Skeletons found in tomb of the ancient Greek city Parion in Turkey

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Parium (or Parion; Greek: Πάριον) was a Greek city of Adrasteia in Mysia on the Hellespont. Its bishopric was a suffragan of Cyzicus, the metropolitan see of the Roman province of Hellespontus

Founded in 709 B.C., the ancient city of Parion is located in the village of Kemer in the township of Biga in Çanakkale province of Turkey, currently. A major coastal city with two harbors in the Roman period, Parion had intensive relations with Thrace and Anatolia throughout history. This was the main customs station through which all Istanbul-bound goods from Greece and the Aegean had to pass.

The skeletons of a total of 24 people, including one child, have been unearthed from a chamber tomb opened during this year’s excavations in the ancient city of Parion in the northwestern province of Çanakkale. 

The mystery of this multi-burial tomb, which has surprised archaeologists and is estimated to date back to a period between the 1st and 3rd centuries, will be solved by anthropologic researches to be carried out next year. 

This year’s excavations have recently ended after they were initiated on July 3 in the 2,600-year-old ancient city of Parion, located in the Biga district’s Kemer village. 

Headed by Ondokuz Mayıs University Archaeology Department Professor Vedat Keleş, the excavations unearthed new findings this year. Among them, the most interesting one was the skeletons found in a chamber grave. The tomb was unearthed in 2011 during illegal excavations and the last tomb was opened this year.

“A chamber tomb was uncovered here in 2011. We started excavations in the same year and found six 2,600-year-old chamber tombs. Their architectures are similar to each other. But particularly the one that we opened this year and named OM-5 is very interesting in terms of its burial method. Even though the other five have the same architectural features, their burial methods are different. We found the skeletons of 23 adults and a child inside this one,” Keleş said. 

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He noted that they believe the people were buried at a time between the 1st and 3rd centuries. “It shows us that there was a significant demographic increase in Parion during those years. The skulls of 15 skeletons were found on one side of the tomb. Seven were buried in the northeast direction. We also found the skeleton of a child. The existence of six chamber tombs next to each other shows that people with special statuses were buried in this field,” he added. 

The professor said they also found some objects inside the tombs, which were put as gifts for the dead.

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“We found ancient items, including three tear bottles, one of which is a glass, a plate, an amphora and a pitcher. We also found a strigil, used by ancient people to clean their bodies,” he added. 

Keleş said they closed the chamber tombs to prevent damages on them, adding that the skeletons will be removed next year.

Source/Photography/Bibliography

http://www.ancientencyclopedia.com
Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 950
P. Frisch (ed.), Die Inschriften von Parion (Bonn, 1983) (Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien 25).
https://en.wikipedia.org
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Parium". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.

Scientists find languages not used since Dark Ages among ancient manuscripts recovered from monastery

Languages not seen since the Dark Ages have come to light after scientists used a new method to inspect a trove of ancient manuscripts found in a monastery in Egypt.

They turned up extremely rare tongues, including Caucasian Albanian, on documents they found in Saint Catherine’s monastery on the Sinai peninsula that date back 1,500 years.

Monks originally wrote their texts down on parchments which were later scrubbed off and used to write the Bible by future generations who spoke in more modern languages.

But a new technique developed by researchers allows them to see the original text hidden from the naked eye in a development hailed as “new golden age of discovery”.

Researchers took photographs of the material using different parts of the light spectrum and put the electronic images through a computer algorithm.

The method allows them to see the first writing laid down on the parchments, which at the time were highly valuable, before they were re-used in later years.

It comes as the chances of finding further ancient documents in St Catherine’s monastery comes under threat by Muslim extremists, including Isis, who are known to destroy Christian sites.

“The age of discovery is not over,” Michael Phelps from the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library in California told The Times.

“In the 20th century new manuscripts were discovered in caves. In the 21st century, we will apply new techniques to manuscripts that have been under our noses. We will recover lost voices from our history.”

The site beneath the mountain where God is said to have revealed the Ten Commandments to Moses has collected thousands of manuscripts since it was built in the 6th century.

“I don’t know of any library in the world that parallels it,” said Mr Phelps. “The monastery is an institution from the Roman Empire that continues operating according to its original mission.”

He added that although the site stored ancient knowledge for future generations the practice by monks of re-using parchments meant they were also to blame for erasing it.

“At some point the material the manuscript was on became more valuable than what was written on it,” Mr Phelps said. “So it was deemed worthy of being recycled.”

But scientists are now busy digging out the original texts found in the recent trove of manuscripts discovered in St Catherine’s, which was announced by the Ministry of Antiquities in Cairo.

The find includes the first-known copy of the gospels in Arabic and the earliest examples of known works from the Greek physician Hippocrates.

4,272 objects of cultural, historical and archaeological value were returned to Turkey

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4,272 objects of cultural, historical and archaeological value illegally exported from Turkey were returned to the country thanks to the intense efforts of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The most recent successful initiative is the decision to return the Heracles' Sarcophagus from Switzerland to Turkey.

Thousands of objects of cultural, historical and archaeological value were returned to the country thanks to initiatives taken since 2003.

According to the ministry of Turkey, 4,272 items illegally exported to foreign countries such as France, Austria, Great Britain, Germany, Croatia, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland have been returned.

These objects, which returned to Turkey during the period 2003-2017, are exhibited at various museums in the country.

