The Secret of the Shipwrecks at Theodosius Harbor: 1,600 Years Old Women’s Sandals and Comb

The 1,600-year-old sandals and comb unearthed during the excavations of Theodosius Harbor (Portus Theodosiacus), the second-biggest harbor built on the coast of the Marmara Sea, fascinate those who see it.

Excavations conducted concurrently with the construction of the Marmaray and Metro rail projects initiated to provide a solution to Istanbul’s transportation problems have resulted in the most extensive archeological survey in the city’s history.

As a result, detailed information about Istanbul’s prehistoric periods has been obtained, an area that has hosted different cultures for thousands of years and unites the cultures of the East and the West.

Before 2004, information about the settlement history of Istanbul was based on excavations outside the Historic Peninsula; settlements in these areas could be traced to 2,500 years ago.

The astonishing finds were discovered during digs prompted by the Marmaray project. One of these interesting finds was sandals with wooden soles belonging to a woman.

The sandals had a Greek message that reads: “Use in health, lady, wear in beauty and happiness.”

Researchers came to differing conclusions about the sunken ships discovered in the harbor of Theodosius, which dated from different centuries. It was suggested that the ships might have sunk during a hurricane, tsunami, or other natural disaster.

The idea that the ships were simply abandoned after serving their purpose is one of the most widely held theories. In the fourth of nine stratigraphic segments in the excavation field, researchers discovered evidence of the effects of the earthquake and tsunami that occurred in AD 553.

Another theory is that the southwesterly wind, known as kaçak (fugitive) in Turkish, which begins suddenly in the Marmara Sea during the summer months, caused these vessels to sink.

Above the vessels, a thick layer of sea sand formed. The accumulation that filled the harbor protected and preserved the sunken ships.

The rapid burial of the ships created an anoxic environment that preserved rigging tools like tackles, pulleys, ropes, and toggles as well as everyday items like combs, leather sandals, straw baskets, and wooden plates as well as a variety of organic and inorganic artifacts like stone and iron anchors.

Around the harbor, a number of fragments of sunken ships and items from earlier eras were also discovered.

The colored skeletons of Çatalhöyük provide insight into the burial rituals of a fascinating society that lived 9000 years ago

New research provides new insights into how the inhabitants of the “oldest city in the world” in Çatalhöyük (Turkey) buried their dead.

Their bones were partially painted, excavated several times, and reburied. The findings provide insight into the burial rituals of a fascinating society that lived 9000 years ago.

The research was done by an international team with the participation of the University of Bern and is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Çatalhöyük (Central Anatolia, Turkey) is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Near East, with an occupation that dates back to 9000 years ago. This Neolithic settlement, known as the world’s oldest city, covers an area of 13 ha and features densely aggregated mudbrick buildings.

The houses of Çatalhöyük present the archaeological traces of ritual activities including intramural burials with some skeletons bearing traces of colorants, and wall paintings.

The association between the use of colorants and symbolic activities is documented among many past and present human societies. In the Near East, the use of pigments in architectural and funerary contexts becomes especially frequent starting from the second half of the 9th and the 8th millennium BC.

Near Eastern archaeological sites dating back to the Neolithic have returned a large body of evidence of complex, often mysterious, symbolic activities. These include secondary funerary treatments, retrieval and circulation of skeletal parts, such as skulls, and the use of pigments in both architectural spaces and funerary contexts.

The first analysis of the pigments used in funerary and architectural contexts from this essential Neolithic site.

According to the senior author of the study Marco Milella (Department of Physical Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern): “These results reveal exciting insights about the association between the use of colorants, funerary rituals and living spaces in this fascinating society”.

A time travel into a world of colors, houses, and dead

Marco Milella was part of the anthropological team who excavated and studied the human remains from Çatalhöyük. His work involves trying to make ancient and modern skeletons “speak”. Establishing the age and sex, investigating violent injuries or special treatment of the corpse, and solving skeletal puzzles are routine activities at the Department of Physical Anthropology.

The study shows that red ochre was most commonly used at Çatalhöyük, present on some adults of both sexes and children, and that cinnabar and blue/green were associated with males and females, respectively.

