An ancient wall, which may belong to another temple dedicated to Artemis, has been found at the Apollo Temple in Turkey.

Didyma’s Culture and Tourism Ministry representative Ferhan Büyükyörük said that during work this year the excavation team searched for the continuation of the wall and another structure around it. “We believe that the wall may be the wall of the Temple of Artemis, but it is too early to say so definitely. We need one or two years to understand it completely. The material inside the wall should be examined thoroughly,” she said.

Didyma excavation restoration head and German archaeologist Christoph Kronewirth complained about the preservation conditions of the Temple of Apollo, saying that the temple had been exposed to hard natural conditions like earthquakes as well as looters and tourists over time. He said there were two officials at the entrance to the temple but no watchman inside. “The lack of control in the temple is a big deficit in the preservation there.”

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Inscriptions referring to religious festivals attended by Roman emperors have been found at Pompeiopolis in northern Turkey.

New inscriptions have been unearthed during excavations at the ancient city of Pompeiopolis, in Ta?köprü in the northern province of Kastamonu. Professor Christian Marek, who has been examining the inscriptions, said they were probably referred to festivals from the Roman era.

Marek said that according to the inscriptions, Roman emperors participated in these festivals, most of which were religious. Marek said several competitions, shows and plays were held as part of these festivals, which are thought to have been started by Roman Emperor Alexander Severus. “There were… competitions and music shows, as well as tragedy and comedy shows in the festivals. These festivals were organized every three to five years and hosted significant people of the period,” he added.

Professor Latife Summerer, a lecturer from Munich University who has been leading the excavations for five years, said that information on the inscriptions was important and more would be uncovered in excavations still to be held in the ancient city.

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A 9th-century monastic complex containing beautiful marble floors and mosaics has been identified in Istanbul, Turkey.

“People started out thinking this was a 9th-century Islamic place. When I started doing research here, it became clear that this identification had no good grounding,” said team leader Alessandra Ricci, who noted that some travelers’ accounts dating from the early 19th century mentioned the existence of a Byzantine monastery in the area.

The rich monastic complex, built between 867 and 877, encompasses the church and burial place of Patriarch Ignatios, a prominent figure in Byzantine history who is depicted in the mosaics inside Hagia Sophia.

“There is nothing from the Ottoman period here, not even a piece of pottery. Underneath the modern layers, we’re going directly to Byzantium,” Ricci said, adding that the discovery is a wonderful opportunity for her since she has a great passion for the Byzantine period and it is very rare to find wall paintings from that era in Istanbul.

“We found beautifully decorated marble floors, golden mosaics, wonderful coins and beautiful art objects that deserve to be displayed in a museum,” Ricci said.

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The vibrations caused by construction are threatening to collapse the 10,000-year-old settlement of Hasankeyf in Turkey.

An investigation begun after a man was killed by a falling rock at the ancient city of Hasankeyf has revealed that construction vehicles working in the area have brought the 10,000-year-old settlement close to collapse.

“It is a crime by law to enter protected areas with heavy-duty vehicles. Before the rock broke, there were cracks but the necessary precautions were not taken,” said archaeologist Ercan Alpay, a member of the committee formed by the Initiative to Revive Hasankeyf to investigate the death of a man killed July 13 when a rock fell from a tower in the area.

After the fatal incident, the road to the ancient bazaar and tents located near the Tigris River were closed to vehicle and passenger traffic.

“Excavating with vehicles in a historical site has nothing to do with scientific research,” Alpay said, adding that such work can do massive damage to a fragile site such as Hasankeyf.

The committee, which includes archaeologists, architects and building and geology engineers, found in its report that caves used as dwellings as early as 800 B.C. had been damaged. It concluded that the ancient city is at risk of collapse.

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Excavations at Heraion-Teikhos in western Turkey have turned up a Thracian temple at the city’s acropolis.

The temple, belonging to the ancient Thracian civilization, was thought to have disappeared in a fire that occurred in 2 BC. The continuing work at the temple has revealed many interesting artworks thus far, the excavation chairwoman says.

Many important pieces of art have reportedly been unearthed in the northwestern province of Tekirda? in a temple previously thought to have been destroyed in a fire in 2 B.C.

The ongoing excavations in the pantheon of the ancient city of Heraion-Teikhos in Tekirda?’s Karaevlialt? district started this year at the beginning of August, according to the excavation chairwoman, Professor Ne?e Atik from Ahi Evran University’s archaeology department.

The excavations, which have been conducted since 2000, have unearthed the ancient Thracian civilization for the first time, Atik said, adding that a team of 40 people, including workers, students, archaeologists and anthropologists, was carrying out the work.

She said that they were working to uncover the temple at the acropolis (the highest hill) of the city. “According to the data we have, we thought that the temple burned down in a fire. We have so far removed statues of gods including Kybele, Eros and Aphrodite as well as bronze coins, amphora and similar pieces from the temple,” she said.

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