Source

http://www.ancientencyclopedia.com

Archaeologists discover 1,800-year-old writing tool in the ancient Greek city Assos,Turkey

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A bronze stylus was found in Assos, a small historic town located in the northwestern Turkish province of Canakkale.

Researchers have uncovered a 1,800-year-old writing implement, or stylus, at the ancient Greek archaeological site of Assos in northwestern Turkey.

The city was founded from 1000 to 900 BC by Aeolian colonists from Lesbos, who specifically are said to have come from Methymna. The settlers built a Doric Temple to Athena on top of the crag in 530 BC. From this temple Hermias of Atarneus, a student of Plato, ruled Assos, the Troad and Lesbos for a period of time, under which the city experienced its greatest prosperity. (Strangely, Hermias was actually the slave of the ruler of Atarneus.

St. Paul also visited the city during his third missionary journey through Asia Minor, which was between 53-57 AD, on his way to Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Acts 20 records that Luke the Evangelist and his companions ('we') "went ahead to the ship and sailed [from Troas] to Assos, there intending to take Paul on board ... and when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene".

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, the head of the Assos excavations, Professor Nurettin Arslan from Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University said the bronze instrument was pointed at one end and flat on the other.

According to Arslan, the tool which was discovered recently would have been used to write, take notes and make calculations on wax tablets used during that period.

“The flat part at the back side of the stylus was used to make corrections,” he said, likening it to today’s erasers.

Noting that students and merchants at that time used these sorts of writing tools, Arslan said that some pupils used it to write on sand or ceramic floors.

“Students who were financially better off, used it to write on wax tablets, to learn how to read and write as well as to practise their handwriting,” he said.

Merchants and the rich who did their own accounting also used these kinds of gadgets during the period, he added.

According to Arslan, one needed to be literate to own these kinds of styli. He said that not only free people but also some slaves were literate then.

“Educated slaves could also use these ... for their owners’ calculations or for certain notes,” Arslan added.

According to Arslan, as people during Roman times used wax tablets, they needed to make writing tools from hard materials. That is why bronze or bone was generally used to make styli.

The Turkish archaeologist said every period had its own stylus designs, but bronze was more commonly used during this era as it was hard.

Arslan also said that the Assos excavations had uncovered a piece from a 2,500-year-old vase, which was imported from Athens and a 2,000-year-old ceramic remnant.

Source
http://www.ancientencyclopedia.com

Hobby Lobby to pay $3 million fine, forfeit smuggled ancient artifacts

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Hobby Lobby has been hit with a big fine from the federal government for illegal smuggling.

The arts and crafts chain agreed to settle civil action the Justice Department brought against the company.

The Justice Department accused Hobby Lobby of smuggling ancient cuneiform tablets and clay artifacts from modern day Iraq into the United States.

Cuneiform is an ancient system of writing on clay tablets that was used in Mesopotamia.

The Department of Justice said Hobby Lobby received "falsely labeled" artifacts from a United Arab Emirates-based supplier. The dealers reportedly falsely labeled the shipments as "ceramics" and "samples" and illegally shipped them to Hobby Lobby stores and two corporate offices.

In a statement, the conservative Christian company said it has been acquiring a variety of historical bibles and other artifacts since 2009.

The company said that is consistent with their mission and passion for the Bible.

Hobby Lobby's president admitted they should have been more careful about the acquisitions.

According to court documents, the retail chain agreed to pay a $3 million fine and to forfeit thousands of Iraqi artifacts.

Source

http://www.ancientencyclopedia.com

Recreating The Aroma Of The Ancient City: Incense In The Ancient Mediterranean

Censer, clay. Gralygia, near Ierapetra Crete, Late Minoan III period, 1400-1200 BC. Archaeological Museum of Agios Nikolaos. Image via Wikimedia under a CC-BY-SA-4.0

What did the ancient Mediterranean smell like? How could scent be used to speak directly to the Gods? Where did the frankincense and myrrh given to the infant Jesus come from? These questions and many more were asked this weekend at a conference at the British School at Rome and the École française de Rome. Archaeologists, historians and classicists gathered not only to explore the use of incense, perfume and scented oils in antiquity, but also to attempt to recreate the ephemeral smellscapes of the past.

Limoges enamel plaque of angels with censers, formerly in the Keir Collection, now in the 

At times, the streets of the ancient world may have been rife with the smell of sewage, garbage and decaying animals; however, there were also sweet smells that could be acquired--for a price. The historical use of incense stretches back for millennia, although the substances burned could vary from place to place. Sweet smelling smoke was often the way that the people could speak to the Gods and demonstrate piety. Think of it as a kind of direct telephone line that could be used through an altar in the front of a temple, within a household shrine or via small incense burners.

During the period of the Aegean Bronze Age (ca.3000-1000 BCE), the ancient cultures of the Minoans and the Myceneans on the island of Crete made extensive use of fragrant substances such as ladanum (also called laudanum) and saffron. It is said that shepherds would often meticulously collect remnants of ladanum, a sticky resin that comes from the shrubs of the Cistus ladanifer, from the beards of their goats after they had been grazing. As Jo Day, a classics professor at University College Dublin, remarked, the Minoans and Myceneans (1600-1200 BCE) also burned another spice as incense: saffron. Numerous frescoes at other Minoan sites, such as...CONTINUE HERE

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http://www.ancientencyclopedia.ga