A special find amazes researchers – a gladiator named Euphrates, twelve other skeletons and an irrigation system were discovered.
Izmir – A grave that researchers discovered in a basilica in Izmir, Turkey, is said to be over 1,800 years old. Not only do the bones of a well-known Roman gladiator rest in the grave, but also the remains of twelve other people, men and women. The researchers from Hatay Mustafa Kemal University discovered it in a Christian church on Ayasuluk Hill in Izmir province.
The science portal LiveScience According to this, there was an ancient Greek city, Ephesus, whose beginnings date back 3,000 years. Similar finds such as the gladiator’s grave were also made on the island of Marmara and in what is now Syria.
Roman grave in Turkey: Researchers marvel at the drainage system
Nevertheless, researchers led by Sinan Mimaroglu, associate professor and art historian at Hatay Mustafa Kemal University and archeology professor Ertan Yildiz, are amazed at this find: a water channel, a drainage system and other graves were discovered just 20 centimeters below the surface.
“We found a grave and three grave-like structures with 12 people in them,” Mimaroglu said Turkiye Today. “This suggests a collective burial.”
What does the Roman grave say about the dead?
The name and function of the gladiator could be determined from the inscription on the grave: According to this, his name was Euphrates. However, archaeologists and art historians have not yet been able to find out more about the man. Except: The size of the grave indicates its great importance.
But the twelve other people buried cannot be his victims: The sensational coffin find suggests that they were buried there two centuries after the Gladiator. According to the elaborate burial in a church, they came from the upper class or clergy, Mimaroglu said. As an art historian, he is particularly interested in the exquisite epigraphic inscriptions and Christian symbols on the grave, the valuable materials such as marble: all of this points to the outstanding importance of the ancient city in today’s Turkey. (cat)
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