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ANCIENT LIFE-SIZE LION STATUES BAFFLE SCIENTISTS

 

Each of the two life-sized statues weighs about 5 tons and archaeologists aren't sure what they were used for.

 

Wed Jul 25, 2012 03:09 PM ET

 

THE GIST

 

Two massive life-sized lion statues were found in what is now Turkey.

The statues date to between 1400 and 1200 B.C.

The lions may have been part of a monument for a sacred water spring.

 

"Two sculptures of life-size lions, each weighing about 5 tons in antiquity, have been discovered in what is now Turkey, with archaeologists perplexed over what the granite cats were used for.

 

One idea is that the statues, created between 1400 and 1200 B.C., were meant to be part of a monument for a sacred water spring, the researchers said.

 

The lifelike lions were created by the Hittites who controlled a vast empire in the region at a time when the Asiatic lion roamed the foothills of Turkey.

 

"The lions are prowling forward, their heads slightly lowered; the tops of their heads are barely higher than the napes," write Geoffrey Summers, of the Middle East Technical University, and researcher Erol Özen in an article published in the most recent edition of the American Journal of Archaeology."

 

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Excavation Reveals Ancient Hair Fashion

 

ÇANAKKALE - Anatolia News Agency

 

August 20, 2012

 

"Archaeologists conducting excavations in the northwestern province of Çanakkale’s Ayvacık district have discovered hairpins thought to be over two millennia old, proving that ancient societies also had a pronounced desire to “look good,” according to researchers.

 

“The hairpins show us that there was a high demand for them in ancient times. Maybe their existence shows us that there was a small atelier for hair pin production here,” said Professor Nurettin Arslan of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, the head of the excavations, adding that women of the age placed great importance in being well-groomed and stylish."

 

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Mysterious Tablet’s Secrets Revealed

 

DIYARBAKIR - Anatolia News Agency

 

August 27, 2012

 

A tablet found at the Ziyarettepe excavation area has stirred excitement among scientists and archaeologists. The tablet, which belongs to third century has writings in unknown language. Currently, scientists are working on it.

 

A tablet from the eighth century BC in an unknown language found at the Ziyarettepe excavation has stirred excitement among scientists.

 

“The tablet in Ziyarettepe is quite important. The first evaluations and translation of the tablet were done in England. However, the first announcements are being made at our museum in Turkey,” said Nevin Soyukaya, director of the Diyarbakır Museum, which is supervising the excavation.

 

Soyukaya said the Ziyarettepe excavation had revealed a lot of knowledge. “Human history repeats with every excavation, as scientists say. The region provides important knowledge, and these important findings are brought to the Diyarbakır Museum.”

 

Dr. Timothy Matney, a professor at Akron University in the United States, said the settlement at Ziyarettepe, consisting of 32 hectares near the Tigris River (Dicle River), dated from the third century BC to 700 BC, making it one of the oldest settlements. “It was an important center for the Assyrians. It was an accommodation and state center for the Assyrian military, so there was a big palace where the state governor resided on the mound. We uncovered it, and the tablet was found in the burnt ruins of the throne room of the palace in the Assyrian state center Tuşhan.”

 

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Historic Stadium Found in Aydın

 

AYDIN - Doğan News Agency

 

September 04, 2012

 

The best-preserved stadium in the Anatolian region has been found at the ancient city of Magnesia in the Aegean province of Aydın’s Germencik. Other finds also show that people living in the city were very civilized

 

"During excavation in the ancient city of Magnesia, located in the Ortaklar district of Germencik in the Aegean province of Aydın, the best preserved stadium in Anatolia has been unearthed. Excavations and restoration works have continued for 28 years under the leadership of the head of the Ankara University Archaeology Department Professor Orhan Bingöl.

 

“It took 35 days to clean the semicircular ‘Sphendona’ part [of the stadium], which was 70-meters underground the stadium,” Bingöl said.

 

He said that the ancient city of Magnesia, which lies within the borders of the village Tekinköy continued for an additional three months this season thanks to the increase in financial support provided by the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

 

“During the excavation and restoration works, the best preserved stadium of Anatolia has been unearthed. It is completely made of marble and the capacity of the stadium is 40,000 people. The works have been carried out with a 20-person scientific team from Turkish universities as well as a seven-person team from Germany’s Nurnberg-Erlangen University,” Bingöl said."

