Ancient child grave found in Bathonea

ISTANBUL

A 1,500-year-old grave of a child has been unearthed in the ancient port city of Bathonea in Istanbul’s Avcılar district, with a bracelet and a rattle toy also found buried along with the child.

Archaeological excavations have been ongoing since 2007 in the ancient city of Bathonea, located on the shores of Küçükçekmece Lake, under the presidency of Kocaeli University’s Professor Şengül Aydıngün.

Elaborating on the excavations, Istanbul Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Coskun Yılmaz emphasized the importance of the Bathonea excavations and said: “Marmaray excavations have made a significant contribution to the history of Istanbul.

The Haydarpaşa and Beşiktaş excavations in Kadıköy provided another richness. This is a much longer-term excavation as it is a wider geography. It is an extremely important excavation site in terms of revealing the history of the areas outside the central region of the city we live in. We come across findings that can enrich the history of Istanbul geographically and historically. This child’s grave is one of the interesting examples of this. Excavations in this region will continue in a wider area with a larger team.”

Stating that the child’s grave is 1,500 years old, Yılmaz said: “One of the interesting things is the fact that this child burial also gives clues about the traditional burial culture. It is worth noting that the ornaments and playing items belonging to the child were also found buried next to the corpse. It gives extremely important data about the funeral burial and cemetery culture of the period. There is a metal bracelet in the grave; a green playing device like a metal bracelet. The grave has not been fully uncovered, but for me, it is a striking point that we see its teeth. So, one of the non-rotten spots in the body is the teeth. In fact, the jaw structure remains with all its limbs, and we see the main elements of the skeleton.”

Aydıngün said that after the completion of the work on the grave, examinations will be conducted on the gender and age of the baby.