Archaeologists in Turkey Have Uncovered a Mysterious Ancient Kingdom Lost in History
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:
Archaeologists in Turkey Have Uncovered a Mysterious Ancient Kingdom Lost in History:
Last year, archaeologists were investigating an ancient mound site in central Turkey called Turkmen-Karahoyuk. The greater region, the Konya Plain, abounds with lost metropolises, but even so, researchers couldn't have been prepared for what they were about to find.
[...] With the aid of translators, the researchers found that the hieroglyphs on this ancient stone block - called a stele - boasted of a military victory. And not just any military victory, but the defeat of Phrygia, a kingdom of Anatolia that existed roughly 3,000 years ago.
The royal house of Phrygia was ruled by a few different men called Midas, but dating of the stele, based on linguistic analysis, suggests the block's hieroglyphics could be referring to the King Midas - he of the famous 'golden touch' myth.
The stone markings also contained a special hieroglyphic symbolising that the victory message came from another king, a man called Hartapu. The hieroglyphs suggest Midas was captured by Hartapu's forces.
[...] What's significant about this is that almost nothing is known about King Hartapu, nor about the kingdom he ruled. Nonetheless, the stele suggests the giant mound of Turkmen-Karahoyuk may have been Hartapu's capital city, spanning some 300 acres in its heyday, the heart of the ancient conquest of Midas and Phrygia.
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