5 November 2024 The Future is the Product of the Past

1650-Year-Old Earthen Grills Unearthed in Assos Excavations

Excavations continue in Assos Ancient City, a rich settlement of the period, which is located within the borders of Behramkale Village of Ayvacık district of Çanakkale province in western Turkey, and which was home to famous thinkers of ancient times.

In the excavations of the ancient city of Assos, where Lydian, Persian, Pergamon, and Roman civilizations dominated, earthen grills and kitchen materials belonging to the Roman period were unearthed. The finds are dated to 1650 years ago.

The ancient city of Asos was found by the American architect Francis H. Bacon during the excavations carried out by the American Archaeological Institute in 1880-1883.

This year’s excavations were carried out by Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Archeology Department Head Prof. Dr. A team of 15 people is led by Nurettin Arslan.

The head of the excavation, Professor Nurettin Arslan said the excavations that different stone tools such as cutters, scrapers, and were found during, which are estimated to be about 300 thousand years old from the Lower and Middle Paleolithic periods.

“With these stone tools, traces of life thousands of years ago were found in the region,” he said.

Kitchenware unearthed in Assos excavations Photograph DHA
Kitchenware unearthed in Assos excavations Photograph DHA

About the determined excavation points, Prof. Dr. Arslan gave the following information to the DHA reporter.

“One of them is the Gymnasium in ancient times, in other words, it is a building that we can call a high school. The building covers a very large area. Excavations continue in a small area of ​​this structure, which we call a cistern, where water is stored. Here we see this; Although this structure was built in the Hellenistic period, it continues to be used in the Roman and Byzantine periods. We see that it lost its function in the Byzantine period and was converted into a church. The area we are in now is Roman, but at the back is the Byzantine church and its ruins. Apart from this, we work in a building complex belonging to the Byzantine period, which we call the inn, located in the west of the city, just behind the door we call the west gate, as a second working area. This building has many places. Every year, as much as possible, we try to clarify a place of this structure and to illuminate what its functions are. Although the building here is Hellenistic, it was converted into a church during the Byzantine period, and the marble pieces seen above are pieces from the Byzantine period. One of these pieces is the marble leg of a table used as a table. Now we’re trying to get it out,” he said.

Earthen grill found in Assos. Photo DHA
Earthen grill found in Assos. Photo DHA

The finds provide information about the lifestyle and culinary culture of the period.

“During the excavations, we made in Agora, we came across a dumpsite belonging to a house. All types of used and broken utensils are tossed into this area at that time. The statistics of ceramic fragments recovered from the rubbish dump are created in the laboratory, and their pieces are discovered and restored. After the restoration, we found cooking utensils used in the kitchen of a house and belonging to the food culture. One of the most interesting of these was an object made of terracotta, used as a grill. Apart from that, a large number of vessels such as pans, pots, mixing and crushing vessels made of terracotta were also found. Since people ate the food as boiled or grilled in that period, these examples are an important group of finds in terms of showing us the daily lifestyle of people at that time, what kind of food they cooked in the kitchen and what tools they used.”

Adding to his words that stone tools were found in the research carried out in Biber Stream, south of Assos Ruins, Prof. Dr. Arslan said, “There is a region called Biber Stream to the south of Assos. There is a water source and a small fertile valley right next to the water source. In a short survey we made in this valley this year, some traces of life in this region were obtained in very early times. Presumably the first, according to preliminary research, stone tools date from the Paleolithic period to 300,000 years old. We can say that this is an important finding regarding the existence of life in this region in the early ages. It will be investigated in more detail by experts on this subject,” he said.

Related Articles

Iron Age port discovered on Swedish island of Gotska Sandön

21 September 2023

21 September 2023

Archaeologists have discovered an Iron Age port on Gotska Sandön, an island and national park in Sweden’s Gotland district. In...

Archaeologists in Peru discover a mummy tied with 800-year-old ropes

28 November 2021

28 November 2021

On Peru’s central coast, archaeologists discovered a mummy estimated to be at least 800 years old. The mummy’s body was...

The ancient city of Karkamış “House of the Seal” brings a different perspective to the Hittite-Assyrian relations with its important finds

6 May 2022

6 May 2022

Historical artifacts discovered during excavations by Turkish and Italian teams in the ancient city of Karkamış (Carchemish) in southern Gaziantep...

A metal detectorist unearthed a Roman silver “ligula” or “Toilet Spoon” in Wales

30 January 2024

30 January 2024

A metal detectorist in Wales unearthed a Roman silver “ligula”, commonly known as a “toilet spoon”. The discovery, made in...

Crusade period grave field and a sword discovered in Finland

15 October 2023

15 October 2023

A large cemetery from the time of the Crusades was discovered near a medieval stone church in Salo Perttel, a...

Germany: 700-year-old Causeway Found Under Central Berlin Street

19 February 2022

19 February 2022

Archaeologists from the Landesdenkmalamt Berlin (LDA) made a sensational find during their excavation at Molkenmarkt: about 2.50 m below Stralauer...

The 3,200-year-old perfume of Tapputi, the first female chemist in history, came to life again

24 July 2022

24 July 2022

One of the scent formulas written in Akkadian on clay tablets by Tapputi, known as the world’s first female perfumer...

Excavations at Körzüt Castle unearth 2 cuneiform inscriptions and a new Urartian Susi temple

25 October 2023

25 October 2023

During the rescue excavations carried out at the Körzüt Castle in the Muradiye district of Van province in eastern Turkey,...

‘Miniature Pompeii’ found beneath Astra cinema in Verona

15 June 2021

15 June 2021

Archaeologists have uncovered a “miniature Pompeii” in the shape of a well-preserved ancient edifice near Verona, Italy. An old Roman...

Environmentalists react to the rehabilitation works in the Assos ancient port

2 October 2021

2 October 2021

Among the continuing landscaping and restoration works at the historic city of Assos in the northern province of Canakkale, a...

Archaeologists discover complete armored 14th-century gauntlet in Switzerland

18 January 2024

18 January 2024

Excavations in Kyburg in the canton of Zürich, northeastern Switzerland have discovered a 14th-century fully preserved gauntlet of armor in...

A woman in Norway found Viking-age 1000-year-old hoard in basement

20 April 2023

20 April 2023

A woman in Norway cleaned her parents’ home, she found 32 iron ingots dating to the Viking or early Middle...

27,000-year-old Pendants made from giant sloths suggest earlier arrival of people in the Americas

16 July 2023

16 July 2023

Archaeologists discovered three pendants made from the bony material of an extinct giant sloth in a rock shelter in central...

Hundreds Of Mummified Bees inside their Cocoons from the Time of the Pharaohs found in Portugal

25 August 2023

25 August 2023

Hundreds of mummified bees inside their cocoons have been found on the southwest coast of Portugal, in a new paleontological...

Underwater Researchers Found Temples to Ancient Gods in Sunken City

20 September 2023

20 September 2023

Two temples belonging to the Egyptian god Amun and the Greek goddess Aphrodite were found in the sunken city off...