia, which was destroyed at the time but later rebuilt. The oldest among them contained bronze weapons, jewellery and vases and are similar to the tombs of fallen soldiers of the Mycenaean type from mainland Greece, said the head of the excavations, Maria Vlazaki. The more...

PARIS (AFP) - The vast group of languages that dominates Europe and much of Central and South Asia originated around 8,000 years ago among farmers in what is now Anatolia, Turkey. So say a pair of New Zealand academics who have remarkably retraced the family tree of so-called Indo-European languages -- a linguistic classification that covers scores of tongues ranging from Faroese to Hindi by way of English, French, German, Gujarati, Nepalese and Russian. Russell Gray and Quentin Atkinson, psychologists at the University of Auckland, built their language tree on the same principles as the theory of genetic evolution. According...

Italian Archeologist: Anatolia - Home to First Civilization on Earth Prof. Dr. Marcella Frangipane is trying to convince scientists that Anatolia is the source of civilization on earth, and not Mesopotamia, as historians have claimed. 20/06/2003 13:20 After 13 years of work in the Aslantepe Mound Orduzu, Malatya, Frangipane says the archefacts she uncovered prove that the first civilization was established in Anatolia. According to Frangipane, the swords he found in Aslantepe and the palace, are the oldest in the world. These findings contradict everything in history books. Frangipane held a seminar, accompanied by a slide show, entitled 'Anatolia and...