 

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Turkish Archaeologists Reveal 6th Century Baptistery Abroad

 

PRISTINA - Doğan News Agency

 

September 7, 2012

 

A historic baptistery structure has been unearthed at one of the most important ancient sites in Kosovo by Turkish archaeologists. It is the first such excavation to be carried out by Turkish archaeologists in Europe

 

"At an excavation site in Kosovo’s ancient city of Ulpiana, a team of Turkish archaeologists have discovered a baptistery dating from the Byzantine period.

 

The archaeological team, consisting of archaeology students from Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan University and headed by Professor Haluk Çetinkaya, excavated in a 250 square-meter area, unearthing an important part of the sixth-century city. Mimar Sinan University graduate Elvis Shala, a native of Kosovo, also joined in the excavation, which lasted 70 days.

 

Work at the site began on July 2, Çetinkaya said. “Baptisteries are rarely found in this region. We have succeeded in making a very important finding, as part of the first excavation Turkey has carried out abroad."

 

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Linguists from Leiden Decipher Phrygian and Lydian Inscriptions

 

13 September 2012

 

Coen van Beelen

 

"Linguists Alwin Kloekhorst and Alexander Lubotsky from Leiden University made a great discovery this summer. They deciphered a few dozen inscriptions on pot shards found in Daskyleion (North-West Turkey) as Phrygian and Lydian, and thus proved the presence of the Phrygians and Lydians in that area.

 

Sensational

 

Kloekhorst and Lubotsky’s find can be termed sensational. Previous excavations had already led to the supposition that Greeks and Phrygians lived in and around Daskyleion between the 6th and 3rd century BC, but now there is also proof of the presence of the Lydians. The kingdom of the Phrygians in the mid-west of the Anatolian Plateau had a rich mythology in which kings such as Gordias (of the Gordian Knot) figured. The Lydians are known as a rich people that in all probability invented coins. This means it has been proven for the first time that Daskyleion was a multi-ethnic town in that period. This is important, because we do not yet know for sure which languages were spoken in North-West Turkey before the Greeks began to settle there in about 800 BC."

 

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Archaeologists Discover Second Lycian Synagogue

 

ANTALYA - Anatolia News Agency

 

September 25, 2012

 

"Archaeological teams digging in the ancient city of Limyra in the Mediterranean province of Antalya have announced the discovery of a second synagogue from the Lycian civilization.

 

Researchers initially thought the house of worship was a glass furnace, according to the head of the excavations, Dr. Martin Seyer of the Austrian Archaeology Institute. “We first found a bath and a menorah. After some [further] investigation, we found out that it was a synagogue,” he said."

 

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Ancient Trade Documentary Discovered in Turkey's City of Trade

 

October 10, 2012

 

"Some 24,000 ancient trade documents have been discovered in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, known as Turkey's city of trade, according to the city's mayor, Mehmet Özhaseki.

 

Checks and bills dating back 6,000 years were discovered in excavations in Kayseri, Özhaseki said while attending the 15th Antalya Industrialist and Businessmen’s meeting today."

 

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Zeugma After the Flood

 

Volume 65 Number 6, November/December 2012

 

by Matthew Brunwasser

 

New excavations continue to tell the story of an ancient city at the crossroads between east and west

 

"It wasn't good policy that saved ancient Zeugma. It was a good story. In 2000, the construction of the massive Birecik Dam on the Euphrates River, less than a mile from the site, began to flood the entire area in southern Turkey. Immediately, a ticking time-bomb narrative of the waters, which were rising an average of four inches per day for six months, brought Zeugma and its plight global fame. The water, which soon would engulf the archaeological remains, also brought increasing urgency to salvage efforts and emergency excavations that had already been taking place at the site, located about 500 miles from Istanbul, for almost a year. The media attention Zeugma received attracted generous aid from both private and government sources. Of particular concern was the removal of Zeugma's mosaics, some of the most extraordinary examples to survive from the ancient world. Soon the world's top restorers arrived from Italy to rescue them from the floodwaters. The focus on Zeugma also brought great numbers of international tourists—and even more money—a trend that continues today with the opening in September 2011 of the ultramodern $30 million Zeugma Mosaic Museum in the nearby city of Gaziantep."

