Archaeology News Online

The head of excavations at Perge in Turkey's Antalya province, Antalya Museum Director Mustafa Demirel, has announced that a new mosaic has been found in the ancient city. The 1,800-year-old mosaic depicts the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the daughter of King Agamemnon in Greek mythology, during the Trojan War. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) Demirel said that during the initial years of the excavations, important projects were conducted in terms of rehabilitative efforts at the site. In the context of the excavation project, the area which includes the Kesos Fountain in the north to the south was rearranged and excavations along the West Street were accelerated. Throughout the archaeological excavations, numerous sculptures and artefacts have been unearthed, and Demirel noted that a particular mosaic has been unearthed to the "excitement" of researchers. "During the ongoing excavations in Perge, a mosaic was discovered which depicts the scene of the sacrifice of Iphigeni...

They came by boat, bringing cooking utensils, crockery and all the other necessities needed for life in a strange land. That is how Julia Budka imagines the arrival, around 1539 BC, of the first Egyptian administrators in the new town on the island of Sai in the Nile. They were far from home, for the settlement lay in Nubia, between the river’s 2nd and 3rd cataracts. Following the final conquest of the whole of the African kingdom of Kerma by the Pharaoh Thutmose III, Egyptian expansion to the south continued, and the island’s location made it an ideal jump-off point. River traffic could be effectively controlled from here, and Egypt’s armies could be supplied with everything they needed to consolidate their hold. For Nubia was the primary source of gold and other valuable resources from Sub-Saharan Africa for the Egyptian state. Aerial view of the ruins of the town of Sai. Founded by the Egyptians on the island of the same name in the Nile,  in what is now Sudan, the town was occu...

The Association of Greek Archaeologists has been informed about unsettling developments regarding the intended conversion of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul to an Islamic mosque and in an announcement it made, expresses its strong concern in view of such a prospect. The Association of Greek Archaeologists requests the Greek government and international organizations to stay vigilant  and intervene so that this supremely important monument remains the property of all humankind,  an inseparable part of global cultural heritage [Credit: Shutterstock] As the AGA mentions in its announcement : “Hagia Sophia that was inaugurated in 537, has been operating as a museum since 1934 and due to its significance, constitutes a World Heritage site included, since 1985, in the relevant list of UNESCO. ”The repeated reading of the Koran and of prayers for a second consecutive year within this emblematic monument acts as a harbinger, with the ulterior motive being the cancellation of its function as ...

An impressively large 2,700-year-old water system was recently exposed at Israel Antiquities Authority excavations near Rosh Ha-Ayin with the help of students majoring in the Education Ministry’s Land of Israel and Archaeology studies. The excavation precedes the construction of a new residential neighborhood initiated by the Ministry of Construction and Housing. Aerial view of the excavation area, with Rosh Ha-Ayin in the background  [Credit: Yitzhak Marmelstein, IAA] According to Gilad Itach, director of excavations for the IAA, “It is difficult not to be impressed by the sight of the immense underground reservoir quarried out so many years ago. In antiquity, rainwater collection and storage was a fundamental necessity. With an annual rainfall of 500 mm, the region’s winter rains would easily have filled the huge reservoir. On its walls, near the entrance, we identified engravings of human figures, crosses, and a vegetal motif that were probably carved by passersby in a later per...

An excavation in the Dargecit district of the southeastern region of Turkey, which will soon be left under the reservoir waters of the Ilisu Dam, has revealed crucial information about the North Mesopotamian people’s social life 10 millennia ago, particularly about burial rituals and the ancient belief in life after death. Bodies buried in the fetal position, with their knees pulled up to their stomach, were found in the basements of houses in the site, symbolizing the position of a baby in the womb, according to information provided by Nihat Erdogan, the manager of the Mardin Museum who conducts the excavation of the site. The findings point at belief in rebirth after death, Erdogan told the Dogan News Agency. The decades-old Ilisu Dam project, which was first planned under Southeastern Anatolia Project’s investments in the 1960s, was first tendered in 1997. The potential damage caused by the dam’s construction, which is planned to be finalized this year, has been discussed for a quar...

