Excavation season ends in Dascylium ancient city in NW Turkey

By Ahmet Pesen

BALIKESIR, Turkey (AA) - This year's session of excavations at the ancient city of Dascylium in Turkey's Aegean Balikesir province has been completed.

Kaan Iren, excavation team leader and an academic member at Mugla Sitki Kocman University's Department of Archeology, said in a statement that studies on the Lydian cuisine that date back to 7th century BC continued during the excavations that started on June 22.

A fortification wall, 42 meters (137.7 feet) in length and four meters (over 13 feet) in height belonging to the Phrygian period of 8th century BC, as well as a 9.5-meter (over 31 feet) retaining wall dating back to the 8th-7th centuries BC, were discovered in the Hisartepe district, he added.

- Traces of many civilizations

Mysians and Phrygians are estimated to be the first communities to settle in Dascylium that was founded by various ethnic groups. The region came under the domination of Lydians in the 7th century BC.

Persians' sovereignty lasted some 220 years in Dascylium after they made it a state capital in 546 BC.

The city remained under the sovereignty of Macedonians for approximately 200 years after Alexander the Great captured it in a victory against the Persians near the Biga town of Turkey's northwestern Canakkale province.

The Byzantines built a fortress in the city in the 11th century, and the settlement in Dascylium reached an end when Turks captured the region.

* Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara