Rail Excavations On Marmaray Outskirts Reveals 8,500 Years Of Instanbul's History

Archaeological remains at Yenikapi, Istanbul, Turkey. (Source: Anadolu Agency via Daily Sabah)

JAKARTA - The excavation of the Marmaray project, an undersea train tunnel that connects the Asian and European sides of Istanbul under the Bosphorus, has uncovered a side of Istanbul's 8,500-year history.

Excavations began in 2004 as part of the Marmaray project. The research that uncovered this new aspect of Istanbul's history ended in 2013. The find has shaken the archaeological world since the discovery of the first ax.

According to the Daily Sabah of October 14, about 60,000 artifacts unearthed in the Yenikapı and Sirkeci areas as well as the sküdar district during excavations for about nine years were kept in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, Turkey until a special museum was built for them.

Excavations have uncovered the first traces of civilizations from different periods, including skeletons of the first Istanbulites, 8,500-year-old footprints, Port of Eleutherios (Theodosius), a port known in world literature but with no traces found so far, the largest collection of medieval shipwrecks. in the world, as well as 60,000 animal bones from 57 species and plant fossils.

The port of Eleutherios, the largest transportation hub of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, between the fourth and 11th centuries was excavated during excavations at Yenikapı. Built to transport wheat imported from Egypt, the remains that survived the harbor include 25 docks, two of which are stone and the rest wooden.

Excavations began 3 meters (10 ft) above sea level and continued 10 meters (33 ft) below. A group of buildings dating back to the Ottoman period, including a 20th-century water tank and numerous water wells, were also found at Yenikapı.

As excavations expanded in the area, some 37 sunken ships of various types and sizes dating from the fifth to 11th century period were also discovered, the largest collection of medieval shipwrecks in the world.

While the wrecks provide important information about Byzantine ship typology, shipbuilding technology and the evolution of this technology, researchers think that the ships may have sunk in the harbor as a result of natural disasters such as a strong storm or tsunami.

A church was also found in the metro section northwest of the Yenikapı excavation area, and is thought to have been built between the 12th and 13th centuries when the harbor began to fill up. A total of 22 graves containing 24 human skeletons and thousands of animal skeletons were also excavated around the church.

One of the shipwrecks found at Yenikapi. (Source: Anadolu Agency via Daily Sabah)

Archaeological excavations in the city's sküdar district, another important station of the Marmaray project, were carried out between 2004-2008.

Ruins dating from the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods, as well as architectural ruins from the Byzantine and Ottoman periods were found at the sküdar, known as Khrysopolis in early times and as Scutari in Roman times.

During excavations carried out near the Sultan Mihrimah Mosque and the Sultan Ahmet III Fountain, the foundations of an apsidal structure dating to the Byzantine period of the 12th or 13th century were discovered. A total of 97 skeletons, including three children, 14 girls and 73 boys, and seven others whose gender could not be identified, were among the excavation finds at this structure.

At Sirkeci, another excavation station of the Marmaray project, has been used as a harbor since the seventh century. The Port of Prosphorion was the first port built on the territory of Constantinople at the time the city-state of Byzantium.

During excavations at Sirkeci, architectural remains belonging to the late Ottoman, Byzantine and early Byzantine periods, as well as small finds and pottery belonging to the pre-Roman period were discovered. Iznik tiles from the 16th century and the head of a marble statue of a Roman woman stand out among the finds.