Bath tunnels of king’s daughters discovered under Turkey’s second largest castle

From Hurriyet Daily:

Two secret tunnels have been discovered under Turkey’s second largest castle, in the northern province of Tokat’s Niksar district. The tunnels date back to the Roman period, and it has been claimed that one of the tunnels was used by a Roman king’s daughters in order to go to the bath in the Çanakçi stream area. 

The excavations are being carried out by the municipality in the 6.2 kilometer-wide Niksar Castle, which is Turkey’s second largest castle after Diyarbakır Castle. The tunnels are located in the southern and northern facades of the castle and are approximately 100 meters long. 

read more here @ Hurriyet Daily

65 Byzantine Tombs Discovered in Ancient City in Turkey

From an article in January 2017 by David DeMar:

In the remains of the ancient marble-clad city of Stratonikeia in southwestern Turkey, archaeologists have found a staggering 65 tombs dating to the Byzantine era, according to the Hurryiet Daily News.

The researcher, who referred to Stratonikeia as “a living archaeological city”, called the site unique for is various characteristics, which included a high number of ancient structures surviving to the present day. The city, which would have at one time been home to the Carians of central Anatolia before the arrival of the Greeks, also holds ties to the Leleges, a pre-Hellenistic people that were said to have been allies of Troy during the Trojan War, the archaeologist said.

One of the primary finds, according to Söğüt, was the nearly four-foot-long skeleton found within a Byzantine-era tomb that had been undergoing cleaning and preservation works. The remains are thought to have belonged to a young woman who lived nearly 1,300 years in the past.

read entire article here @ the New Historian and @ Daily Sabah History

Goddess Statue Discovered

From Hurriyet Daily News:

"The head of an 8,000-year-old statue of a goddess has been found during excavations in İzmir’s Yeşilova tumulus. 

Associate Professor Zafer Derin said they had found very important pieces during this year’s excavations, adding that the four-centimeter head of the statue had a special meaning as it was the first of its kind discovered in Turkey."

Women Excavate Metropolis

From Hurryiet Daily News:

After 22 years of male only excavation teams, women have recently joined ongoing excavation works in the ancient city of Metropolis in İzmir’s Torbalı town within the scope of a new project lead by the Turkish Labor Institution (İŞKUR).

Six women had been working on the project and had been nicknamed “Metropolis’ Angels”. According to Aybek excavation organizers and participants were really content with the participation of those women. 

Porcelain Moon and Pomegranates

From Today's Zaman:

To the outsider at least, the status of women in Turkey is both ambiguous and controversial. Ataturk’s reforms of the 1920s gave Turkish women rights unimaginable for their Ottoman-era predecessors, with Turkish women able to vote in parliamentary elections in 1934 and stand for election in 1935. In the 1937 elections 18 of the 550 members elected were women. However, in the last elections in 2007, there were still only 50 women elected, less than 10 percent of the total. Many other reforms have taken place in the same period that have given women parity with men – equal pay, equal rights to education and equal rights to inheritance, amongst others. On the surface at least, despite the less than impressive growth in the numbers of female deputies in the Turkish Parliament, Turkish women have achieved equality with their men-folk. But, as Üstün Bilgen Reinart’s fascinating book reveals, inequalities between men and women persist. How many working women here, for example, still give up their careers to become mothers and housewives? Even when married women with children continue to work full-time, how many of their husbands men cook, clean or look after their children?

Film: Mahpeyker

From Hurriyet Daily News:

Kösem Sultan, one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history, is now the subject of a feature film, ‘Mahpeyker.’ Screenwriter Avni Özgürel says past depictions of Kösem Sultan as a despot were false, adding that his film shows her in a better light. Most importantly, he says, ‘Mahpeyker’ recounts the empire’s history through women, rather than men.

The life of Kösem Sultan, one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history, is set for cinemas in a feature film, “Mahpeyker,” that revolutionizes portrayals of imperial history, according to the movie’s screenwriter.

The Ottoman Empire has always been told through men but it was now time to tell its story through a woman, said screenwriter Avni Özgürel.

Turkey: Sperm Bank Users Face Jail

From VOA News:

Couples in Turkey unable to conceive naturally face possible jail if they go abroad for artificial insemination treatment. That's according to a new regulation introduced by the country's ministry of health. Artificial insemination has been banned in Turkey for several years, but now the government appears to determined to end the practice altogether.

Artificial insemination is usually not controversial in many other countries. But in Turkey, it's a different story. A new measure makes it a crime for a Turkish woman to get pregnant with sperm from a foreign donor, punishable by one to three years in jail.

The regulation has caused shock both for couples unable to conceive naturally and the doctors who treat them.

Officials say the measure is based on a law that forbids concealing a child's paternity. Protecting the racial purity of the nation is also another reason given by health officials defending the policy.

