News from the ancient world
New archaeological discoveries in Turkey, newest first: 10 stories.
Stone Age · Neolithic, c. 7000 BC · Diyarbakır province, South-eastern Anatolia, Turkey
The roughly 9,000-year-old work area had a stone-paved floor and six postholes, and Turkey's culture minister says local mining continued for about 2,000 years.
Bronze Age · c. 2700–2400 BC · Kekova Island, Antalya, Turkey
At least 30 storage jars, some probably made in the Jordan Valley, lie about 30 metres down near Kekova Island, though the wooden hull has not survived.
Bronze Age · c. 1400 BC · Kayalıpınar (Šamuḫa), Sivas province, Turkey
Excavators at Kayalıpınar, ancient Šamuḫa, recovered 131 tablets and fragments from the reign of Tudhaliya II in 2026, bringing the archive to 184 pieces.
Bronze Age · c. 1259 BC · Hattusa (Boğazkale), Çorum province, Turkey
The clay piece, part of an Akkadian copy of the pact between Ramesses II and Hattusili III, preserves clauses on people fleeing between the two kingdoms.
Stone Age · c. 9000 BC · Karahan Tepe, Şanlıurfa, Turkey
The 70-centimetre sculpture, about 11,000 years old, reverses a known motif at the site, where earlier statues show humans carrying live leopards on their backs.
Stone Age · c. 12,000–10,000 BC · Şika Rika 5, near Akıncı, Mardin province, Turkey
Round stone houses at Şika Rika 5 in Mardin province date to about 12,000–10,000 BC, and the team says settled life there may have had deeper local roots than thought.
Bronze Age · c. 1915–1595 BC · Beycesultan Höyük, Denizli Province, Turkey
Two scraps of cloth from Beycesultan Höyük, carbonised by fire nearly 4,000 years ago, include a blue hemp fabric made with a single needle around 1915–1745 BC.
Iron Age · c. 810–786 BC · Körzüt Fortress, Muradiye, Van province, Turkey
Three basalt slabs from a temple at Körzüt Fortress near Lake Van describe Minua taking Luḫiuni, a royal city he claims no one had conquered before.
Stone Age · c. 9000 BC · Kızılöz, Samsat, Adıyaman province, Turkey
Falling water in the Atatürk Dam reservoir exposed stone enclosures near Kızılöz village in Samsat, which investigators believe are around 11,000 years old.
Iron Age · 8th century BC · Karaağaç Tumulus, Bilecik, Bilecik Province, Turkey
A wooden burial chamber, decorated bronze buckets and an inscribed pot from the Karaağaç Tumulus near Bilecik closely match royal burials at Gordion, a new study argues.