Tag: Archeology

  • Gate to Hell in Turkey: ‘We could see the cave’s lethal properties’

    Gate to Hell in Turkey: ‘We could see the cave’s lethal properties’

    The Gate to Hell in Turkey which was found by Italian archaeologists is also called Pluto’s Gate and “any animal that passes inside meets instant death.” After passing a fenced entrance and entering the one-person cave, a staircase led down a corridor into a space filled with toxic gases that meant instant death for man and animal. According to an April 1, 2013, KSL report, “Italian archaeologists have discovered what ancient Greeks and Romans believed to be a portal to the underworld, located in an ancient Phrygian city in modern-day Turkey.”

    1364894896_5783_hell

     

    The crossing of the River Styx and the gate to hell. According to Greek and Roman mythology, the dead would be ferried over this river upon entering the underworld.
    Credits:
    Wikimedia Commons

    The discovery of the Gate to Hell in Turkey by archaeologists led by Francesco D’Andria from the southern Italian University of Salento, was made public just recently at a conference in Istanbul. Archaeologists found the Gate to Hell while doing archeological work on ruins in the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis.

    According to Greek and Roman mythology and ancient writings, the Gate to Hell or Pluto’s Gate, was used to for ceremonial sacrifices, for experiments, to prove superior powers, and for entertainment such as sending animals to hell and back.

    Ceremonial sacrifices included sending animals like bulls into the cave knowing that they would never be seen again and become a gift to Pluto, the god of the underworld. Experimental activities included throwing in birds which “immediately breathed their last and fell.”

    Priest proved their superior powers by entering the Gate to Hell and returning unharmed. As with many “magic tricks,” knowledge of science is the key. Knowing that the toxic gas in the cave would not be evenly spread but settle in certain places (carbon dioxide is heavier than air), priests were able to enter the Gate to Hell, hold their breath, and find pockets of air that were safe to breath. Returning from the Gate to Hell unharmed was a sign of divine protection and gave the priests superior powers.

    Just as it would be the case today, the Gate to Hell was also a place for quite an unusual entertainment.

    In her article, Rossella Lorenzi describes the experimental, sacrificial, and entertaining aspects of the Gate to Hell or Pluto’s Gate.

    “According to the archaeologist, there was a sort of touristic organization at the site. Small birds were given to pilgrims to test the deadly effects of the cave, while hallucinated priests sacrificed bulls to Pluto. The ceremony included leading the animals into the cave, and dragging them out dead.”

    Since the Gate to Hell was used for several purposes according to the ancient writings, archeologists were also able to find a temple, pool, and steps that surrounded the Gate to Hell. As with any stage performance, visitors were allowed in certain areas while priests were in charge of the main stage or, in this case, the Gate to Hell.

    Because the area was considered to be of pagan origin, archeologists assume that it was destroyed by either Christians or an earthquake making the Gate to Hell mainly an existence in historical writings; until now.

    And does the Gate to Hell still work today?

    According to Rossella Lorenzi’s article, lead archaeologist Francesco D’Andria said that, “We could see the cave’s lethal properties during the excavation. Several birds died as they tried to get close to the warm opening, instantly killed by the carbon dioxide fumes.”

    via Gate to Hell in Turkey: ‘We could see the cave’s lethal properties’ – San Diego Top News | Examiner.com.

  • ‘Gate to Hell’ discovered in Turkey

    ‘Gate to Hell’ discovered in Turkey

    Kate Seamons, Newser 12:56p.m. EDT April 1, 2013

    “Any animal that passes inside meets instant death.”

    — Ancient Greek geographer Strabo

    Plutos-Gate-to-Hell-uncovered-in-Turkey

    As far as archaeological discoveries go, it’s a darker one: Pluto’s Gate — aka, the fabled gate to the underworld — has reportedly been unearthed in Turkey.

    The team behind the dig made the announcement last month, and ANSA and Discovery report on the finding and the Greco-Roman mythology behind the portal: Cicero and Greek geographer Strabo made reference to the entryway to Hell in their writings, and placed it in the ancient city of Hierapolis.

    NEWSER: The world’s least visited country is …

    As Strabo explained of the cave opening, which spewed noxious vapors, “Any animal that passes inside meets instant death. I threw in sparrows and they immediately breathed their last and fell.”