Intriguingly, the number of burials in a building appears associated with the number of subsequent layers of architectural paintings. This suggests a contextual association between funerary deposition and application of colorants in the domestic space. “This means: when they buried someone, they also painted on the walls of the house”, Milella says.

Furthermore, at Çatalhöyük, some individuals “stayed” in the community: their skeletal elements were retrieved and circulated for some time, before they were buried again. This second burial of skeletal elements was also accompanied by wall paintings.

Neolithic mysteries

Only a selection of individuals was buried with colorants, and only a part of the individuals remained in the community with their circulating bones.

According to Marco Milella, “the criteria guiding the selection of these individuals escape our understanding for now, which makes these findings even more interesting. Our study shows that this selection was not related to age or sex”.

What is clear, however, is that visual expression, ritual performance, and symbolic associations were elements of shared long-term socio-cultural practices in this Neolithic society.

Prehistoric Rock Art Discovered in Western Turkey

New paintings believed to be from the prehistoric era have come to light during the ongoing studies on Mount Latmos (Beşparmak), home to significant rock paintings from ancient times.

Located in the western province of Aydın, the Latmos region is one of the places that attracts attention with its natural beauties, as it is also on the route of local and foreign tourists who want to explore nature and history.

While studies have been carried out to preserve the region and reveal its historical importance, the rock paintings of Latmos shed light on prehistoric times.

The number of the first known prehistoric rock paintings in Western Anatolia, discovered by German Archaeologist Anneliese Peschlow in 1994, has reached 200, with new paintings found since then.

The main subject of Latmos rock paintings, which have unique features in terms of subject and style, is related to the relationship between men and women, family, spring festivals and wedding ceremonies. In many paintings, decorations and figures resembling weaving patterns are also seen.

The newly discovered painting, which is believed to date back to prehistoric times, was found on a rock and in its cavities during the research conducted by the Ecosystem Conservation and Nature Lovers Association (EKODOSD).

Stating that they applied to the Aydın Cultural Heritage Preservation Board after the new discovery, EKODOSD President Bahattin Sürücü said, “There are human figures and ornamental motifs in the paintings drawn on a rock surface and its natural cavities.

It is seen that a figure drawn in a natural cavity has a different shape from the previous rock paintings. Peschlow, who has been working on prehistoric rock paintings in the Latmos region for years, has studied the newly found paintings. It was reported that the painting with interesting figures was not in Peschlow’s records.”

He said that further examinations will be made on the rock paintings by the Directorate General for Preservation of Natural Heritage.

After the first rock painting was discovered in Söğütözü in 1994, nearly 200 paintings have been so far found, Sürücü said.

“Considering that there are thousands of rock shelters and caves on a wide area among the rugged, stacked rocks of the Latmos Mountains, it is a fact that it is difficult and takes decades to study and detect them.

It is not easy to find rock paintings in the complex structure of the Latmos Mountains, which is almost an open-air museum with its castles, ancient stone roads, monasteries and defensive structures.”

“The newly found rock painting shows once again that many paintings drawn by prehistoric artists on thousands of rocks in the Latmos region are waiting to be discovered. Latmos Mountains are world heritage and should be protected as a whole,” he added.

The World’s oldest and first swords ever discovered

The 5,000-year-old swords found 43 years ago during the excavations in the old mud-brick palace structure in Malatya Arslantepe Mound are the oldest swords in the world.

Many archaeologists believed that the earliest swords only dated to around 1600 or 1500 BCE before the discovery of a cache of swords at the archaeological site of Arslantepe in Turkey.

The nine swords from the archaeological site of Arslantepe (Melid) attest to the use of this weapon for the first time in the world – at least a millennium before the already-known examples. They date back to the Early Bronze Age (c. 33rd to 31st centuries).

In the 1980s, Marcella Frangipane’s team at Rome University discovered a cache of nine swords and daggers dating all the way back to 3300 BCE. Frangipane declared the swords of Arslantepe the world’s oldest and first swords ever discovered.

