1,700-year-old golden jewelry unearthed in Turkey

Istanbul, Oct 14 : Archaeologists have found a tomb featuring intricate mosaics in a district in Turkey, which includes 55 skeletons buried in five graves and 18 pieces of delicate 1,700-year-old golden jewelry.

According to a report in Turkish Daily News, Austrian Archaeological Committee President Sabine Ladstatter said that they found a variety of objects, including silk clothes with golden threads, but that the jewels in particular were a big surprise.

"The uncovered pieces have meticulous details. So, these graves surely belonged to upper-class people in Ephesus," she said.

"A ring made of onyx stone on which the image of Artemis was meticulously carved and the details of which can only be seen with a magnifying glass was the most attractive piece," Ladstatter said, adding that the pieces they found showed the highly developed industry of the time.

Saying the tomb reflected the development level of the era in terms of architecture and jewelry and that it was an important part of culture history, Dr. Soner Atesogullari, the Ephesus excavations representative of the Culture and Tourism Ministry, said that they concluded that the older skeletons were Pagan while the subsequent ones were Christian.

"We are interested in the qualities of the objects rather than finding gold," he said.

Jewels found in the tombs will be exhibited in the Ephesus Museum after they have been thoroughly studied.

The excavations the archaeologists had conducted at eight points had come to an end for the season, though the restoration and geophysical analysis would continue, according to Ladstatter, who added that 166 scientists took part in this year's excavations, including Austrians, Turks and Germans.

"We have had a very successful year," she said, adding that they reached very important findings, especially in the necropolis and Cukuricihoyuk excavations.

ANI