Temple Dated to Fifth Century B.C. Found in Turkey

IZMIR, TURKEY—According to a Hurriyet Daily News report, a team of researchers led by Elif Koparal of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University identified the sites of hundreds of Neolithic settlements and a 2,500-year-old temple dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite during a survey of the Urla-Çeşme peninsula, which is located on Turkey’s western coastline. Koparal said it is unusual to discover a temple during such a survey of the surface of the ground. “We found a statue piece of a woman on the floor, and then a terracotta female head figure,” Koparal said. The artifacts had been damaged through prolonged exposure to wind and rain. “There is also an inscription around the temple,” she said. The researchers were able to pinpoint the temple’s walls with remote sensing equipment, she added. To read about an Iron Age kingdom in southern Turkey, go to "Luwian Royal Inscription," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2020.