 

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History of Hattuşa’s Excavation on Display

 

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

 

October 15, 2012

 

"Yapı Kredi Culture Center displays a photography documenting a century of archaeological excavations in the Hattuşa, situated in the northern province of Çorum. The exhibition features photographs drawn from German Archaeological Institute

 

Istanbul’s Yapı Kredi Cultural Center has opened a new exhibition on Hattuşa, inviting viewers to dig through the history of the past 100 years of archaeological excavations at the ancient Hittite capital in northern Turkey.

 

The unpublished photographs that form the backbone of the show were gathered with the aim of painting a historical, ethnographical and sociological panorama of the whole excavations process from 1906 to 2012.

 

The roots of the show dates back a year ago to when archaeologists and excavation heads working at the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) started to scan an archive of the Hattuşa excavation. The artistic and scientific consultants of the show are DAI archaeologist Jürgen Seeher, the former excavation head at the site in Boğazköy in Çorum, Ayşe Baykal Seeher, as well as the present excavation head, Andreas Schachner. The exhibition opens with an excavation site simulation installed at the entrance. On the right-hand side, the walls in the corridor bear panels showing a chronological timeline of the excavations in the region and introduce the chief archaeologists in charge, like Osman Hamdi Bey, the famous Ottoman Orientalist painter known for his “Turtle Trainer,” as well as the founder of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum."

 

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Archaeologists Plan New Dig at Troy

 

by LiveScience Staff

 

Date: 15 October 2012 Time: 06:18 PM ET

 

"Armed with shovels, trowels and new biotechnology tools, archaeologists plan to march into Troy next year for excavations at the famed ancient city.

 

"Our goal is to add a new layer of information to what we already know about Troy," said William Aylward, a classics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who will lead the expedition. "The archaeological record is rich. If we take a closer look with new scientific tools for study of ancient biological and cultural environments, there is much to be found for telling the story of this world heritage site."

 

The city immortalized in Homer's "Iliad" lies in what is today western Turkey and was rediscovered in the 1870s by German archaeology pioneer Heinrich Schliemann. Since then, researchers have been digging up the site periodically, but less than one-fifth of Troy has been excavated."

 

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İzmir Presents Mosaic City of Western Region

 

İZMİR - Anatolia News Agency

 

A new ancient city considered to be the Zeugma of the West and thought to be one of the lost cities of Anatolia has been unearthed in İzmir. There are unique mosaics with figures in the city

 

October 23, 2012

 

"An archaeological city dating back 1,700 years has been unearthed during excavations in İzmir’s Kemalpaşa neighborhood, raising officials’ hopes the area will draw tourists’ attention.

 

The Cultural Beings and Museums’ General Director Osman Murat Süslü held a press conference Oct. 21 regarding the discovery of the archaeological city, which Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay has defined as “good news that will draw the world’s attention.”"

 

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Popular Archaeology

 

Archaeologists Return to Uncover Ancient Karkemish

 

Sat, Nov 03, 2012

 

Archaeologists and conservationists cooperate to research and save a monumental ancient city that witnessed a pivotal ancient battle between empires.

 

"After nearly a century, archaeolgists have finally returned to excavate and conserve the ancient remains of Karkemish (Carchemish), a monumental capital city near the northwestern edge of Mesopotamia that was mentioned in both Biblical and extra-Biblical texts.

 

Here, kings and conquerors of the Mittani, Hittite, and Neo-Assyrian empires established seats of power and here, the Babylonian forces of Nebuchadnezzar II defeated the combined troops of Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt and Assyrian allies at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C.

 

But today, its decaying remains straddle the border between Turkey and war-torn Syria, with 55 hectares of the site falling within Turkey and 35 hectares in Syria. Adjacent to the cities of Karkamis in Turkey and Jarablus in Syria, the ruins are divided into inner and outer areas by traces of massive earthen ramparts."

 

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Hittites Ahead of their time in Dam Building

 

ÇORUM - Anatolia News Agency

 

The discovery of a Hittite dam constructed more than three millennia ago at the ancient site of Alacahöyük in northern Anatolia suggests that little has changed in the past 3,000 years in terms of building barrages

 

November 5, 2012

 

"A dam unearthed during excavation work in the northern Anatolian province of Çorum reveals that the dam construction techniques of the ancient past are similar to the techniques used today, according to archaeologists.

 

“We excavated the area but could not unearth the dam completely. This dam was built 3,250 years ago but with the same technique used today. They used clay instead of cement. It is important for us because even the Hittites understood 3,250 years ago that it was not possible to live in Anatolia without constructing a dam,” said Professor Aykut Çınaroğlu, who heads the excavations at Alacahöyuk.

