2,800-Year-Old Lydian Palace Unearthed in Turkey

SARDIS, TURKEY—Türkiye Today reports that a sprawling eighth-century b.c. palace was unearthed at the site of Sardis in western Turkey, which has prompted archaeologists to reevaluate the site’s origins and long history. The city served as the capital of the Lydian Kingdom, an Anatolian people who flourished in the seventh and sixth century b.c. and are often credited with minting the world’s first standardized coinage. Buried 25 feet below ground, the complex was discovered beneath layers belonging to the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods. The structure’s stone walls, which measure between five and eight feet thick, still stand 20 feet high in some places. According to University of Wisconsin archaeologist Nicholas Cahill, scholars have long believed that the Lydians only began the process of urbanization in the seventh century b.c., and that before this time, they lived in small villages. “These findings prove otherwise,” he said. “Sardis was already a major monumental city in the eighth century b.c.” Among the artifacts his team recovered were 30 bronze arrowheads, fragments of human skeletons, and nine silver coins dating to the early sixth century b.c., considered among the oldest known in the world. To read about the Persian Achaemenid king who conquered Lydia in the mid-sixth century b.c., go to "Rise of the Persian Princes."