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Archaeologists in Turkey Have Uncovered a Mysterious Ancient Kingdom Lost in History

posted by martyb on Tuesday June 30 2020, @11:10PM   
from the Who-knew-The-Italian-Stallion-could-translate-ancient-texts?-"Stele!" dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

Archaeologists in Turkey Have Uncovered a Mysterious Ancient Kingdom Lost in History:

Last year, archaeologists were investigating an ancient mound site in central Turkey called Türkmen-Karahöyük. The greater region, the Konya Plain, abounds with lost metropolises, but even so, researchers couldn't have been prepared for what they were about to find.

[...] With the aid of translators, the researchers found that the hieroglyphs on this ancient stone block – called a stele – boasted of a military victory. And not just any military victory, but the defeat of Phrygia, a kingdom of Anatolia that existed roughly 3,000 years ago.

The royal house of Phrygia was ruled by a few different men called Midas, but dating of the stele, based on linguistic analysis, suggests the block's hieroglyphics could be referring to the King Midas – he of the famous 'golden touch' myth.

The stone markings also contained a special hieroglyphic symbolising that the victory message came from another king, a man called Hartapu. The hieroglyphs suggest Midas was captured by Hartapu's forces.

[...] What's significant about this is that almost nothing is known about King Hartapu, nor about the kingdom he ruled. Nonetheless, the stele suggests the giant mound of Türkmen-Karahöyük may have been Hartapu's capital city, spanning some 300 acres in its heyday, the heart of the ancient conquest of Midas and Phrygia.

See also: https://news.uchicago.edu/story/oriental-institute-archaeologists-help-discover-lost-kingdom-ancient-turkey

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Original Submission

• Turkey as Archaeological Mecca Turkey as Archaeological Mecca (Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday July 01 2020, @01:27AM (1 child)

  by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday July 01 2020, @01:27AM (#1014822) Journal

  It's discoveries like this that make Turkey so much fun to visit if you have an interest in archaeology. A lot of places have their own ancient precursors, but not really any others. Turkey has scores of them, all distinct, all right on top of each other. If you drive due east a little ways from Türkmen-Karahöyük you get to Goreme [wikipedia.org], a modern city built in and on caves that housed many ancient cave-dwelling peoples. The whole region is fantastical; you feel like you're on the set of Conan the Barbarian.

  --
  Washington DC delenda est.

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• Re:Turkey as Archaeological Mecca (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @01:46AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @01:46AM (#1014834)

  Avoid the Saudi Embassy.

  Parent