    Italian archaeologist Francesco D’Andria has been examining Hierapolis for years (he formerly claimed he found one of the 12 apostles’ tombs there). This time around, he explains his team found the portal “by reconstructing the route of a thermal spring” to the cave; he was also able to identify the ruins of a temple, pool, and steps — from which pagan pilgrims would watch sacred rites performed at the portal’s opening — referenced in descriptions of the cave.

    “We could see the cave’s lethal properties during the excavation,” he says. “Several birds died as they tried to get close to the warm opening, instantly killed by the carbon dioxide fumes.”

    via ‘Gate to Hell’ discovered in Turkey.

  • Archaeologists in Turkey Discovered an Ancient Gate to Hell

    The Ruins at Hierapolis. Satan not pictured. Image by Radomił Binek, via Wikimedia Commons

    Bad horror movies have taught us a lot over the years: If you hear a strange noise in the woods, don’t go investigating on your own, especially if you’re a hot girl in your underwear; don’t have sex if you’re a teenager, it’s a surefire way to get yourself whacked; don’t go digging around ancient Indian burial grounds and try not to be a black man—you’ll be among the first to go.

    Also, if you find a gate to hell, don’t open it.

    That last one shouldn’t really need repeating, but apparently it does. News last week from the Italian newswire Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) revealed that Italian archaeologists working in the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis, in modern-day Turkey, discovered the city’s ancient “Gate to the Underworld.” Cue up the Lovecraftian horror fantasies, and…. go.

    The gateway, known to Greco-Roman antiquity as “Pluto’s Gate” or a “Plutonion,” was “a well-known place of pilgrimage,” ANSA reports, appearing in the writings of Cicero and the Greek geographer Strabus, both of whom reported having visited it.

    Thanks to such historical records, archaeologists have long known that this particular hell gate existed somewhere amid the ancient ruins at Hierapolis, but had been unable to find its exact location since they began excavating there in 1957. The Plutonion is really a natural phenomenon, an opening in the earth’s crust, like a cave, from which foul and poisonous gasses escaped—also known as “mephitic” gasses (named for the ancient Samnite goddess, Mephitis; common skunks are called Mephitis mephitis).

    Such noxious portals are found around the globe. Undoubtedly the coolest, a modern day hell gate in Turkmenistan has been burning for over 40 years (the geologists who accidentally created it decided to light it on fire to protect locals from the gases, and it’s been burning ever since).

    Finding the Plutonion in Turkey required a lot of detective work. Per ANSA:

    [Archaeologist Francesco] D’Andria told ANSAmed that he had found it by studying the vast literature from the period and reconstructing the route of a thermal spring to a cave, ascertaining that in that area bird corpses were collected. According to the tales of the travelers in those times, bulls were sacrificed to Pluto before pilgrimages into the Plutonium. The animals were led by priests to the entrance to a cave from which fetid fumes arose, suffocating them to death.

    Here’s hoping D’Andria has invested in a good crucifix since last week’s discovery.

    By Austin Considine

    via Archaeologists in Turkey Discovered an Ancient Gate to Hell | Motherboard.

  • 8,500-year-old human bones discovered in Istanbul

    8,500-year-old human bones discovered in Istanbul

    ISTANBUL, Jan. 10 — Human bones from the Neolithic period have been discovered in Pendik district of Turkish city Istanbul, local daily Radikal reported Thursday.

    marmaray-pendik

    The excavation, directed by the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, unearthed the human bones at a spot about 50 meters away form the coast, where a village was located 8,500 years ago, according to the report.

    Besides the graves where the human bones lay, cesspools and house bases, together with personal belongings like needles and spoons, pebble stones and terra cotta from the Byzantium period, were also discovered.

    Large amounts of seashells found in the cesspools are reportedly a sign of the consumption of seafood by the most ancient natives of Istanbul during the Neolithic period. The shells were also used as tools that enable the permeability, according to experts.

    The archeological discovery was made during the construction of a railway on the Yenikapi-Pendik line.

    Archeologists are now trying to discover the relation between the Yenikapi and Pendik inhabitants.

    via 8,500-year-old human bones discovered in Istanbul – NZweek.

  • Eastern Turkey’s ancient wonders

    Urfa, in eastern Turkey, is, at 11,000 years old, the oldest monument ever found, yet was only discovered a decade ago. It is the site of man’s first efforts at farming and is also said to be the birthplace of Abraham

    • Kevin Rushby
      • Kevin Rushby
      • The Guardian,
    Pillars at the temple of Gobekli Tepe may represent priestly dancers.

