RESEARCHERS UNEARTH 8,500-YEAR-OLD BODIES NEAR BURSA

Ancient bodies believed to be 8,500 years old have been unearthed at a burial mound in the Akçalar area of the Marmara province of Bursa.
The five bodies, reportedly belonging to two adults and three children aged between 3 and 5, were found at the Aktopraklık mound.
“Their arms were tied behind their backs, indicating that they may have been killed or sacrificed,” said Associate Professor Necmi Karul, head of the prehistory department at Istanbul University’s literature faculty and leader of the excavation.
One of the children were hogtied while the other children were found between the legs of the adults, he said.
Although noting that the find would provide an important repository of data for prehistory, Karul said it was too early yet to determine whether the bodies belonged to a single family, whether they had been punished, their exact age or any other particular details.
Karul said they had been working at the excavation every summer for the past seven years.
“We have reached very important traces of Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. The information will not only enlighten Bursa history but serve for all humanity,” said Karul, adding that in previous years, they had located important living areas surrounded by moats.
Now, however, archaeological teams had unearthed special constructions belonging to the administrators of the region, the researcher said.
Karul said the oldest settlement in the region was 8,500 years old, adding that some settlements had existed in the area even before the community centered on Aktopraklık emerged.
There was plenty of migration after Aktopraklık, Karul said, but added that forms of human settlement continued to exist in the area for thousands of years afterwards.
HURRYET DAILY NEWS