But women's rights groups are outraged. Pinar Ilkkaracan is the head of Women for Women's Human Rights.

History Making News

From BBC News: Turkey demands the return of the bones of St Nicholas.

A Turkish archaeologist has called on his government to demand that Italy return the bones of St Nicholas to their original resting place.

The 3rd Century saint - on whom Santa Claus was modelled - was buried in the modern-day town of Demre in Turkey.

But in the Middle Ages his bones were taken by Italian sailors and re-interred in the port of Bari.

The Turkish government said it was considering making a request to Rome for the return of the saint's remains.

From BBC News: 15th Century Papal Bull

Work to preserve a 15th Century letter from the Pope founding the University of St Andrews has been completed.

The Bull of Foundation is one of a series of six letters from the Pope, sent in 1413, which brought the institution into existence.

It took experts three weeks to restore the Papal Bull, including surface cleaning, repairing edge tears and the realignment of the document's silk tag.

The document will now be able to be displayed to the public.

From the Telegraph: Tomb of 3rd Cent Notorious General

Chinese archaeologists have unearthed a large third-century tomb which they say could be that of Cao Cao, the politician and general infamous in East Asia for his Machiavellian tactics.

The tomb, discovered in Xigaoxue village near the ancient city of Anyang in Henan Province, has an epitaph and inscription that appear to refer to Cao Cao, Central China Television said on Sunday.

A Chinese proverb, "speak of Cao Cao and he appears", is the the equivalent of "speak of the devil" in English.

Turkey: Need to Recognise Women

Editorial from Hurriyet Daily News:

We are Turkey’s most feminine newspaper. A majority of the newspaper’s managers are women, a majority of Daily News reporters are women, and our publisher is a woman.

This is why yesterday we led the paper again with another story on the failure of Turkish society to fully embrace and integrate the potential and creativity of its women citizens. This latest report, the “Global Gender Gap Index,” prepared by the World Economic Forum, placed Turkey where we would have expected. Of 134 countries, Turkey was ranked 129.

We might quarrel with some of the assumptions in the methodology. If one were to set up a survey of lawyers, senior business executives, doctors and architects, Turkey might well come out ahead of several Scandinavian countries. But in the aggregate, we would still be scraping the bottom of the statistical cellar.For that we are outraged.

A particular focus on this survey was participation in political life. Only 10 percent of Turkey’s lawmakers and senior officials are female. That today is the 86th anniversary of the Republic, a state that gave women the right to vote before most in European states, only makes today’s reality bitter. We acknowledge as MP Özlem Türköne pointed out in yesterday’s article that the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has done more than its predecessors. Thank you. But it is still not enough.

The exclusion of women from political life and other sectors is not only unjust but a waste of intellectual capital. To date, no political party has taken this issue seriously. The Association for Educating and Supporting Women Candidates, or Ka-Der, has been ignored by the major parties and even sued by one. In our own discussions, many of us have been wary of the suggestion that the only solution is quotas or “positive discrimination.”

Mother Goddess

From Today's Zaman:

Archeologists unearthed 16,000 year-old mother goddess figurine during excavations in Direkli Cave in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş.

Gazi University Archeology Department lecturer Cevdet Merih Erek told the Anatolia news agency on Monday that the excavations in Direkli Cave, 65 km away from Kahramanmaras, started on July 15.

Noting that it was the third cave excavation of Turkey, Erek said that the clay mother goddess figurine they found was 16,000 years old.

Erek said that the figurine showed that the social status of women was very important 16,000 years ago.

Erek noted that the oldest fired clay god or goddess figurines --unearthed in Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Near East-- were made in 5,000 BC. He added that experts believed that the clay was used earliest in that period, however, the goddess figurine showed that this method was older than thought.

Parion Princess

From Hurriyet Daily News:

Archaeologists in the Turkish Aegean town of Çanakkale are celebrating the new discovery of a 2,200-year-old sarcophagus in the ancient city of Parion, one of the most important centers of the Helenistic era.

Golden earrings, rings and crown pieces have been found in the sarcophagus, which is believed to have belonged to a princess. An archeological team headed by Prof. Cevat Başaran unearthed the sarcophagus three days ago during excavations conducted in the village of Kemer near Biga, northeast of Çanakkale.

"We have discovered an important finding at the necropolis, which is the cemetery of the ancient city," Başaran said. "This grave is most likely 2,200 years old. The golden jewelry shows this is the grave of a rich woman. We may call her the ’Princess of Parion.’"

Başaran pointed out that the sarcophagus contained a golden crown adorned with many gems, two golden earrings bearing the symbol of Eros and two golden rings. One of the rings was still on the finger bone of the skeleton, the professor added, noting that most of the bones were ruined due to moisture caused by the grave’s proximity to the sea.