2,700-Yr-Previous Shields and Helmet Discovered at Historic Fort in Turkey

Three bronze shields and one bronze helmet relationship again 2,700 years have been discovered by archaeologists excavating an historical fortress in Turkey, the nation’s minister of tradition and tourism introduced on  Instagram and X earlier this month.

Ayanis Fort was a fortress close to Lake Van in jap Turkey erected by the Kingdom of Urartu (also called the Kingdom of Van). On the top of its success, between the ninth and sixth centuries B.C.E., the dominion was recognized for its navy prowess and metalwork.

The shields and helmet have been present in a temple advanced dedicated to Haldi, the chief god of Urartu, and have been left as choices to the god.

These are hardly the primary or most intensive finds on the web site, which included the invention of a miniature bronze chariot doubtless used for transporting a cultic statue simply final yr.

“This fortress is proving to be the richest Urartian web site in Turkey for a lot of causes, not the least of which is the amount of bronzes related to the temple,” Paul Zimansky, a historical past professor at Stony Brook College who performed archaeological work at Ayanis between 1997 and 2009, advised Stay Science.

Present excavations on the fortress are being overseen by Mehmet Isikli, an archaeology professor at Ataturk College.