2200-year-old tomb unearthed in ancient Aizanoi, western Anatolia

Turkish archaeologists have unearthed a 2,200-year-old tomb during their excavation works in an ancient city of Aizanoi in the country’s west.

Credit: AA

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Prof. Dr. Elif Ozer, chief of the excavation works in Aizanoi, said that important findings pertaining to funerary practices were discovered in the ancient city’s necropolis.
“We understood that people living in the second and first centuries BC in Aizanoi were buried after being cremated. These tombs are nearly 2,200 years old.”, she said.

The archaeologists added that among the finds in one tomb was a jar which once contained an eye cream called ‘lykion’. The eye cream was used for ‘xerophthalmia’ (eye dryness).

Credit: AA

“We know this jar was used for keeping eye cream during Roman times,” she said, adding that the raw plant which was used to treat eye dryness could still be found in Lycia, in southern Asia Minor, until the end of 18th century and also India.
“Ancient sources say that Roman soldiers in Egypt used eye cream for eye dryness. We found this jar in a male’s tomb believed to be a soldier,” soldiers,” Ozer said.

Relatives of the deceased probably put this jar into the man’s grave to use in the after-life Ozer added.

She said the jar is now displayed in Kutahya Archaeology Museum.

Located in western Turkish province of Kutahya, the Aizanoi ancient city was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2012.

Source: Anadolu Agency [September 06, 2018]

TANN

Archive