2700 Years Old Bronze Shields

A team of archaeologists uncovered three bronze shields and a bronze helmet that were buried under more than 20 feet of castle rubble at the site of Ayanis Castle in eastern Turkey. 

The artifacts are roughly 2,700 years old, and decorations on the helmet point towards the discoveries likely being ceremonial gifts offered to a god or royalty.

According to social media posts from Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, archaeologists found the artifacts during excavations of the city of Ayanis, the last and largest city of the Urartu Kingdom, an ancient civilization of Anatolian history.     READ MORE...

Statue of Man Holding His Penis

A photograph taken at the archaeological site of Karahantepe in Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey 

on October 9, 2023, shows a newly found 2.3-meter high human statue.  OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images



A 7.5-foot-tall statue of a man clutching his penis with both hands was uncovered in an ancient site.

The statue could be about 11,000 years old, meaning it would be older than the pyramids and Stonehenge.

Some argue that the site is the oldest example of a Neolithic temple, although not everybody agrees.

Archaeologists have uncovered an 11,000-year-old statue of a man clutching his penis — a discovery that could shed new light on a mysterious Neolithic culture.

The statue was found in Karahan Tepe in the Taş Tepeler region of southeast Turkey. The 11,000-year-old site is believed by some to be the oldest Neolithic temple in the world, predating the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge by more than 6,000 years.

The statue represents a skeletal man with both hands placed near his phallus, sitting atop a bench adorned with a leopard, per France24.  READ MORE...

Statue With Realistic Expressions

Photo: The Ministry of Culture and Tourism

New finds were discovered in Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe. At around 12,000 years old, Göbekli Tepe is the world’s oldest megalithic site – and it has a “sister site” called Karahantepe.

A recent discovery in the world’s oldest religious sanctuary, Göbeklitepe, “Potbelly Hill” in Turkish, which is described as the “zero point of history” has revealed a painted wild boar statue.

The UNESCO World Heritage site of Göbeklitepe has changed the way historians and archaeologists think about the cradle of civilization. And there is so much more to be discovered.

A painted wild boar statue was discovered during ongoing excavations in Göbeklitepe. The artifact, which contained red, white, and black pigment residues on its surface, was the first painted sculpture found from its period to the present day.

As part of the Taş Tepeler project, which sheds light on prehistory and has seen highly significant discoveries on a global scale, the archaeological excavations carried out in 2023 in 9 different areas have recently led to the discovery of human and animal statues.

The Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism has released a written statement providing the following information:

In the D structure of Göbeklitepe, a life-sized wild boar sculpture made of limestone was discovered. The wild boar sculpture found in Göbeklitepe was situated on a pedestal adorned with decorations believed to include an H-shaped symbol, a crescent, two snakes, and three human faces or masks.  READ MORE...

Kapilikaya Rock Tomb

The Kapilikaya Rock Tomb. Photo: Savas Bozkaya/Shutterstock

Deep in the mountains of Turkey’s Çorum province, an ancient tomb fades into obscurity. Its past is almost forgotten and its future looks bleak. Details of its construction and the occupant inside are unknown. For thousands of years, the Kapilikaya rock tomb has been both a hidden architectural marvel and an extraordinary puzzle.

Çorum province lies not far from the Black Sea, on the Central Anatolian Plateau near the North Anatolian Fault. Tectonic activity has created diverse rock formations, enhanced by folding and faulting.

According to sources, the word Kapilikaya means precisely what it is: a rock with a door. The Kapilikaya rock tomb dates to the 2nd century BC, during the so-called Hellenistic Period. Some Turks believe that the tomb is Roman, not Greek. Modern Turks and Greeks often don’t get along.

Unknown builders carved the tomb into an outcrop. A trail on the left side leads up to a set of stairs at the base. Unfortunately, the base of this doorway is a canvas for graffiti artists.

From the outside, the tomb’s entrance looks like a massive doorway. In fact, the door doesn’t open, it never did, and there isn’t much space inside. Rather than the giant grotto suggested by the imposing size of this faux-door, it is simply a small crypt with little room for anything except a body.  READ MORE...

Karahan Tepe

KARAHAN TEPE, KNOWN LOCALLY AS “KEÇILITEPE”, IS A PREHISTORIC SITE IN AN UPLAND AREA OF THE TEKTEK MOUNTAINS IN THE SOUTHEASTERN ANATOLIA REGION OF TURKEY, KNOWN AS THE TAŞ TEPELER.

Taş Tepeler contains a collection of ancient monuments that includes the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Göbekli Tepe, for which Karahan Tepe is often referred to as its sister site.

Karahan Tepe was first discovered in 1997, but the first systematic survey was carried out in 2000 that revealed basin-like pools carved in bedrock, and a considerable number of chisels and adzes, beads, stone pot fragments, grind stones and pestles.

The discovery of arrowheads, scrapers, perforators, blades, and stone tools made from flint, or obsidian, suggests that the inhabitants mainly survived through hunter-gathering or animal husbandry, unlike most Neolithic settlements which relied on agriculture (evidenced by the lack of farmed vegetation in situ).

