Ottoman trove cleaned with q-tips

Considered the world's biggest Ottoman treasure, the Beçin treasure trove was discovered in 2000 during excavations led by Professor Rahmi HüseyinThe Beçin treasure trove, which was discovered in 2000 during excavations in Beçin, located in the Milas district of the western Mu?la province, was first weighed on grocery scales while each coin was cleaned with q-tips. 

The head of the excavations then, Professor Rahmi Hüseyin, who unearthed the trove of 48,848 Ottoman and 848 European coins, said they were very excited when they had found the trove in a structure called the "taxman house." 

Ünal said they had seen the trove 1.5 meters deep in the granary of the two-floor house, adding, "As we were digging, we saw the greatness of the trove." 

He said due to circumstances at the time, they had to weigh the trove with grocery scales. The trove weighed 33 kilograms, and the treasure was subsequently cleaned by the Ephesus excavation team.

"We weighed the treasure using more precision scales. We got almost the same result as the grocery scales. We joked with each other about the accurateness of the grocery scales," he also said. 

Ünal said the team had also discovered that the building had survived a big fire. As a result, the team has been unable to discover what exactly the building's purpose was. 

A special system was devised by the team to protect the trove, with specifically-made cabinets produced in Vienna that eliminate humidity, while the coins were given a special q-tip treatment. 

The trove is the biggest Ottoman-era treasure trove that has been officially unearthed in Turkey, according to Ünal. 

Ünal added the Beçin treasure had been made into two-volume books and a CD by the...