 

Excavations in the area have continued to shed light on history. The dam, which dates back to the Hittite period, is the oldest one ever found in Anatolia."

 

Continued

 

Wiki Hittites

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New Construction Plan Approved for Ephesus

 

IZMIR - Anatolia News Agency

 

A reconstruction plan for the protection of the ancient city of Ephesus and St. Jean Church has been approved by the Seljuk Municipality Assembly as part of a bid for a permanent UNESCO World Heritage Site listing

 

November 10, 2012

 

"The Seljuk Municipality Assembly has approved a reconstruction and protection plan for the ancient city of Ephesus, an important step toward its bid for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

 

The 1/1000-scaled reconstruction plan for the protection of Ephesus, which is located in İzmir’s Seljuk district, as well as the St. Jean (Ayasuluk) Church, was approved during the assembly’s November meeting. The plan was sent to the İzmir General Directorate of Cultural and Natural Heritage for approval by the Municipality Assembly.

 

Borders

 

After the plan is put into effect, agricultural operations will continue in the field within the borders of the Ephesus 1st degree Archaeological Site. As the borders of the ancient city have been determined, new walking lanes will be created in the ancient city as well as new entrance gates and retail stores.

 

In a written statement, Seljuk Mayor Vefa Ülgür said the plan clarified which part of the city would serve tourism, which part would have car parks and businesses and which part would be agricultural fields."

 

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DNA Sleuth Hunts Wine Roots in Anatolia

 

By Suzanne Mustacich (AFP) – 9 hours ago

 

"ELAZIG, Turkey — There are easier places to make wine than the spectacular, desolate landscapes of southeast Turkey, but DNA analysis suggests it is here that Stone Age farmers first domesticated the wine grape.

 

Today Turkey is home to archaeological sites as well as vineyards of ancient grape varieties like Bogazkere and Okuzgozu, which drew the curiosity of the Swiss botanist and grape DNA sleuth Jose Vouillamoz, for the clues they may offer to the origin of European wine.

 

Together with the biomolecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern, Vouillamoz has spent nearly a decade studying the world's cultivated and wild vines.

 

"We wanted to collect samples from wild and cultivated grape vines from the Near East -- that means southeastern Anatolia, Armenia and Georgia -- to see in which place the wild grape was, genetically speaking, linked the closest to the cultivated variety."

 

"It turned out to be southeastern Anatolia," the Asian part of modern Turkey, said Vouillamoz, speaking at the EWBC wine conference in the Turkish city of Izmir this month. "We propose the hypothesis that it is most likely the first place of grape vine domestication.""

 

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Resurrecting the past - Ancient Laodicea

 

4 December 2012 / TERRY RICHARDSON, DENIZLI

 

"Cranes, excavators, teams of workmen in hard-hats and foremen shouting into their mobile phones are a ubiquitous feature of today's Turkey, a country where, in spite of a global economic slowdown, new buildings continue to be erected at a staggering rate. Take a trip to Laodicea, however, and you'll see a “building site” with a twist. For here a long abandoned Greek-Roman city is being resurrected wholesale from its ruins by … construction cranes and teams of workmen in hard-hats!

 

Sprawling across a low hill between the prosperous textile town of Denizli and the iconic travertine formations of Pamukkale in western Turkey, ancient Laodicea is generally overlooked by the vast majority of visitors, who tend to be drawn instead to Pamukkale and its associated site of Hierapolis, or the wonderful remains at Aphrodisias, not too much further away. Only bible groups, attracted to Laodicea because it is one of the Seven Churches mentioned in the New Testament's Revelation of John, buck the trend.

 

That Laodicea is relatively little visited is hardly surprising given its press. The current edition of Lonely Planet Turkey says “there's not much of interest left,” the Rough Guide to Turkey doesn't even mention the site. A late 1980s version of the more specialist, archaeology and history-orientated Blue Guide writes of Laodicea, “Much of its worked stone has been removed for building purposes and, unfortunately, little is being done to preserve its remaining structures from further damage.”"

