Category: Archaeology

Bones From an Ankara Opera House

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

I seem to have the ‘before’ and ‘after’ articles of this one, both from Hurriyet … first, the before … from August 30:

Human bones and a skull have been discovered under the stage at the historical Ankara Opera House, home of the Ankara State Opera and Ballet (ADOB), during renovations, daily Hürriyet reported yesterday.

Restoration work at the building has been halted to permit archaeologists a chance to examine the venue.

ADOB performs most of its pieces in the historical opera building, which was built in 1933 as an exhibition house and turned into an opera house in 1984. The State Theaters also use the building under the name Büyük Tiyatro (Great Theater). Since it is an old structure, the stage was insufficient for the needs of the opera and underwent a restoration process at the end of the last opera season.

During the renovations, a skull, arm, leg bones and pottery were discovered 25 to 30 meters under the stage. The directorate informed the Culture and Tourism Ministry about the findings and archaeologists from the Cultural Heritage and Museums General Directorate investigated the area.

ADOB director Aykut Çınar told Hürriyet that the stage elevators were being renovated. “There is a platform approximately 25 to 30 meters under the stage where the elevator hoist mechanism is. The mechanism was removed to be changed since these machines are very old. Excavation was necessary for their removal.”

After learning about the discovery, Çınar said he and ADOB General Director Regim Gökmen stopped the excavation, installed a safety line and requested an anthropologist and archaeologist from the ministry to inspect the findings.

Çınar said the team arrived at the building the same night and began examinations. “They determined that there were no more remains and gave us permission to continue excavations under the supervision of an archaeologist. The area was already very small and the excavations continued two more days.”

Noting that there were no further discoveries, he said, “There were only a few human bones like legs, arms and a skull, as well as very small pieces of pottery from old periods.”

He said a report would be prepared about the findings. “We have heard that the finds are most probably from the Roman period, but we are waiting for the official report. The excavation work is done and the archaeologist has left the site. We have delivered the bones to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations,” Çınar said.

According to some resources, the area was an Armenian cemetery during the Ottoman Empire, which might be the source of the remains.

The next day:

The mystery of the human bones that were discovered under the stage at the historical Ankara Opera House, home of the Ankara State Opera and Ballet (ADOB), during renovations, seems to have been solved.

As a result of the examinations by archaeologists and anthropologists from the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, the discovered skull belongs to a 25-30 year-old man, while the bones belong to a woman, whose age could not be determined, daily Hürriyet reported yesterday. The experts said the ceramic pieces, also found during the same renovations, dated back to the late Roman period. “The bones and the skull are most probably from this period too,” they said.

Meanhile, at a press conference held on Aug. 29, ADOB General Director Rengim Gökmen said the building had been undergoing a comprehensive restoration process for the first time, and that the discoveries would not prevent the continued restoration of the building. “The restoration will continue during the summer months for the next four to five years,” he said.

Gökmen said the new season would be opened with the newly-renovated stage. “The Phantom of the Opera has become real,” he joked.

I’m curious about the 25-30 metres below the stage thing … how deep is this compared to ground level? Seems awfully deep …

Sports Complex at Aydin/Magnesia

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

This seems to be a long-running dig which we’ve never mentioned before … from Hurriyet:

During excavation in the ancient city of Magnesia, located in the Ortaklar district of Germencik in the Aegean province of Aydın, the best preserved stadium in Anatolia has been unearthed. Excavations and restoration works have continued for 28 years under the leadership of the head of the Ankara University Archaeology Department Professor Orhan Bingöl.
“It took 35 days to clean the semicircular ‘Sphendona’ part [of the stadium], which was 70-meters underground the stadium,” Bingöl said.

He said that the ancient city of Magnesia, which lies within the borders of the village Tekinköy continued for an additional three months this season thanks to the increase in financial support provided by the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

“During the excavation and restoration works, the best preserved stadium of Anatolia has been unearthed. It is completely made of marble and the capacity of the stadium is 40,000 people. The works have been carried out with a 20-person scientific team from Turkish universities as well as a seven-person team from Germany’s Nurnberg-Erlangen University,” Bingöl said.

Bingöl said the find showed that sports had been given importance throughout history. “We have so far focused on five important structural complexes. These structures have been cleared and made visible. Two of them are gymnasiums, where physical activities along with cultural educations like philosophy and literature were given. These places are equal to today’s physical education schools. The other is the sacred space of Artemis, which includes the fourth biggest temple of Anatolia.

Excavations still continue in this area. Another structure is the Theatron. It was planned as a theater but its construction was left half finished maybe because of bad natural conditions or the earth sliding. Excavations in this area have been finished. And the last structure [unearthed] is the city’s stadium,” Bingöl said.

He said that this season’s works had been finished in Magnesia’s stadium, which was completely underground and some part of which was unearthed during excavations between 2008 and 2011.