    Pillars at the temple of Gobëkli Tepe. Photograph by Vincent J Musi/National Geographic Society

    Given the power to travel in time, which period would you choose for your tour? Well, here’s one to consider: the early Holocene. Not grabbing you? Well, to be more precise 9,600BC in what is now eastern Turkey. That period and place are known to have been pivotal in human prehistory, although they left precious few traces.

    It was during this time that certain plants and animals were domesticated, which led to the farming revolution and permanent changes in human technology, culture and diet. It was the moment, in short, when humanity started on the inexorable ascent towards pot noodles and oven chips. What better moment could there be to delve into? And now, thanks to some incredible recent discoveries close to the ancient city of Urfa (officially now Sanlıurfa, but usually called simply Urfa), we have a tangible physical trace of that momentous turning point in humanity’s development.

    One morning in 1994, Professor Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul, went for a walk in a range of low hills nine miles north-east of Urfa. It was not exactly an aimless amble: Schmidt had been excavating several neolithic sites in the area and was on the hunt for more. In his pocket was a list of interesting locations generated by a 1960s survey. One, marked as of minor interest, was a small hill, Gobëkli Tepe, the “belly-shaped mound”. Approaching it, Schmidt saw something promising in the shape: “It was clearly manmade.”

    The current dig near Urfa, TurkeyThe current dig near Urfa, Turkey. Photographs by Kevin Rushby for the GuardianThe hills in this area are given over to sheep and goats, while the valley below is the scene of intensive mechanised agriculture, crisscrossed by massive concrete irrigation canals. The agrarian revolution has hardly had a beautifying effect here in its original home, but Schmidt knew this had once been a rich savannah, alive with wild animals and birds. As he reached the highest point, he began to pick up flint arrowheads, dozens of them.

    Local landowner Mahmut Yildiz, who was with him, led him to the only tree on the hill, right at the top. It was tied with ribbons, and Yildiz told how locals believed it was a holy site. Schmidt spotted several large rocks about a metre long and a third as wide. A quick inspection suggested these were manmade, and ancient.

    “I knew right then,” Schmidt tells me as we survey the site, “that this place would occupy me for the rest of my life.”

    What he had found was the most significant stone age discovery of the century, perhaps of all time. The large monoliths proved to be the tops of five-metre-high standing stones, vaguely human-shaped but carved with animal figures. Radar investigation revealed the stones to be laid in a circle, and that there were a further 20 such circles.

    When the first carbon-dating was done, the results were staggering. Gobëkli Tepe was between 10,800 and 11,600 years old, making it the most ancient monument ever found by more than five millennia. According to the textbooks it could not exist: human hunter-gatherer societies at that time simply did not possess the skills and resources to construct such a place. But here it was, a stone age marvel that had ripped up those very textbooks.

    And what was it? Temple? Burial mound? Meeting hall? No one knew. But one thing was certain: Gobëkli Tepe would one day be known to every schoolchild on earth and was destined to become a major travel destination, ranked alongside the Great Pyramids, Persepolis and Stonehenge.

    shepherds on the road next to Gobeckli TepeShepherds on the road near Gobëckli TepeThese days you drive up to the site, and the stony ground has been cleared sufficiently for the occasional tourist bus to park. Word is starting to spread. Yildiz has brought in a makeshift table and sells postcards and books. Most days he has a few customers, sometimes several dozen.

    As you approach the site, you see a few huts but not much else. The ground is still dotted with arrow flints. Then you round the hill. Even if you’ve seen the pictures of the site on the internet, it is quite extraordinary: an area of hillside the size of three tennis courts dug out to a depth of seven or eight metres to reveal dozens of huge monoliths. There is a raised boardwalk so you can move over the area easily, watching the archaeologists at work.

    The astonishing thing here is that so much is unknown: any visitor can have an opinion. Is that carving of a fox or a wolf? Was the site ever roofed? Why have no human bones been found?

    I arrive just after dawn and, by good fortune, find Schmidt there. “We are expecting to find burials,” he says, “in the walls, perhaps.”

    From the beginning, Schmidt has insisted that visitors be allowed on the site. “When word got out and people were arriving from all over the world,” he says, “I knew we had to let them see what was here.”

    We walk together along the boardwalk. Teams of local men are digging with long-handled shovels, shaving away at the layers. Our conversation is interrupted continually as the professor is called away to look at finds or comment on progress. I wait for him, examining the stones carefully. What had appeared at first to be rectangular stones I now see are actually T-shaped, giving the sense of a “head” on top. Halfway down the side are parallel notches that look like fingers resting on a belt from which hangs a carved loincloth.