Covered by Tokat's Sulusaray district in the Black Sea region of Turkey, the ancient city of Sebastapolis faces expropriation problems, leading to illegal excavations. Dating back to the first century B. C., the ancient city of Sebastapolis is thought to have been one of the five largest cities  in the Black Sea region about 2,000 years ago. Once visited by Charles Prince of Wales, the site now faces  illegal excavations due to expropriation problems [Credit: AA] Sebastapolis has been looted many times and has seen illegal excavations, as it is located in a town center and excavations to saving the ancient ruins continue with cooperation from Gaziosmanpaşa University (GOÜ) and the Tokat Museum Directorate. An academic from the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Science and Literature at GOÜ and the adviser of Sebastapolis Ancient City Excavation Works, Associate Professor Şengül Dilek Ful, said the excavations are now continuing at the baths section of the city. The b...

An 800-year-old Orthodox church in Turkey’s Muğla province is poised to fall into ruin due to its delayed restoration and neglect. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the necessary permits for restoration of a small, dilapidated monastery and church situated in on Kameriye Island in Marmaris in 2013. The proposed project for the restoration was approved, but restoration has yet to begin. Mehmet Baysal, chairman of the Marmaris Chamber of Commerce, said there were adequate resources when the project was approved but that they did not have the authority to use them since the funds belonged to the Union of Municipalities. According to Baysal, due to problems in allocation of funds between different municipalities, the issue was taken to court and is still awaiting a decision. According to Turkish media, the Marmaris Trade Center (MTO) launched a project in 2010 to open the church for faith and marriage tourism after restoration. The project to convert Kameriye Island was approve...

The origins of smiley could be nearly 4,000-years-old after archaeologists in southeastern Turkey excavated a pot that bore the ubiquitous symbol, which today is one of the most frequently used emoticons online. The roots of the symbol are widely believed to be from the early 1960s, with the classic smiley version bearing a bright yellow background said to have emerged in the early 1970s. However, the latest discovery in Turkey would now force a rethink of the origins of the symbol, versions of which have also been widely featured in several pieces of popular literature such as the graphic novel, The Watchmen. The pot was discovered during seven-year long excavations in Gaziantep province’s Karkamis district along the Syria border under the guidance of Nicolo Marchetti, an archeology professor at the University of Bologno in Italy. Marchetti said his team found a variety of objects at the site depicting the era of the Hittites, an ancient civilization and empire that is believed to hav...

Ancient stone tombs, some dating back more than 4,000 years, have been uncovered by archaeologists working in Jordan's Black Desert. The burial sites were discovered in the Jebel Qurma region by a team of Dutch researchers. A giant cairn which dates back to the second or third century AD  [Credit: Jebel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project] The region is so desolate that one early explorer described it as a land of 'Dead Fire'. The discovery of the burials could help to shed light on the history of human occupation of the area over the course of millennia, as well as the conditions they faced. Though many people once lived in Jebel Qurma, its climate is now inhospitable, and very few people live there. 'Except for a short period in the spring, the whole of this country looks like a dead fire — nothing but cold ashes,' wrote Group Capt. Lionel Rees, an officer in the British Royal Air Force, in an article he published in 1929 in the journal Antiquity . This enclos...

A Turkish-Italian team has completed the first part of their seven-season-long excavation works in an ancient site in the town of Karkamış, located in the Turkish province of Gaziantep on the Turkish-Syrian border, Turkish media have reported. The works at the site, which dates back to the Hittite Empire in 2,000 B.C., have been undertaken under the leadership of Nicolo Marchetti, a professor at Bologna University, and with the support of the Turkish and Italian governments, the Gaziantep Metropolitan University and SANKO Holding. Marchetti said the excavations, which started on May 2 this season, were executed by a team comprised of 25 experts with a special focus on the place site and the tumulus site, adding that the whole area was taken under protection until September, when the excavation works would be resumed. The Karkamış Ancient City Archaeological Park will open after a seven-year excavation period on May 12, 2018, Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Nabi Avcı announced earl...

Excavation and restoration work has resumed in the ancient city of Sagalassos in southwestern Turkey. Monumental centre of Sagalassos: The urban quarter of Upper Agora  [Credit: Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism ] A team of 90 people from different countries will work in the excavation area this year and the works will continue for the next three months. A team of five experts from the city’s Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (MAKÜ) will give academic and technological support to the excavation. The head of the excavation team, Professor Jereon Poblome, said the most excavation would be done in the ancient agora area. “Our biggest excavation will take place in the eastern part of the upper agora, as the oldest building of Sagalassos was found there two years ago. As far as we have learned, there was a trade building in this area. This building was constructed in the second century B.C. and is the oldest official building of Sagalassos. Here is a rich place and our building is stan...