“Diggings will continue in this structure in the next years if we can find allocation. When all these works are done, the whole stadium will be unearthed after nearly 700 years. It will return to its magnificent days during which Olympics-like plays were organized and 40,000 people attended as viewers,” Bingöl said.

The assistant head of the excavations, Dr. Görkem Kökdemir said that they had also unearthed a toilet, which served 32 people at the same time in the Magnesia. “It used to work with a similar system like today’s toilets. We have found out that people living here were very civilized when seeing the motifs on the wall and the developed system.”

… the original article includes an aerial photo of the incomplete theatre. I’m somewhat confused on the names given here … I’m assuming this is the ancient Magnesia on the Meander

Roman Curse Tablet from Kent Followup

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

The BBC’s coverage of that curse tablet that was recently looked at by Roger Tomlin hinted that more work might be done on it (A Roman Curse Tablet from Kent (and a Phylactery from West Deeping)), and now we hear that there will be … from Kent Online:

Work to conserve a Roman scroll believed to be more than 1,700 years old is to be carried out in Sittingbourne.

Archaeologist and conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown will pick up the lead tablet from Oxford University towards the end of next month.

She will then bring it back to her CSI (Conservation Science Investigations) lab at The Forum shopping centre, giving visitors and shoppers the chance to watch her working on the artefact in October.

The scroll was unearthed by members of the Maidstone Area Archaeological Group in a field in East Farleigh, in 2009.

Measuring just 60mm by 100mm and only one millimetre thick, it is believed to be a curse tablet.

Used by the Romans to cast spells on people accused of theft or other misdeeds, they were rolled up to conceal their inscriptions then hidden in places considered to be close to the underworld, such as graves, springs or wells.

Since its discovery, Dana has sought ways of reading its inscription without unrolling it due to its fragility.

She said: “We took it to the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland for neutron-computed tomography imaging but the scroll is very thin and the resolution of the tomography was not good enough to see the writing.”

Several months ago the decision was finally made to unroll it.

It was then sent to Dr Roger Tomlin, lecturer in Late Roman History at Wolfson College, Oxford, and an authority on Roman inscriptions, who spent four days examining it.

He found, in capital letters, the Latin names SACRATUS, CONSTITUT[US], CONSTAN[…] and MEMORIA[NUS], the Celtic names [ATR]ECTUS and ATIDENUS, and eight others which are incomplete.

As the Romans were the first inhabitants of Kent who could read and write the names are likely to be the earliest written record of inhabitants in the village.

Dana now plans to carry out further work to reveal more of the scroll’s letters.

She said: “It’s corroded in some places so I will be testing methods to reveal more of the letters and our new Scanning Electron Microscope, which allows us to magnify and take pictures of the letters, will hopefully be installed at CSI around the same time. So we should be able to get some more of the names.

“I’ll have it until I’m finished with it then it will go back to Dr Tomlin and eventually back to the archaeological group.”

Headless Statuary from Aphrodisias!

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

All of a sudden my email box is full to bursting with good stuff … this one’s from Hurriyet:

The ongoing excavation works at one of Turkey’s most important archaeological sites, the Karacasu Aphrodisias Ancient City, have revealed two headless statues.

According to information provided by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, one of the statues is in 1.76 meters in height and the other is 1.68 meters. One of the statues holds a roll in its left hand and its right hand is on its chest. There is a pack of documents behind its left foot, but the fingers and head are broken.
The second statue is also headless. Its right hand is broken from the humerus down, and the left hand is broken from the elbow. There is also a pack of documents next to its right hand.

U.S. professor R. Roland Smith is heading the excavations at the site. The city of Aphrodisias, is one of the country’s most visited places. It is included in UNESCO’s world heritage permanent list.

There are some rather small photos accompanying the original article … for some background to the project: Aphrodisias.

Theatre Masks from Ilisu?

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

From Hurriyet:

The ongoing excavation works organized by Mardin Museum at Ilısu Dam have revealed very unique pieces, such as two theater play masks from the Roman period.

“The artifacts belong to Roman times. After the restoration is completed they will be exhibited in Mardin Museum … The excavation works held are still continuing.” Mardin Culture and Tourism Manager Davut Beliktay said.

“During ancient times there were no theater stages near Ilısu, so we think these masks came from travelling theater communities coming to Ilısu in ancient times,” he added. The artifacts are thought to come from 200-300 A.D.

“One of the masks is bronze and the other one is made from iron,” Beliktay said, adding that the restoration work on them was currently being conducted at Mardin Museum.

The masks are very rarely found in Turkey, he said. Many artifacts have been revealed during the excavations but these masks are perhaps the most important finds, as there are very few of them in Turkey, Beliktay added.

… and again I’m going to break with my usual practice and actually show the photo that accompanies the article:

via Hurriyet

I think some more thinking needs to be going on with regards to this one. It’s pretty easy to see that the masks do not have any opening around the mouths and so it seems likely that they weren’t actually used in a performance. More likely, these are examples of masks which were included as offerings in tombs (cf this example from the British Museum) …