Ancient Oil Lamp Shop Discovered In Aizanoi, The Second Ephesus

Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com - Archaeologists excavating in the 5,000-year-old city of Aizanoi, Turkey have unearthed an ancient oil lamp shop as well as a bone workshop.

Nicknamed the Second Ephesus, Aizanoi was once an ancient Greek city and an important political and economic center during Roman times. Many interesting artifacts and prehistoric buildings have been discovered in this city, among them is the well-preserved temple of Zeus, the God of heaven and the father of the gods of Mount Olympus in Greek mythology.

Credit: Anadolu Agency

While investigating a previously unexcavated area scientists have made important findings that will shed light on trade and social life of the ancient city.

Gokhan Coskun, the excavation coordinator from Kutahya Dumlupinar University, told Anadolu Agency archaeologists have been “able to identify two of the uncovered shops, he said thousands of bone fragments were found inside one of the stores. Some were unprocessed and it seems they were used as raw materials, he added.

“As far as we understand from this, there was a local bone workshop in Aizanoi during the Roman period and located in the agora. It served as both a workshop and a sales place. Among the processed bone artifacts were mostly women's hairpins and spoons,” Coskun said.

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He went on to say that the second shop was an oil lamp shop as they encountered many intact and broken oil lamps – lighting tools of the ancient period.

Written by Jan Bartek - AncientPages.com Staff Writer