2,100-year-old Hellenistic temple unearthed

A Hellenistic era temple which dates back to more than 2,000 years has been unearthed in archaeological excavations in central Turkey. The 2,100-yearold temple was found at the Kınık Mound, an archaeological site located in Yesilyurt village of Altunhisar district, Niğde province. A team of Turkish and Italian archaeologists have been working on the site since 2011.

Professor Lorenzo D’Alfonso, a New York University academic and head of the excavations, affirmed the temple was from Hellenistic times. “We continued excavations just below the place where we found a temple, and we found another temple dating back to the Hellenistic period, 2,100 years ago,” D’Alfonso told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Saturday. D’Alfonso said that the Kınık Mound likely hosted no city or settlement unit as of 30 B.C. “We also found parts of a bull statue made from ceramics,” he added.

Basri Akdemir, the provincial director of culture and tourism, for his part said: “207 movable cultural properties have been brought to the Niğde Museum [found] in these excavations since 2011.”

The excavations come as part of a 10year joint project between the University of Pavia, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World and New York University, supported and participated by Turkey’s Nigde and Erzurum Universities. In 2016, a 2,500-year-old temple dating back to the late Persian era was discovered at the same site.