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Doliche was founded as a Hellenistic colony during the 2nd century BC in the present-day province of Gaziantep, Turkey. During antiquity, the city was located in the ancient region of Cyrrhestica, which was annexed by the Roman Empire in AD 72.Previous excavations in the city have unearthed the remains of a Mithraic temple, rock cut graves, and a stele depicting a previously unknown Iron Age deity.A recent study by the Asia Minor Research Centre has found over 2,000 seal impressions used to seal documents from the city municipal archive. The impressions consist of stamped clay lumps that range from 5...

The remains of a Byzantine abbey were identified during the excavation of several Roman tombs near the coast of the Black Sea, according to a Hurriyet Daily News report. “Through historical records, documents and insights gleaned from various travelers and explorers who mentioned specific details, we determined that this site was a [Christian] monastery church, an abbey, dedicated to Roman Emperor Constantine and his wife Helena,” said archaeologist Seçkin Evcim of Ordu University, who directs the project under the supervision of the Ordu Museum with the permission of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of the Republic of...

Upon the information that illegal excavations were carried out in a house in the İscehisar district of Afyonkarahisar in western Turkey, the teams raided the house and found that the determined that illegal diggers had uncovered an underground city under the house.According to the news of Ali Fuat Güçlü from DHA; Police raided a house in the İscehisar district of Afyonkarahisar and detained 7 people who were digging illegally. It was stated that the suspects dug a tunnel under the house and uncovered the underground city where historical artifacts and columns were found.The teams of Afyonkarahisar Police Department Anti-Smuggling and...

Archaeologists working at the ancient Roman city of Aizanoi in Turkey's Kütahya province have made an exciting discovery of rare 2,000-year-old makeup and jewelry products.The excavations, carried out in collaboration with the Kütahya Governorate and Dumlupınar University, have revealed a cosmetics and jewelry shop located east of the Temple of Zeus.Professor Gökhan Coşkun, the head of the Archaeology Department at Dumlupınar University, stated that they have found perfume bottles, pieces of jewelry, and remnants of makeup including blushes and eye shadows.Evidently, the ancient Romans used oyster shells to store their makeup products, and these shells were found abundantly in the...

...Excavations in Boğazköy-Hattusha have been going on for more than 100 years under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute. The site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986; almost 30,000 clay tablets with cuneiform writing have been found there so far. These tablets, which were included in the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage in 2001, provide rich information about the history, society, economy and religious traditions of the Hittites and their neighbors.Yearly archaeological campaigns... continue to add to the cuneiform finds. Most of the texts are written in Hittite, the oldest attested Indo-European language and the dominant language...

A Customs Inscription from the Lycian civilization, located in Andriake port in the southern province of Antalya's Demre district, tells about ancient times...The Ancient City of Andriake is 5 km away from the Demre district of Antalya. It was one of the most important ports of Lycia, such as Phaselis and Patara, in ancient times. It is known as the port of the Ancient City of Myra and a settlement formed by it, rather than being a separate city.The inscription, discovered in the vicinity of the largest Granarium in the Mediterranean, named after Emperor Hadrian (Horrea Hadriani), contains information about...

Archaeologists discovered, well-preserved brain and skin remnants of two individuals dating to the Bronze Age during excavations at Tavşanlı Höyük (Tavşanlı Mound) in western Türkiye’s Kütahya province...The excavations of the mound, which spans an area of 45 hectares, are carried out by the Archeology Department of Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University. A team of 25 local and foreign experts accompanies the research carried out under the chairmanship of Professor Erkan Fidan.According to experts, the discovery was noteworthy because it was the first time that skin remains had been found during archaeological excavations in Türkiye, whereas brain remains had only been found...

İnkaya Cave, located within the borders of Bahadırlı village in the Çan district, was found during the Muğla and Çanakkale Provinces Survey conducted in 2016 under the direction of İsmail Özer, a lecturer at Ankara University, Department of Paleoanthropology...During the excavations carried out last year, the Middle Paleolithic period workshop part of the cave was unearthed... humans from the Middle Paleolithic Period resided in the region for extended periods due to the availability of flint raw material and water resources.“Evidence of the Paleolithic era in Çanakkale was previously limited. Through our research, it became evident that Çanakkale is actually one...

A Turkish homeowner chasing his chickens through a hole in his basement during renovations came across an abandoned underground Turkish city that once housed 20,000 people. ... the ancient city of Elengubu, known today as Derinkuyu. Derinkuyu, burrowed more than 280 feet beneath the Central Anatolian region of Cappadocia, is the largest excavated underground city in the world and is believed to connect to more than 200 smaller, separate underground cities ... Inside the subterranean city — whose entrances connect to more than 600 private homes in the modern, surface-level region of Cappadocia — researchers found 18 levels of tunnels...