The finds also suggest that the site was active during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (10,000 – 6,500 BC), corresponding with contemporary sites such as Sefer Tepe, 15km north, Sanlıurfa-Yenimahalle, 63km west, and Göbekli Tepe, 40km west.  READ MORE...

Neolithic Settlements in Turkey

Archaeology professer and director of the Göbeklitepe Culture and Karahantepe Research Project

in front of Karahantepe excavation site.

(photo credit: JUDITH SUDILOVSKY)

Istanbul archaeology professor Necmi Karul picks his way as nimbly as a gazelle along the hilly back slope of Karahantepe. A monumental Neolithic site near the Syrian-Turkish border, Karahantepe has turned what archaeologists until now believed about the evolution of human sedentism on its head.


It, along with the nearby Gobeklitepe Stone Hill site, is considered one of the first permanent settlements. They have brought into question the process of organized human society, suggesting that it was established before the emergence of agriculture, and included some kind of cultic or communal rituals.


Karul points out spots where some 11,000 years ago Neolithic humans carved out huge blocks of limestone and somehow brought the heavy pillars to the other side of the mound. After being carved with images of animals and humans, these blocks were placed in concentric circles in what he calls “special buildings.”


Walking along the sloping hillside Karul also points at stones jutting out from the earth in a circular pattern. Underneath, he said casually, there are the same thousands-year-old monumental pillars that have been excavated just on the other side of the mound.


He said 250 such pillars visible on the surface have been identified, and some 60 pillars have been found in the excavations.  READ MORE...

Femicide

Gulsum Kav, founder of We Will Stop Femicide

Femicide - the killing of women and girls because of their gender - is the most extreme form of gender-based violence, but in many countries no record is kept of the number of cases. BBC 100 Women spoke to three women who carry out detective work to identify femicides, and obtain justice for victims.


Gulsum Kav began a campaign to stop femicide in 2010, the year after the dead body of a teenager, Munevver Karabulut, was found in a bin in Istanbul. It took police more than six months to track down the suspect, leading to protests on the streets of Istanbul.


One of Gulsum's goals was to understand how many murders take place Turkey, in which the killer's motive is gender-related.


Another was to provide support to Munevver's family as the case came to trial. "We have a slogan today, 'You will never walk alone,' which came from this," she says.


But soon Gulsum and her fellow activists in We Will Stop Femicide found themselves taking on the role of investigators.


"It started when a letter arrived from a family who believed their daughter had died in suspicious circumstances," she says.


This was the case of Esin Gunes, a young teacher whose body was found at the bottom of a cliff in Siirt province, south-eastern Turkey, in August 2010.

What is femicide?

• Femicide is defined as "the murder of women because they are women" or "the gender-related killing of women and girls"
• Eighteen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have adopted specific laws making femicide a criminal offence
• In many other countries the word is not widely used, but is increasingly being adopted by campaigners against gender-based violence

Esin's husband said they had gone to the area for a walk and a picnic, and she had slipped to her death. While the authorities initially accepted this story, the family didn't, as Esin had only recently returned to her husband after walking out and saying she wanted a divorce.


Gulsum's team commissioned a report which proved it was not physically possible to fall in the way she did and that she must have been thrown. This led to her husband's conviction for murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Since that first case, the team has worked on over 30 suspected femicides.  READ MORE...

Comeback for Turkish Lira

GETTY IMAGES,President Tayyip Erdogan built his reputation on strengthening Turkey's economy


The Turkish lira has seen a second day of dramatic gains after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled a new plan aimed at strengthening the currency.


In Tuesday trading, it rose as much as 15%, after soaring 25% on Monday.


The gains came after Mr Erdogan pledged to compensate savers for currency moves that have eroded the value of bank deposits held in lira.


The currency had fallen to record lows as the rise in the country's cost of living hit 21.7%.


But at one point on Tuesday, it firmed to just over 11 to the dollar before falling back slightly.

Why currency crash does not worry Turkey's Erdogan


Despite the price rises, Mr Erdogan has pushed the central bank to keep cutting interest rates.



Last week, it reduced borrowing costs to from 15% to 14% on Thursday. It was the fourth cut in as many months.


Normally, central banks raise rates to combat rising prices, but Mr Erdogan has called such tools "the mother and father of all evil".


The president and his allies argue that lower interest rates give a boost to Turkish exports, investment and jobs. But many economists say the rate cuts are reckless.  READ MORE...

Mr. Freedom

SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES


Outspoken professional basketball player Enes Kanter has legally changed his name to Enes Kanter Freedom to celebrate becoming a US citizen.The Swiss-born, Turkish-raised Mr Kanter, 29, tweeted a video of his citizenship ceremony on Monday. He recited the oath using his new name.


He has repeatedly condemned human rights violations in China and Turkey.The NBA star has said his Turkish passport was revoked by authorities in 2017.In an interview with CNN, Mr Kanter, who plays with the Boston Celtics, said the name change will reflect his "fight" for freedom throughout his life.


"Here [in the US] there is freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of the press," he said. "I didn't have any of those with Turkey."In his remarks, Mr Kanter said that "freedom is the greatest thing a human being can have"."That's why I wanted to make that word a part of me, and carry it wherever I go," he added.