They are made of an alloy of arsenic and copper. Three of the swords were exquisitely inlaid with silver. These weapons have a total length of 45 to 60 cm, which points to either a short sword or a long dagger classification.

This region is thought to be the birthplace of the sword as we see these blades begin to appear, made from this new technology and having the elements we think of as identifying a sword. They have a blade, guard, grip, and pommel like shape.

Size wise they would be shorter than we think of today for most swords but in their time, they may well be the length that was achievable with the best technology of the day.

This advancement in metallurgy can be seen in many valuable objects found in high-status graves of the time, and these swords are among them.

There is a lot of debate about how these pieces work. Were they merely status symbols, or could they have served a practical purpose? Swords have been used for both purposes throughout history, and even if they appear unwieldy to our modern standards, they may have worked well enough in the hands of an antagonist in 3000 BCE to ruin your day.

The Aslantepe Mound in Malatya, where the first city-state was established, sheds light on history with its adobe palace, 5,500-year-old temple, swords, and spears. It is located on the western shore of the Euphrates, seven kilometers away from the city center.

Arslantepe Mound, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, was partially damaged after the Feb. 6 twin earthquakes in the country’s southern region.

With no damage to the permanent roof of the museum, the temporary roof suffered partial collapse but it did not cause harm to its archaeological texture.

Turkey’s Gaziantep Castle Damaged by Earthquakes

The earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday has badly damaged Gaziantep Castle, a historic site and tourist attraction in southeastern Turkey.

The castle collapsed during the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck in the early hours of February 6.

“Some of the bastions in the east, south, and southeast parts of the historical Gaziantep Castle in the central Şahinbey district were destroyed by the earthquake, the debris was scattered on the road,” Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu reported.

“The iron railings around the castle were scattered on the surrounding sidewalks. The retaining wall next to the castle also collapsed. In some bastions, large cracks were observed,” the report said.

The dome and eastern wall of the historical Şirvani Mosque, which is located next to the castle and is said to have been built in the 17th century, also partially collapsed, it added.

According to archaeological excavations, the castle was first built as a watchtower in the Roman period in the second and third centuries C.E. and expanded over time.

It took its current form during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527-565 C.E.), according to Turkish Museums, the official site of museums and archaeological sites in the country.

Most recently, it served as the Gaziantep Defense and Heroism Panoramic Museum.

So far, there have been more than 18 recorded aftershocks measuring 4 or higher on the Richter scale since the initial tremor, one of the strongest to hit Turkey in a century.

More than 600 people have been killed throughout the affected areas of Turkey and Syria.

According to Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay, some 1,700 buildings were damaged across 10 Turkish cities.

Three-room Urartian tomb with liquid offering area (libation) found in eastern Turkey

A three-room Urartian tomb with a rock-cut libation (liquid offering area) to offer gifts to the gods was unearthed in the Erciş district of Van, in eastern Turkey.

In order to identify the historical structures in the Madavank region, which is registered as an Immovable Cultural Heritage in the Çelebibağ District, research was conducted in the area by Van Museum Director Fatih Arap and Van Yüzüncü Yıl University (YYÜ) Faculty of Letters Archeology Department Head Prof Dr Rafet Çavuşoğlu.

During this study, it was determined that there was an Urartian tomb with 3 rooms in the area close to the area where the Urartian worship area emerged as a result of the withdrawal of Lake Van.

Prof Dr Rafet Çavuşoğlu said that important structures belonging to the Urartian period were identified in the region.

Researchers told AA that there are two small burial chambers to the right and left of the main chamber.

The chamber tomb dug into the calcareous rock, reflects the Urartians’ classical characteristics. According to researchers, treasure hunters caused minor damage to the tomb.

Emphasizing that the tomb is an important remnant in terms of Urartian architecture, Çavuşoğlu said, “The three-room chamber tomb is entered through an oval arched door. Then there is a small chamber on the left and right.

It is not a well-known practice, but a channel for liquid libation was opened just above the entrance. “It is a chamber tomb we have seen for the first time. The important thing for us is that the tomb consists of 3 rooms, two rectangular openings above the entrance, and liquid libation were made here,” he said.

