[Bilimsel Haber] After Being Stricken by Drought, Istanbul Yields Ancient Treasure

[Gonul Pultar]

  After Being Stricken by Drought, Istanbul Yields Ancient Treasure


            By JENNIFER PINKOWSKI

ISTANBUL ? For 1,600 years, this city ? Turkey?s largest ? has been 
built and destroyed, erected and erased, as layer upon layer of life has 
thrived on its seven hills.

Today, Istanbul is a city of 13 million, spread far beyond those hills. 
And on a long-farmed peninsula jutting into Lake Kucukcekmece, 13 miles 
west of the city center, archaeologists have made an extraordinary find.

The find is Bathonea, a substantial harbor town dating from the second 
century B.C. Discovered in 2007 after a drought lowered the lake?s water 
table, it has been yielding a trove of relics from the fourth to the 
sixth centuries A.D., a period that parallels Istanbul?s founding and 
its rise as Constantinople, a seat of power in the Eastern 
Roman/Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.

While there are some historical records of this early period, precious 
few physical artifacts exist. The slim offerings in the Istanbul section 
of the Archaeological Museums 
<http://www.istanbularkeoloji.gov.tr/web/38-147-1-1/muze_-_en/main_page/main_page/main_page> 
here reflect that, paling in comparison with the riches on display from 
Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Lebanon.

So Bathonea <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsqY1DdRzPM> (pronounced 
bath-oh-NAY-uh) has the potential to become a ?library of 
Constantinople,? says Sengul Aydingun, the archaeologist who made the 
initial discovery.

Read the rest at: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/science/istanbul-yields-a-treasure-trove-in-ancient-bathonea.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/science/istanbul-yields-a-treasure-trove-in-ancient-bathonea.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all>




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