Mr Kanter's manager told the AP news agency that the name change would take place at the same time as his naturalisation ceremony on Monday.During the ceremony, the judge addressed him by his new name, and he himself used it to swear his oath of allegiance to the United States.


He waved a miniature flag in the air after the oath and said "Freedom - that's it" while signing his naturalisation documentThe name 'Freedom' will be on his jersey when the Celtics face off against the Philadelphia 76ers later this week. Mr Kanter has said his team-mates already call him by that name.  READ MORE...

Megafires New Norm

Image caption,The megafire on Evia led to thousands of residents fleeing their homes


World leaders at the COP26 summit in Glasgow are under pressure to respond to global warming, and intense heatwaves and frequent forest fires are becoming an increasing threat around the Mediterranean.

This summer alone Greece was hit by thousands of wildfires, fanned by its worst heatwave in decades. Turkey, Italy and Spain all witnessed dramatic fires in recent months and the fire on the Greek island of Evia was the biggest in Greece since records began.

What happened on Evia was a megafire, an intense conflagration, which took almost two weeks to bring under control.

With more heatwaves forecast for future summers, there are fears that megafires could become the new normal.

"We never expected this," says Nikos Dimitrakis, a farmer who was born and raised in northern Evia. "We thought a part might burn, as in previous fires. But now the entire area was burned."

Image caption, Greeks evacuated the island as the fires turned the sky orange

When the fire reached his land, he told me there was no-one there to help. Surrounded by flames, he grabbed tree branches in a desperate attempt to put out the blaze.  READ MORE...

Stone ChambeerTombs

Restorative work reveals the designs painted on the stone-cut tombs' ceilings. (Image credit: Blaundos Archaeological Excavation Project Archive)

Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered 400 rock-cut chamber tombs that date to 1,800 years ago and make up part of one of the largest rock-cut chamber tomb necropolises in the world.

The team found the tombs in the ancient city of Blaundos (also spelled Blaundus), located about 110 miles (180 kilometers) east of the Aegean Sea in what is now Turkey. The city was founded during the time of Alexander the Great and existed through the Roman and Byzantine periods.

The tombs are filled with sarcophagi, many of which contain multiple deceased individuals — a clue that families used these tombs for burials over many generations, said Birol Can, an archaeologist at Uşak University in Turkey and head of the Blaundos Excavation Project.

"We think that the Blaundos rock-cut tomb chambers, in which there are many sarcophagi, were used as family tombs, and that the tombs were reopened for each deceased family member, and a burial ceremony was held and closed again," Can told Live Science in an email.

The city of Blaundos sits on a hill surrounded by a valley, which is actually a branch of the vast Uşak canyons, one of the longest canyon systems in the world, Can said. The people of Blaundos built the necropolis into the slopes of the canyon. "Due to the rocky nature of the slopes surrounding the city, the most preferred burial technique was the chamber-shaped tombs carved into the solid rocks," he said.  READ MORE...

Underground Societies

From ancient catacombs to modern subways, humans have always traveled underground for brief amounts of time. But have entire societies of people ever lived underground?

Yes, but historically only during emergencies and when they have had no other option. In recent decades, however, that has begun to change.

"The thing that is important to know about the underground is that we do not belong there. Biologically, physiologically, our bodies are just not designed for life underground," said Will Hunt, author of the book "Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet" (Random House, 2019). "And yet there are moments when we have retreated underground."

People throughout history have temporarily lived below the surface for various reasons. If there were no materials to build houses with, they dug subterranean homes, Hunt told Live Science. 

In places with extreme climates, people went beneath the earth in the summer to stay cool and in the winter to stay warm. 

Underground was also a safe place to hide from enemies.  For example, ancient people built the famous underground cities of Cappadocia in what is now Turkey, for protection against both weather and war. "They were geographically in a very strategic place," Hunt said. "They were constantly being attacked." 

The inhabitants retreated belowground during emergencies, but they didn't stay there for a long time, perhaps for weeks at a time.  READ MORE

Northwest Turkey

HALFWAY BETWEEN ISTANBUL AND ANKARA, in one of the most historic and beautiful parts of northwest Turkey, is a deep valley covered in dense pine forests and blessed with thermal springs. 

And in this valley is something that seems right out of a Disney movie: row upon row of identical, castle-like, turreted chateaus. When the occasional morning mist enshrouds the blue towers, it’s a dreamy scene, but when you look a little closer, something seems off. The roads between them are unfinished. 

Construction debris litters the ground. And there’s not a soul in sight. It’s a fairy tale ghost town, an ambitious, luxurious development project that fell victim to mismanagement and global financial currents.

Burj Al Babas, as the place is known, is located a few miles from the historic town of Mudurnu, once at the crossroads of the Silk Road and the Crimean Road. 

Over the years it lost its position as a trading hub, was reborn as the center of Turkey’s poultry industry, and most recently has turned to tourism to drive the local economy, partly through the efforts of the Mudurnu Cutural Heritage Site Management Directorate. 

Turkish officials have even proposed making the town a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including its characteristic black-and-white Ottoman mansions.  READ MORE