Excavations at Ayanis fortress will shed light on era of kings Urartu

Archaeological excavations carried out at the Ayanis fortress in the province of Van in the southeast of Turkey, shed light for the reign of the kings Urartu.

The castle built during the reign of King Rus II rises above the lake of Van. Excavations and restoration work on its territory has been underway for almost four decades. The structure has about 2700 years, it is one of the most magnificent structures of the Urartian kingdom due to its decoration, walls made of cheese brick and engraving on stone.

During the archaeological excavations held this year, a group of 20 people under the leadership of the teacher of the Faculty of Archeology of the University of Ataturk Professor Mehmet Ishikla, fragments of new rooms, consisting of four rooms located next to each other.

In addition, the group of archaeologists for the first time managed to discover the human skeleton with precious jewelry, which is supposed to belongs to the representative of the ruling class of the state of Urartu.

It is expected that thanks to the finds discovered in the castle, new information will be received about the period of the state of Urartu. Archaeological finds will be studied by anthropologists in the laboratory.

In an interview with Anadol, Ishikla said that excavations in Ayanis have been conducted for 36 years with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey.

“We call this place the last glorious fortress of the Urartian kingdom. Excavations are held by a group of 20 people, including teachers and students from various universities. We are experiencing a very interesting and fruitful archaeological season. Found samples allow us to argue about this,” said the professor .

According to him, in the northern part, archaeologists discovered a new group of premises resembling the architectural features of the Haldi temple.

“This is a very difficult plot for excavations. Because we are faced with huge monumental architecture. We reached a depth of about 6 meters. Here we met rich archaeological finds. We know about the existence of four large sites. However, their number can reach 5” , -outlined the professor.

“There was an opinion that an earthquake occurred in the castle or it was attacked. So far, we have not managed to find in the castle of the remains of a person or fragments of human bones. We first discovered fragments of the human skeleton in a well -preserved state. We are talking about the skeleton of the young adult person, ”said Ishikla.