Extensive Ancient Underground Network Discovered From Scotland to Turkey
German archaeologist Dr Heinrich Kusch, in his latest book ‘Secrets of the Underground Door to an Ancient World’ has revealed that tunnels were dug under literally hundreds of Neolithic settlements all over Europe and the fact that so many tunnels have survived 12,000 years indicates that the original network must have been huge.
‘In Bavaria in Germany alone we have found 700metres of these underground tunnel networks. In Styria in Austria we have found 350metres,’ he said. ‘Across Europe there were thousands of them – from the north in Scotland down to the Mediterranean.
The tunnels are quite small, measuring only 70cm in width, which is just enough for a person to crawl through. In some places there are small rooms, storage chambers and seating areas. Read more.
The ancient city of Perge in the southern province of Antalya will finally open to visitors by the end of summer following excavations that have revealed a façade, according to a written statement made by the Culture and Tourism Ministry.
Thirty-nine workers, seven archaeologists and three restoration experts are working in Perge, which was an ancient Greek city in Anatolia and the capital of Pamphylia. Archaeological work in the ancient city has been continuing for 65 years, and many columns along the city’s streets have been successfully restored during this process.
The Perge excavations are the longest-running in Turkey. Over 65 years, archaeologists have unearthed 20 to 25 percent of the ancient city. Read more.
A “gate to hell” has emerged from ruins in southwestern Turkey, Italian archaeologists have announced.
Known as Pluto’s Gate — Ploutonion in Greek, Plutonium in Latin — the cave was celebrated as the portal to the underworld in Greco-Roman mythology and tradition.
Historic sources located the site in the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis, now called Pamukkale, and described the opening as filled with lethal mephitic vapors.
“This space is full of a vapor so misty and dense that one can scarcely see the ground. Any animal that passes inside meets instant death,” the Greek geographer Strabo (64/63 BC — about 24 AD) wrote. Read more.
The way the massive stone blocks making up a Roman mausoleum in Turkey were knocked off-kilter reveals clues to the power of the earthquake that rocked the structure.
Analyzing other ancient ruins for such damage could help shed light on the history of earthquakes in a region, which could yield insights on what risks that area faces in the future, the scientists who examined the mausoleum said.
The ruins of the city of Pınara date back at least 2,500 years to the ancient realm of Lycia in what is now southwest Turkey.
It eventually became part of the Roman Empire.
“Pinara is a very exciting place because it has not been excavated yet,” said Klaus-G. Hinzen, a seismologist at the University of Cologne in Germany. Read more.
Some of the archaeologists currently working at excavation sites around Turkey are not taking their job seriously enough, Tourism and Culture Minister Ömer Çelik has said, according to daily Hürriyet.
Çelik made the comments in an interview with Der Spiegel Magazine at the Berlin International Tourism Bourse, a well-known travel trade fair.
German archeologists have been overseeing excavations at Göbekli Tepe, he said, adding that a total of 11,000 sculptures went missing from the site in 2010. “I am not accusing them of stealing, however, this is evidence that they are not giving sufficient importance to security issues.” Read more.
Long-buried bones and a missing monarch. Add some historical notoriety and modern technology and you have a heck of a captivating, science-driven story.
Just this month, it was announced that bones found under a parking lot in Leicester, England, belonged to King Richard III. DNA evidence, according to the lead archaeologist at the excavation, proved this “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
For Hilke Thur, a Vienna-based archaeologist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a similar quest awaits empirical closure. The locale is more exotic – western Turkey – and the evidence is much more difficult to analyze: The bones in question are a bit more than 2,000 years old. Read more.
The olive was first domesticated in the Eastern Mediterranean between 8,000 and 6,000 years ago, according to new research.
The findings, published (Feb. 5) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, are based on the genetic analysis of nearly 1,900 samples from around the Mediterranean Sea. The study reveals that domesticated olives, which are larger and juicier than wild varieties, were probably first cultivated from wild olive trees at the frontier between Turkey and Syria.
“We can say there were probably several steps, and it probably starts in the Levant,” or the area that today includes Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, said study co-author Gillaume Besnard, an archaeobotanist at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. Read more.
The northwestern province of Çanakkale’s Ayvacık district is home to one of the most important areas of Turkey’s textile industry. The district is famous for kilim carpets produced in different colors and designs, but as of late 2,500-year-old loom weights recently found in the ancient city of Assoss, within the borders of the district, have brought the district even more fame.
Ayvacık was one of Turkey’s significant centers, especially in regards to stockbreeding, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (ÇOMU) Archaeology Department Chairman and head of the Assos excavations, Professor Nurettin Arslan said. The region is home to many small and large cattle breeds, Arslan said. “We have claimed that the most important means of existence in Assos in ancient times was stockbreeding. This is why the leather trade was such a developed job in Assos. The fact is that the head of a cow or an ox shows us the importance of stockbreeding in the town.” Read more.