 

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Ancient World’s ‘Greatest Church’ to Open as Archeopark

 

ERDEK - Anatolia News Agency

 

"A new archeopark museum is set to open in Erdek. The Mother Mary church in Zeytinliada will now be open to tourist after restorations"

 

December 14, 2012

 

"The Mother Mary church, located in the modern of village of Zeytinliada near Erdek and known in ancient sources as “the greatest church in the world,” has been undergoing excavation since 2006 and will soon open to tourists as a new archeopark.

 

Zeytinliada will be the first archeopark island museum in Turkey, Erdek Mayor Hüseyin Aysan said. “The area, which covers 200 square meters, will be transformed into a museum. The environs of the museum will also be transformed. We are working on this.” The island was a pilgrimage in times past, said Nurettin Öztürk, an assistant professor at Erzurum’s Atatürk University and the head of the excavation at the site, adding that it could become so again for Orthodox Christians."

 

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Midyat’s Underground City Awaits Attention

 

MARDİN - Anatolia News Agency

 

"Söğütlü, an ancient underground city in Mardin’s Midyat, expects to draw financial interest for its restoration. The city, which has been in existence since early Christianity, was discovered only a few years ago because older residents, who knew about it, did not know its importance"

 

December 18, 2012

 

"An underground city in the southeastern province of Mardin’s Midyat district, which is known to have been used as a settlement in the early period of Christianity, will open to tourists if it is provided allocation.

 

Specifications on the underground city had been prepared in 2009 and reports were sent to the Diyarbakır Council of Monuments, said Lozan Bayar, an archaeologist from the Mardin Municipality Protection and Supervision Office (KUDEB). “The city was registered as the Söğütlü Underground City and a project had been prepared to bring the city into tourism [sights],” Bayar said."

 

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Ancient City of Troy Rebranded Itself After War

 

18 December 2012

 

Magazine issue 2896.

 

"EVEN ancient cities knew about rebranding. Troy was destroyed by war about 3200 years ago - an event that may have inspired Homer to write the Iliad, 400 years later. But the famous city rose again, reinventing itself to fit a new political landscape.

 

Troy lies in north-west Turkey and has been studied for decades. Pottery made before the war has a distinct Trojan style but after the war its style is typical of the Balkans. This led archaeologists to believe that the locals had been forced out and replaced by populations from overseas."

 

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Turkish Professor Calls for the Return of Santa Claus' Bones to Turkey

 

ISTANBUL

 

December 23, 2012

 

"Akdeniz University (AÜ) Archaeology professor Nevzat Çevik has called on the Vatican to return to Turkey the bones of Saint Nicholas (the original Santa Claus), which were taken out of the country in 1087, in an interview with Anatolia news agency.

 

Çevik said the bones of Saint Nicholas were taken from Turkey "by force" to be buried in a church in the Bari province of Italy, and should be returned to the place where the saint lived."

 

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NATION AND WORLD

 

Mud may have preserved Turkish city 700 years ago, archaeologists say

 

POSTED: 01/09/2013 12:01:00 AM MST

UPDATED: 01/09/2013 06:36:48 AM MST

 

By Jennifer Pinkowski

 

The New York Times

 

DEMRE, Turkey — "In the fourth century A.D., a bishop named Nicholas transformed the city of Myra, on the Mediterranean coast of what is now Turkey, into a Christian capital.

 

Nicholas was later canonized, becoming the St. Nicholas of Christmas fame. Myra had a much unhappier fate.

 

After some 800 years as an important pilgrimage site in the Byzantine Empire it vanished — buried under 18 feet of mud from the rampaging Myros River. All that remained was the Church of St. Nicholas, parts of a Roman amphitheater and tombs cut into the rocky hills."

 

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Sifting the Dust for Treasures While Trouble Swirls

 

By SUSANNE FOWLER

 

Published: January 16, 2013

 

"KARKEMISH, TURKEY — The Syrian civil war is not the first conflict to complicate Professor Nicolò Marchetti’s efforts to turn Karkemish, an ancient city site on the banks of the Euphrates, on Turkey’s southern border and inside a restricted military zone, into a public archaeology park.

 

Before his team started digging, under the watchful eyes of armed Turkish soldiers, he had to make sure that land mines planted in the 1950s had all been cleared away.

 

Mr. Marchetti — a tanned and lanky version of Hollywood’s Indiana Jones, who teaches Near Eastern, or pre-classical, archaeology at the University of Bologna — has led excavations at Karkemish on and off for two years after being granted the first access allowed to anyone in decades."

 

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