    “It’s clear the stones are anthropomorphic,” says the professor when he returns to me. “But they are faceless – monumental spirits, or mythical ancestors, or gods. On them are carved animals – snakes, boars, foxes, spiders.”

    These are not the animals the people would have hunted. A line of ducks on one stone looks positively pastoral, nothing like those cave paintings showing human hunting expeditions, with the quarry fleeing from stick-like figures waving spears.

    “The carved animals are clearly aspects of the T-shaped figures,” says Schmidt. “They are the animals we would find in fairy tales.”

    One of the assistants comes over to discuss progress with the professor. I stand admiring the carvings. Here are the very creatures that we still use as archetypes: the busy spider, the cunning fox, the majestic lion. It gives the mysterious faceless figures an oddly familiar look. I feel I would recognise the people who made them, and with an able translator, understand their stories, perhaps even their jokes.

    The professor is clearly not coming back to me for a while. It’s an indication of how much interest the site is generating that he is expecting a party of 60 academics from all over the world. I set off around the site, exploring the hilltop, where the tree still bears a few scarves left by local women as fertility offerings.

    In olive groves on the far side, flint arrowheads litter the ground, and I can see the places where the archaeologists have cut experimental holes to reveal the tops of more monumental stones. There is obviously work enough for several generations of archaeologists to get their teeth into. When I finally say goodbye to Professor Schmidt, he agrees: “I’ve been working here for 18 years and there is a routine, but there is still excitement too. Every campaign we discover more. There’s at least 50 years’ worth of research here.”

    I’d arrived by taxi, probably the simplest method, from Urfa, and I head back there. There is another ancient site I want to visit in the centre of town, a place that seems an appropriate corollary to Gobëkli Tepe. I also want some lunch.

    pastry shop in urfaA pastry shop in UrfaNow a bustling modern place, Urfa has an ancient heart. I’m dropped off in the old town then walk through the bazaar, a wonderful labyrinth of alleyways and shops. As befits a place so close to the birthplace of the modern diet, there are restaurants galore: each with a spread of low stools and tables outside. I order ciger (liver), then set about chopping up my own salad with the piles of onions, coriander, lemons and mint provided. A giant flatbread is brought and a pewter bowl of ayran, buttermilk.

    The salad is doused in sweet pomegranate sauce and the meat arrives, scorching hot from the grill. When I’ve finished, I move on to get tea and ask about one of Urfa’s specialities, sillik. This draws some chuckles as the word means “whore”, but eventually I find it: walnuts, pistachios and syrup rolled in a pancake. After a couple of these, I am ready to approach the city’s spiritual heart.

    At the top of the bazaar, a broad stone-flagged path leads into a shady park enclosed on two sides by the narrowing valley. To the left, and above me, is the Byzantine citadel, to the right old houses, some of them now restored to be grand hotels and restaurants. In the centre of the park is a long limpid pool filled with blue-grey carp that are being fed by an army of children and parents.

    To one side, right under the rock wall, is the entrance to a cave, the place I – and hundreds of others – have come to visit. It’s a stark contrast with the relative tranquillity of Gobëkli, but I sense that somehow this underground space is the opposing twin of that belly-shaped hill.

    Several thousand years ago, so the local story goes, a pregnant woman sheltered from the wrath of a vengeful king in that cave and gave birth to a child who would become the patriarch Abraham – revered by Muslims, Jews and Christians. Unlike at Gobëkli Tepe, where there is solid evidence but almost no understanding of the story, the Abrahamic legend comes with no material evidence at all but a powerful and enduring narrative of a journey. The patriarch is supposed to have left the cradle of civilisation for a new land, Canaan, a country that would fascinate and obsess humanity right down to the present day.

    I had visited the end point of Abraham’s travels, his tomb in a subterranean complex in the Palestinian city of Hebron. Ironically, these chambers are now divided by stone walls, so that the man’s descendants don’t tear each other to pieces. Now I am at his birthplace and, entering, I discover that it too is divided, this time by a wooden screen to separate men and women.

    abraham's poolAbraham’s pool in UrfaAt the end of the tunnel is a grotto and a pool. On the carpeted floor several men are fervently praying. The story of Abraham certainly seems to have meaning and significance for them. As we leave together, I ask one man if he’s been to Gobëkli Tepe.

