Ceramic pieces found in Myra suggest ancient site older than expected

ANTALYA

The 5,000-year-old ceramic pieces that have been found during excavations in the ancient city of Myra in the southern province of Antalya’s Demre district took the history of the ancient city 2,000 years back.

Ceramic pieces were found 3.5 meters below the Myra Ancient Theater Orchestra during the excavations conducted under the direction of Nevzat Çevik, a lecturer at Akdeniz University’s department of archeology.

Examinations showed that the pieces date back 5,000 years and belong to the Late Chalcolithic period. Fingerprints and writings of the worker were also found on the largest ceramic. These ceramic pieces took the history of the ancient city of Myra, one of the six most important cities of the Lycian League, known as a fifth century B.C. city, back 2,000 years.

“The ceramic pieces moved the history back 5,000 years. These ceramic pieces became the most important discovery of this excavation period. The traces of the left index finger and middle finger of the master, who made the ceramic pottery, matched with our fingers. These ceramic pieces have brought us to the earliest phase of Myra, the metropolis of Coastal Lycia. These ceramic pieces shed light on the history of Myra and the world of archeology,” said Çevik.

Çevik stated that they went down to a depth of 3.5 meters in the drillings they made in the theater orchestra during this year’s excavations.

“We found Late Chalcolithic ceramics in the lowest layer. With these finds, the history of Demre went back 5,000 years. Among our previous finds, we had pieces from the geometric period and the proto-geometric period. Now, we have added another 2,000 years to this history. The most productive find of recent years has been these few pieces of chalcolithic ceramics,” he said.