Inscriptions and Massive Walls Revealed in Ancient Anatolian City

ERCIŞ, TURKEY—According to a Hürriyet Daily News report, six inscriptions written in Aramaic have been discovered at Zernaki Tepe, the site of a 3,000-year-old walled city in eastern Turkey's Van Province. Murat Karaloğlu, the district governor of Erciş, said that the city is thought to be the first in eastern Anatolia to have been laid out on a grid plan. Four of the newly found inscriptions were spotted on surviving city walls, added archaeologist Rafet Çavuşoğlu of Van Yüzüncü University. The nearly 10-foot-high walls were built of local limestone and basalt transported to the site from a source more than two miles away, and topped with courses of mudbricks. Stone facing on the inner and outer sides of the walls brought them to a total of about 14 feet thick. An entrance gate is thought to have been located in this northeastern sector of the city. The excavation also uncovered traces of a drainage system to carry waste water outside the city walls. To read about another recent discovery in eastern Turkey, go to "A Day at the Hunt."