    “No,” he says in halting English, “but I have heard of it, in the newspaper.”

    Will he go? He shrugs and laughs. “It is just stones.”

    On the adjacent hillside I find a flight of steps running up the hillside towards the Byzantine fortress. At the summit is an excellent view of the town and surrounding barren hills.

    The agrarian revolution may have started in this area, but it has not blessed these hills with much. Most of the trees are long gone. There are few wild animals or birds. The outskirts of Urfa are a desert of dusty concrete apartment blocks. I suppose you could argue that the great myth that sprang from the same area hasn’t done anyone much good either: pogroms, crusades, cleansings and endless violence are one way of seeing the cursed inheritance of Abraham’s children.

    I sit down on the grass, somber with such thoughts, to watch the sunset. Only then do I notice, next to me, a family out for a picnic. The children are being served a delicious-looking array of homemade dishes by their mother and older sisters while the father, reclining jovially with a hookah pipe, is tending to his pet partridges, brought along to enjoy the air and the grass. And everyone is laughing.

    Way to go

    The trip was provided by Explore (0844 875 1892, explore.co.uk), whose 15-day Eastern Turkey small group includes a visit to Gobëkli Tepe. It costs from £1,246 per person, including flights, B&B accommodation, transport and the services of a tour leader tour, and there are numerous departure dates from May to September 2013.

    Kevin travelled from York to London with East Coast Mainline (08457 225225, eastcoast.co.uk), which has advance returns, booked online, from £26.

    Source : https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/dec/21/eastern-turkey-ancient-wonders

    Pillars at the temple of 009

  • ARCHAEOLOGY – Hagia Sophia undergoes most comprehensive restoration

    ARCHAEOLOGY – Hagia Sophia undergoes most comprehensive restoration

    ISTANBUL – Anatolia News Agency

    Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Museum will undergo the most comprehensive and most expensive restoration process in its history, according to officials. All the museum’s ornaments and marbles will be restored

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    All elements of the Hagia Sophia Museum from ornaments to the marble inside will be cleaned and renovated during the restoration process, which is the most comprehensive one ever seen.AA Photo

    The most comprehensive restoration process in the history of the Turkish Republic will begin at Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Museum, soon after 17 years of restoration work were completed.

    During the restoration process, some units that were added to the museum during the Ottoman period and the structures that have existed since the establishment of the museum will be restored. Among these structures are the fountain and library of Mahmud I as well as the ornaments and marbles inside the museum.

    The deputy director of the Hagia Sophia Museum, Hayrullah Cengiz, said the museum was a historical work of art dating back 1,500 years and one of the world’s most magnificent works. “It is natural that such an old artwork undergoes restoration processes very often.”

    Mahmud I fountain

    Cengiz said that during the restoration process, both the additional structures and some other units would be renovated, and that in the first phase they had started the restoration of Turkey’s most beautiful fountain, the Mahmud I Fountain built in the 1740s. “Work has been underway for eight months and we are planning to finish it in one to 1.5 months.”

    He said the fountain had undergone restoration because it had been damaged in an earthquake that happened in 1894, and had been restored most recently in the 1960s. “All elements of the fountain including the dome made of lead, wood and metal parts, calligraphy and gold leaf are being restored.”

    Cengiz said the restoration of the Mahmud I Library in the museum would be done in 400 days. He said similar libraries had been built in mosques, especially in Istanbul, adding that it was a masterpiece.

    The library has İznik and Kütahya tiles as well as Tekfur Palace tiles, Cengiz said. “It attracts the attention of many scientists and researchers. We will open this place to visits when the restoration is done.”

    Cengiz said the western facade of the Hagia Sophia Museum would also be restored. “We estimate that it will be finished in 550 days.”

    He said the restoration of the western facade would give important data for the restoration of the southern and eastern facades. He said that especially the northern and western facades of the buildings in Istanbul suffered from heavy rain, wind and snow.

    “The most damaged part of the Hagia Sophia is its northern and western facades. The work that will be done here has not been discussed in the media. Projects took a long time. Finally, an agreement was reached between the scientific council and the protection council,” Cengiz said.

    He said the scaffolds would be erected on the western facade after the technical work was finished.

    Cengiz said the ornaments and marbles inside the museum would be cleaned during the restoration process and the work would be finished in 600 days.

    via ARCHAEOLOGY – Hagia Sophia undergoes most comprehensive restoration.