This one is making the rounds of the ‘eastern’ papers … here’s the ANI version via Daily India:

A team of archaeologists has discovered the ancient port city of Bathonea, located in Istanbul’s Kucukcekmece basin in Turkey, which is estimated to be 1,600 years old.

According to a report in Today’s Zaman, Dr. Sengul Aydingun from Kocaeli University explained that an ancient city had been found after they had conducted surface research in Yarimburgaz, the oldest settlement area in the Kucukcekmece basin.

Aydingun, head of the Istanbul Prehistoric Research (ITA) Project, said they had found out about the ancient port, located 20 kilometers away from Byzantium (old Istanbul), during research conducted last year into historic documents and compositions written by geographers several centuries ago.

Permission has now been granted to start the excavation, and Aydingun said they are currently at the start of a very long dig. “It might take a century,” he added.

Aydingun said they had detected the remains of the port during their initial search and had found ceramics and similar small findings near the surface.

They also detected a “grid system” of roads from aerial views, and they expect to unearth a city built in a manner similar to the planned urban developments of Ephesus and other ancient cities.

The area where they have started to work is the most important spot, according to Aydingun, who said they think a structure possessing important architectural features such as columns and doors might be a temple.

Pointing out that the city is situated on a peninsula, Professor Hakan Oniz, a marine archeologist from Eastern Mediterranean University said that structures in the city connect with a pier, port and a lighthouse in the farthest point of the city.

Explaining that the connection between Lake Kucukcekmece and the Sea of Marmara was wider 1,000 years ago, Oniz said that divers are conducting research on the lighthouse.

Culture and Tourism Ministry Monuments and Museums Department General Director Orhan Duzgun said Bathonea was added to the 150 ancient cities that are currently being excavated.

I can’t find anything appropriate to our period of purview about Bathonea (despite claims of a lighthouse!) …

• Archaeologists discover 1,600 yr old port city in Turkey (Daily India)
• Ancient port discovered near shore of Küçükçekmece Lake (Today’s Zaman)
• Archaeologists discover 1,600 yr old port city in Turkey (Sindh Today)

Interesting item from Ha’aretz … some excerpts:

Remains of an ancient cult to the goddess of love have come to light in the southern Golan Heights site of Susita

At the site, on a 350 meter-high-plateau overlooking the eastern shore of Lake Kinneret, archaeologists found a cache of three figurines of Aphrodite (whom the Romans called Venus), dating back about 1,500 years. The figurines, made of clay, are about 30 centimeters tall. They depict the nude goddess standing, with her right hand covering her private parts – a type of statue scholars call “modest Venus.”

[…]

The figurines at Susita were unearthed in the excavations of the University of Haifa’s Zinman Institute of Archaeology, now in its 10th season, headed by Prof. Arthur Segal and Dr. Michael Eisenberg.

Many statues and figurines of Aphrodite have been uncovered over the years. One, from marble, which became known as the Venus of Beit She’an, was uncovered in 1993 in the baths of that ancient city.

“Aphrodite was the goddess of love, but also the goddess of fertility and childbirth,” Segal says. “Pregnant woman hoping for a safe birth would sacrifice to her, as would young girls hoping for love. Mainly, flowers, rather than animals, would be sacrificed to Aphrodite. The figurines we found were made in a mold in rather large numbers. They would be offered to the goddess in a temple by supplicants, or kept above one’s bed,” Segal said.

Another special find at Susita is an odeon – a small, roofed theater-like structure with seats for about 600 people, uncovered for the first time in Israel, according to the excavators. They said such structures were fairly common in the Roman period and were used for the reading of poetry and musical presentations to a select audience, in contrast to theaters, which could seat around 4,000 people.

Sussita was known as Antiocheia ad Hippum in Roman times (simply Hippos or Antiochia Hippos prior to that); not sure we have mention of a cult of Aphrodite there in ancient sources …

UPDATE: (08/21/09): another photo which shows some more typical ‘cult’ offerings one would expect at this sort of site (and which were found there) … tip o’ the pileus to Joseph Lauer

• Dig unearths ancient cult figurines of Aphrodite