All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

5,000-Year-Old Unlooted Tomb of Thracian Warrior is Biggest Find of the Year in Turkey

5,000-Year-Old Unlooted Tomb of Thracian Warrior is Biggest Find of the Year in Turkey

Print

The intact tomb of a Thracian warrior dating back some 5,000 years has been excavated in Turkey, the Istanbul Archaeology Museum announced. Experts are calling it the biggest archaeological find so far this year in Turkey—a country with many important archaeological sites.

The kurgan tumulus is the first intact burial chamber of its kind ever found, says an article about the news in DailySabah.com. The dig on the kurgan started in December 2015 in Silivri in the Çanta region.

Hurriyet Daily News says the tumulus was looted. However, looters had tried but failed to dig into the main burial chamber.  

The tumulus was likely that of a prominent Bronze Age warrior from northern areas. Researchers assume he was a warrior because they found a spear point in his grave, according to the First Istanbul Board for the Protection of Cultural Artifacts.

Hurriyet Daily News says a kurgan is a burial mound constructed in a circle over a grave in a pit. Kurgan burials often have grave vessels, weapons and one body. “The type of tomb was originally used on the Russian steppes but later spread to eastern, central and northern Europe in the 3rd millennium B.C. The type of grave was holy in Turkic and Altay culture,” the article states.

Professor Mehmet Özdoğan of Istanbul University Department of Archeology told Daily Sabah he has studied such tumuli before, but this discovery is important because it is the oldest one found in Thrace. It’s hoped the tomb will help shed light on historical mysteries about Thrace and help with studies about ancient Istanbul.

Years ago, Özdoğan excavated another Thracian kurgan, from around 1200 BC in the village of Asılbeyli in Kırklareli in eastern Thrace, Daily Sabah says.

“Thrace received migrations from the north. This is a kurgan-style tomb and such tombs exist in my studies, too,” Özdoğan told Hurriyet Daily News. “I know that lots of kurgan tombs have been destroyed in Thrace. We have rescued one of them from the digger. But this tomb is older and is from the Bronze Age. It is a very important discovery. I believe scientific examinations will lead to interesting results.”

Sarmatian Kurgan 4th c. BC, Fillipovka, S.Urals.

Sarmatian Kurgan 4th c. BC, Fillipovka, S.Urals. Source: Wikipedia

The Istanbul Archaeology Museum wants to register the grave as a historical site and place the remains of the warrior on exhibit in the museum.

Kurgans are considered sacred burials in Turkic and Altaic cultures. People were buried in kurgans widely across central Asia and Eastern Europe. The word kurgan is from an unknown Turkic language and in Turkish means “fortress,” says Daily Sabah.

Interior of the Tsarsky Kurgan, Crimean Peninsula, 4th century B.C.

Interior of the Tsarsky Kurgan, Crimean Peninsula, 4th century B.C. (Wikimedia Commons)

The practice of building kurgans for important people’s burials was done from the Copper Age, through the Bronze, Iron ages and into the Middle Ages, though it was not as popular during later times.

One of the most prominent historical figures buried in a kurgan was Philip II of Macedon—father of Alexander of Macedon. Philip was buried in Greece.

The circular tomb chamber is 6 meters (19.7 feet) across and is inlaid with stones. The actual tomb itself is rectangular. The skeleton was on a stony floor in the fetal position, and his arms were placed to embrace his legs. Researchers say this may be either so he could enter the next world like a newborn or as a way to prevent him from rising from the dead.

In addition to the spear point, which was on the body, archaeologists found two Bronze Age earthenware pots. Hurriyet called the point an arrowhead and added that it helped identify him as an important soldier or even a commander.

There is a detailed study here about the Kurgan culture, which was widespread from Europe to Kazakhstan and up into Russia. The site says the Kurgan culture differs had common elements, including the distinctive burials, that differentiate it from other Bronze Age cultures in the regions where they overlapped.

Top image: Newly discovered kurgan burial in Turkey (Daily Sabah)

By Mark Miller

 

Comments

Thanks for a logical approach, not that the guy above you didn't, but perhaps all there is to the question on timing & so on, is that at this time; all there is to go on is acquired knowledge of burial customs & known migrations. Migrations sometimes are done over vast time periods, for different reasons, likely we'll know more, soon enough. I once went to an archaeology lecture series in Costa Mesa, CA, at a Jewish Temple there which had sponsored the talk, it being on The Exodus. I was amazed at the known history they had, for one, but also surprised that there'd been a few such undertakings, over a couple centuries & Egyption Dynastys. It makes sense tho' , & they had time periods down. The other revelation was Jericho's destruction may have not been that specific place, which was not inhabited at the time, (& much too small for the 3,000 folks s'posed to live there), but a place called 'Ai' , not far from there.( 23 miles? ) It was larger, had the marks of wholesale destruction by massive wall & foundation failures & the usual fires, accompannied by warfare. All things in the past, are interesting. Take care, Mike

To Mr. PETER ALEFF

Thank heavens that history is always rewritten for accuracy & precision, and that Wikipedia doesn't hold the absolute truth, though, some perceive it as such. If the professor has more reasons to think this is a Thracian burial, then I'd weight his point-of-view, from the fields, more than those from cushy desks with a rich list for outdated references and outdated bibliography at the end of their books.

Peter Aleff's picture

The timing seems wrong for calling this burial “Thracian”. Here is what the Wikipedia entry on “Thracians” says about their origin around 1000 BCE: ‘"It is generally proposed that a proto-Thracian people developed from a mixture of indigenous peoples and Indo-Europeans from the time of Proto-Indo-European expansion in the Early Bronze Age[7] when the latter, around 1500 BC, mixed with indigenous peoples.[8] We speak of proto-Thracians from which during the Iron Age[9] (about 1000 BC) Dacians and Thracians begin developing."

Peter Aleff, http://recoveredscience.com
ebooks on riddles in science,
easy to read and hard to forget

They found 1 arrowhead so he is warrior ?

With that kind of logic i can say as well that, Since they found 2 pots, he may have been a very good potier :).

I wonder if any of those brick carvings on walls could be removed, thus hiding something behind it.
Anyone exploit that ?

Mark Miller's picture

Mark

Mark Miller has a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and is a former newspaper and magazine writer and copy editor who's long been interested in anthropology, mythology and ancient history. His hobbies are writing and drawing.

 
Next article