Platform in Eastern Turkey May Have Supported First Throne

ROME, ITALY—Marcella Frangipane of La Sapienza University told Discovery News that she has found the remains of a 5,000-year-old throne room at the site of Aslantepe, located in eastern Turkey. The room is in a monumental structure, opens onto a courtyard, and has an adobe platform reached by three steps. Burned wooden fragments were found on the platform. “The burned wooden fragments are likely the remains of a chair or throne,” she said. She thinks the chief or king used the throne room to meet with the public, gathered in the large courtyard. The people may have approached the ‘king’ and stood on two small, low platforms unearthed in front of the possible location of the throne. “This reception courtyard and building were not a temple complex, they rather appear as the heart of the palace. We do not have religious rites here, but a ceremony showing the power of the ‘king’ and the state,” Frangipane said. The throne room is the first evidence of the change in power from the religious authorities to a state governing system, she added. To read more, go to "In Search of History's Greatest Rulers."