A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid, or grains such as rice, as an offering to a deity or spirit, or in memory of the dead. The libation could be poured onto something of religious significance, such as an altar, or into the earth.

3 mummified skeletons were found in Iznik, western Turkey

Archaeologists discovered mummified skeletons dating from the 2nd century A.D. within two sarcophagi at the Hisardere Necropolis in Bursa’s Iznik district.

The excavation is being conducted out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism under the direction of Aygün Ekin Meriç, an academic at Dokuz Eylül University’s Archeology Department in western Izmir province.

Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Letters, Archeology Department Lecturer Assoc. Dr. Aygün Ekin Meriç told reporters the necropolis was extensively used during the second and third centuries, and that they have found six sarcophagi in total in the region to date with the addition of the two recent findings.

Unique chamber tombs dating back to the third century were also discovered, he said, noting how spectacular the two newly discovered sarcophagi are.

“Along with the sarcophagi, there are chamber tombs, especially from the 3rd century, unique to Iznik, unmatched anywhere else, with painted interiors and decorated with ornaments.

At the same time, these two latest sarcophagi are very ostentatious.

The sarcophagi were made during the Roman Imperial Period, in the 2nd century. The two came out side by side. Very showy sarcophagi decorated with Eros reliefs on three sides,” he said.

Meriç stated that sarcophagi were unearthed in the illegal excavations carried out in the region since 1989 and that the area was expropriated in 2018 and scientific excavations began in 2019.

Meriç also added that they are excavating a holy basilica built in the cemetery area.

Pointing out that they also found a small inscription on the mosaic in the basilica, Meriç said, “A woman’s name is mentioned.

The basilica was built in honor of the woman. No name, only the feminine epithet preserved. Excavation of the apse part of the basilica has not been completed.

We will more or less reveal the plan of the basilica in the next period of excavations,” used the phrases.

Meriç said that the basilica is 30 meters wide and 50 meters long, and they think that it was built in a plan similar to the basilica in Lake Iznik from the course of the walls.

Iznik Archaeology Museum reveals 2,500-year-old love letter

Iznik is an ancient habitation that hosts various civilizations due to its fertile lands, trade routes, and many other reasons.

Ancient Nicaea, now called İznik, is a farming town surrounded by massive medieval walls set on the shore of a broad lake 39 miles (63 km) southeast of Yalova. Two Christian ecumenical councils were held here, the 1st in 325, and the 7th in 787. 

The seventh council took place at the Hagia Sophia Church, which is located in the heart of the city.

The historical city of Iznik, which has been the capital of four civilizations and a contender for UNESCO’s preservation list, is getting ready to open its Iznik Archaeology Museum and host special exhibitions of priceless antiquities.

The museum has attracted the attention of many local and foreign tourists with its artifacts spanning a 5,000-year-old history. In particular, an ancient message engraved on the sarcophagus of Antigonus I, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, has aroused particular interest around the world.

The emotional 2,500-year-old message, translated by expert archaeologists, reveals the grief over Antigonos I’s death.

“I, the sad Arete, cry out with all body and soul from the tomb of Antigonos. I pull my hair out from grief and I express myself by crying. This ill luck, the death, has captured me instead of emancipating this precious man,” the engraving reads.

Unsurpassed museum

The foundation of the Iznik Archaeology Museum was laid in 2020. With the completion of the construction, the museum’s inauguration ceremony is scheduled to take place shortly and surely will be one of the prominent museums of Europe with its rich data and ancient artifacts dating back to the Neolithic Age.

Speaking to Ihlas News Agency (IHA), former museum director and archaeologist Taylan Sevil said: “The new museum contains quite significant movable cultural assets.

There are artifacts of many civilizations from prehistoric times to the present. In that sense, the museum fills a huge gap here. It invites people to witness world civilization.”

The museum also has a marble board game from the Roman era, a sarcophagus of the Greek hero Achilles with spectacular engravings, and sarcophagi of Antigonos I and noble families with dazzling engravings.