13 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

A cemetery belonging to 54 children was found during the excavation in the old quarry in Diyarbakır, Türkiye

During the archaeological excavation carried out in the area considered to be an old quarry in the Kulp district of Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey, a cemetery where 54 children between the ages of 0-6 were buried was unearthed.

Following the discovery of coins belonging to the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I in the surface survey conducted in different areas in İnkaya Neighborhood, the excavations started by the Diyarbakır Museum Directorate in 2021 in the region continue with a team of 35 people, 15 of whom are experts.

After the discovery of the remains of a 1500-year-old church last year, excavation works commenced in the area considered to be an ancient quarry. The teams encountering the children’s graves during the excavations intensified their efforts in this area.

Diyarbakır Museum Acting Director Müjdat Gizligöl told Anadolu Agency (state-run news agency) correspondent, ‘So far, we have found 50 graves in the excavation works here. Today, we reached 4 more graves. The excavation process is currently ongoing. Therefore, we know there are a total of 54 graves. This is a very interesting result for us.”

Photo: Bestami Bodruk/AA

“Probably after this place was used as a quarry, it was turned into a necropolis (a cemetery, belonging to an ancient city), and only children were buried here.”

Stating that they found that more than one child was buried in some graves, Gizligöl said, “A limestone cist was formed around the graves and closed with limestone. The graves are in the east-west direction, there is no random burial.”

A burial site where all of the bones belong to children is not a common occurrence.  For this reason, a detailed study will be carried out on the age, sex, and cause of death of the collected bones.

Photo: Bestami Bodruk/AA

Dr Nazlı Akbaş, a research assistant and anthropologist at Gaziantep University Social Sciences Institute, also reminded that church ruins were found in previous excavations in the area and stated that the church dates to the early Byzantine Period and approximately 1500 years ago.

Akbaş said the following about the detection of graves in the church: “Since there was a ‘saint’ and ‘martyr’ culture in early Byzantium, in-settlement burials can occur in churches. In this area, which we call the quarry, only graves belonging to infants and children between the ages of 0 and 6 were found.”

Stating that, based on the preliminary examination, they do not think that the babies and children died due to any epidemic, Akbaş stated that a detailed skeletal study has not been carried out yet.

Photo: Bestami Bodruk/AA

“We think that the burial of babies in the area in question is related to the baptismal culture of Christianity in the early Byzantine period. In the early Christian period, those who were baptized were generally adults. After the 10th century, it became legal that children should be baptized. We think that these belong to the early Christian period. Therefore, babies and children who have not been baptized, that is, who are not yet Christians. Since he was not baptized, we are considering the possibility of him being buried outside the church rather than inside it.”

The researcher drew attention to an example of a grave in which only children were buried in the Amorium excavations in Afyonkarahisar. He said that during the Amorium excavations, it was revealed that only babies and children were buried in a certain area of the cemetery dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries, and a baptistery was detected near the cemetery, but no baptistery was found yet in the excavations in Kulp.

Cover Photo: Bestami Bodruk/AA

Related Articles

A 3800-year-old cylinder seal was discovered at Turkey’s Tepebag Mound excavations

8 July 2022

8 July 2022

In the 2022 excavations of Tepebag Mound, located around Taşköprü, the center of Adana province in Turkey’s Mediterranean Region, a...

A Rare Bilingual Inscription Discovered in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Province

28 June 2024

28 June 2024

Saudi Arabia’s Heritage Commission announced the discovery of a rare bilingual inscription in the village of Alqan in the Tabuk...

Archaeological excavations started again after 50 years in Tunceli Tozkoparan mound

28 June 2021

28 June 2021

Archaeological excavations at the Tozkoparan Mound in Turkey’s Tunceli province are anticipated to turn the city into one of eastern...

Royal-Memorial Inscription Attributed to King Sargon II Discovered in Western Iran

25 April 2021

25 April 2021

In western Iran, Iranian archaeologists discovered a part of a royal memorial inscription attributed to the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II....

The DNA of 4000-years-old hazelnut shells found in Kültepe

11 November 2023

11 November 2023

Excavations conducted ten years ago at the archaeological site of Kültepe Kanesh Karum, which dates back 6,000 years and is...

Ceremonial cave site from Postclassic Maya period discovered in Yucatán Peninsula

21 December 2021

21 December 2021

Archaeologists have discovered a ceremonial cave site in Chemuyil on the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, that dates from the Postclassic Maya...

Europe’s Oldest Megalithic Alignments Dated with Unprecedented Precision

28 June 2025

28 June 2025

New research reveals that the Carnac alignments in Brittany may be Europe’s oldest megalithic monuments, pushing back the timeline of...

Two monumental sculpted Roman heads unearthed in Carlisle, northern England

25 May 2023

25 May 2023

Two monumental statue heads believed to be dated to the early 3rd century have been unearthed during excavations at a...

A Unique Structure Discovered in the City of David Ancient Jerusalem – The Only One of Its Kind

14 January 2025

14 January 2025

A unique structure was discovered on the eastern slope of the City of David, within the Walls of the Jerusalem...

A Large Copper Age Necropolis Discovered in Italian Town

16 February 2024

16 February 2024

In the town of San Giorgio Bigarello, near the northern Italia city of Mantua, a large Copper Age necropolis dating...

The first ivory work of art recovered from the World Heritage cave Hohle Fels was believed to be a horse – until archaeologists made a new discovery-

30 July 2023

30 July 2023

For more than 20 years, the first ivory work of art recovered from the World Heritage cave Hohle Fels was...

Army Museum Worker Discovers Early Medieval Sword While Swimming in a Polish River

19 December 2024

19 December 2024

The collection of the Army Museum in Białystok, Poland has been enriched after renovation with a unique relic of great...

Archaeologists discover that Iranian farmers grew rice about 3,000 years ago

18 May 2023

18 May 2023

Archaeologists excavating in Iran’s Mazandaran region have revealed that Iranian farmers were cultivating rice as far back as 3000 years...

The Old Fisherman Founded the Turkish Sea Creatures Museum

26 March 2021

26 March 2021

The sea gives another life to man, sometimes love, sometimes a disappointment, often a longing. The sea is reminiscent of...

1900 years old funerary altar of a teenage girl discovered in Rome

9 May 2022

9 May 2022

A funerary altar indicating the location of the remains of Valeria, a 13-year-old girl who died in the 2nd century...