The Hellenic Institute for the Research of Alexandrian Culture (H.R.I.A.C), directed by archaeologist Kalliopi Papakostas, has discovered ancient buildings and a bridge in the Shalallat Gardens area in Alexandria, Egypt. The Ptolemaic public building, where the carved tunnel has been discovered, was located in 2015  [Credit: ANA/MNA] According to the Athens Macedonia News Agency, excavations in the area have been ongoing for 21 years and archaeologists have now unearthed a long carved tunnel at a depth of 10 metres that sheds new light on the large public building from the Ptolemaic period that was found in 2015. The Ptolemaic public building, where the carved tunnel has been discovered,  was located in 2015 [Credit: ANA/MNA] Though its boundaries have yet to be revealed the building, which is thought to have had an arched ceiling, is of massive proportions. Excavation in the Shallalat Gardens in Alexandria, Egypt   [Credit: ANA/MNA] “This is a very significant discov...

Israeli authorities arrested two antiquities thieves in the West Bank who were attempting to make off with artefacts dating back to the Byzantine era, the IDF’s Civil Administration said on Monday. Columns from a Byzantine-era church confiscated by the Civil Administration from suspected antiquities traffickers  near the West Bank city of Bethlehem on July 10, 2017 [Credit: Times of Israel] A spokesperson for the Defense Ministry agency — which oversees Israeli civilian activity in the West Bank — said that the two Palestinian suspects were arrested between the West Bank city of Bethlehem and the settlement of Tekoa with three columns from a nearby Byzantine church inscribed with pseudo-Greek text in the back of their work truck. The Civil Administration’s archaeological unit said an investigation into the incident has been opened. Deputy head of the Civil Administration’s archaeological unit Benny Har Even said that the recent arrests showed the need for the Civil Administration t...

A team of specialists and students led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness has uncovered additional mosaic scenes in the Late Roman synagogue at Huqoq, an ancient Jewish village in Israel’s Lower Galilee. The new finds provide insight about daily life in the fifth century C.E. and expand the rich repertoire of mosaics already discovered decorating the floors of the building. Huqoq synagogue mosaic: month of Teveth (December-January) with the sign of Capricorn [Credit: Copyright Jim Haberman] Magness, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of religious studies in Carolina’s College of Arts & Sciences, along with Assistant Director Shua Kisilevitz of the Israel Antiquities Authority, focused this seventh season of Huqoq excavations on the southern part of the nave (main hall), where three panels were exposed. A medallion in the center of the uppermost (northern) panel depicts the Greco-Roman sun god Helios in a quadriga (four-horse chariot) surrounded by ...

A two-thousand-year-old lion sculpture at an ancient burial site dating back to the Kingdom of Commagene in Turkey’s Adıyaman province has been destroyed, the Milliyet daily reported on Friday. The destroyed lion sculpture [Credit: Ensonhaber] The lion sculpture, which was located within the ancient site of the Karakuş Tumulus in Adıyaman, was destroyed by unknown parties who broke the left side of the sculpture. Also, some parts of the sculpture are missing. Recent incidents in the treatment of historic and natural assets reflect negligence on the part of officials concerning their protection. Two-thousand-year-old granite columns, discovered in 1996 in Antalya, were recently found in front of a building. The columns were used for decorative purposes until an art history teacher recognized the columns and informed officials. A historically significant UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Library of Celsus at Ephesus, witnessed a cultural ceremony with images of decorated tables and chairs ...

The national archaeology expedition operating in Barada valley in al-Zabadani area near Damascus uncovered a floor mural dating back to the 4th century AD. The mosaic, which has an area of around 50 metres, was found in Barhilia town, and makes up the floor of a hall with a wide entrance and two narrow entrances. The mural features artistic scenes and geometric, plant-shaped, and symbolic decorations, all executed with small stone tiles. The style indicates that the mosaic dates back to the end of the Roman era and the beginning of the Byzantine era. Director of Damascus Countryside Archaeology Department Mahmoud Hammoud said that this mural is the first of its kind to be found in the area of Damascus and its countryside, and underlines the importance of the site where it was discovered as it was the seat of a kingdom established by the Iturians, and many archaeological finds were uncovered in three villages in Barada valley; Souq Wadi Barada, Barhilia, and Kafr al-Awamid. Author: Haze...