... what about BONCUKLU TARLA? | Uncovering the real star of Middle Eastern archaeology. | 23:21The Prehistory Guys | 63.2K subscribers | 305,710 views | May 10, 2023

...the group examined the remains of a dog found in a tomb in what was once a city called Tralleis, in what is now modern Turkey.The dog remains were found at a dig site in Aydın back in 2007, but were considered too delicate for study at the time—they were put in safe storage instead. In 2021, the team on this new effort retrieved the bones and began a slow study of the bones to learn more about the dog.Though the specimen was not complete, the research team was still able to determine that it was a dog and that...

...not everyone agrees that this is a new finding, with some experts noting that other research has already found that silver currency was being used during the Middle Bronze Age in this region...Eshel and her colleagues also attempted to determine the origins of the silver in the hoards by studying their chemical impurities and isotopes — variations in the number of neutrons in the nuclei of particular elements, which change over time at known rates due to radiation.The analysis revealed signs of a widespread transition between sources in about 1200 B.C., possibly from silver mined in Anatolia — now Turkey...

The ancient city of Aizanoi was founded as a Phrygian city on the western end of the Phrygia kingdom, in the present-day Çavdarhisar district of the western Anatolian province of Kütahya in Turkey. Aizanoi was home to the Aizanitisians, Phrygians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines and the site was rediscovered by European travelers in 1824. The German Archaeological Institute began excavating in 1926 and works resumed in 1970, with them having accelerated significantly over the last two years. At this site, that’s listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List , over the years archaeologists have unearthed ancient stone heads and...

Unique ceramic figures were discovered in the excavations carried out this year in the ancient city of Klazomenai in the Urla district of Izmir. Among the artifacts were the 2,500-year-old a rare perirrhanterion (wash-basin) and the wash-basin foot and base decorated with chariot races.Experts said An embossed and painted example adorned with figures in this way has never been found before.The perirrhanterion is a special type of louterion (water-basin) used for ritual washing in sanctuaries. Although many examples of stone (marble) and ceramics were found in previous excavations, no examples of fantastic mythological creatures and chariot races belonging to the...

Archeologists in central Türkiye unearthed traces of permanent settlement dating back at least 9,300 years, the head of the dig site told Anadolu Agency on Friday."We can say that this is the oldest settlement in the borders of Nigde province," said archeologist Semra Balci, who leads the excavation team at the Sircalitepe Mound.Balci, of Istanbul University, said her team had found bone and obsidian tools used in daily settled life, along with beads and other objects thought to be for ornamental purposes.She added that two samples that they found had been radiocarbon dated, revealing that they were 9,600-9,300 years old.Initial...

According to a statement by the Düzce Municipality, many blocks that are estimated to belong to the building of the theater stage have been discovered in the archaeological digs in the ancient city. Of the blocks decorated with floral and mythological elements, the most striking one depicts the hunter Actaeon, who was killed with his own dogs by angering the Goddess Artemis in mythology. Actaeon, who was torn by three dogs, is installed at the top of the block decorated with floral ornaments.It was reported that archaeologists have started cleaning the blocks featuring beautiful decorations unearthed from the orchestra section...

A 3,200-year-old Mycenaean statuette has been found in the ongoing excavations at Ayasuluk Hill in western Izmir province's Selçuk district. The statuette, which reveals a possible connection between Hittites and Mycenaean civilizations in the Ephesus region, could change the perspective on the history of civilization in Western Anatolia during the Bronze Age...During the excavations carried out under the direction of associate professor Sinan Mimaroğlu of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University Art History Department, a Mycenaean figurine with a height and width of about 5 centimeters (1.97 inches), whose head and feet could not be found, was unearthed, as well as ceramics...

A bungled looting scheme has led archaeologists to an underground Iron Age complex in Turkey that may have been used by a fertility cult during the first millennium B.C., a new study finds.The ancient complex, which has yet to be fully investigated due to the instability of the structure, has rare rock art drawings on its walls featuring a procession of deities depicted in an Assyrian style. This art style appears to have been adapted by local groups, indicating how strongly the culture of the Neo-Assyrian Empire — which hailed from Mesopotamia and later expanded into Anatolia — spread to...

Sometime before 12,000 years ago, nomadic hunter-gatherers in the Middle East made one of the most important transitions in human history: they began staying put and took to farming. A pair of ancient-DNA studies1,2 — including one of the largest assemblages of ancient human genomes yet published — has homed in on the identity of the hunter-gatherers who settled down. Archaeological and genetic evidence suggests that humans first took to farming in the Middle East. This transition — which also later occurred independently in other parts of the world — is known as the Neolithic revolution, and is linked to...

Alarge number of artifacts belonging to the second and third centuries A.D. were unearthed in an underground city featuring places of worship, silos, water wells and passages with corridors in southeastern Mardin province’s Midyat district. Midyat, which is almost an open-air museum with its history and culture, offers a magical atmosphere to its visitors with stone houses, inns, mosques, churches and monasteries that are thousands of years old. In the district, a cave was found within the scope of a project started two years ago for cleaning and conservation of the historical streets and houses. After it was determined that...