Ancient relief discovered in Balıkesir excavations

Archaeologists in northwestern Turkey discovered a relief on Aug. 16 depicting a war between the Greeks and Persians in the fifth century B.C.

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The figures on the relief show fighting Greek soldiers beneath the hoofs of Persian warhorses, said archeologist Kaan Iren, who leads the dig site of the ancient city of Dascylium found in the modern-day Bandırma district of Balıkesir province.

"Here is a scene of propaganda under the pretext of war. We can say these reliefs are a scene from the Persian-Greek wars," İren told the state-run Anadolu Agency.

"We think these reliefs were probably made for propaganda purposes during the wars," he added.

İren, who has been working at the excavation site in Dascylium with a team of 30 people since June 22, said they had unearthed parts of a stone and mudbrick wall dating back to the eighth century B.C. this year.

"Of the eighth-century-B.C. wall left from the Phrygian age, this year we unearthed an area of 4 meters high and 40 meters long. We think that this wall had a height of 7 to 8 meters. We prepared a protection roof project for this place. We will present it to the Balıkesir Cultural Heritage Preservation Regional Board. If approved, we will take this place until protection," said Iren, who is also a faculty member of the Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University.

The 5-meter-wide wall is believed to have been built by the ancient Phrygian civilization to protect its territory, Iren said.
Stating that the first settlers of the ancient city were the Phrygians, İren mentioned that the last place where this civilization was seen in the north and west of Anatolia was Dascylium.

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"The wall is a 5-meter-wide fortification wall that these people built to protect...