2,200-year-old inscription found in northwestern Turkey

BALIKESIR, Turkey 

Searching through an ancient villa in northwestern Turkey, Turkish archeologists have uncovered an inscription dating back some 2,200 years.

Lead excavator Gurcan Polat of Ege University said the dig in the ancient city of Antandros in the northwestern Balikesir province was carried out in two areas, including a Roman-style villa on a hillside.

"We've been excavating this villa since 2001,” in a dig co-organized by the Culture and Tourism Ministry and Edremit Municipality, he told Anadolu Agency.

“During this year's dig, we found a well that we think belonged to the house,” which is where the 22-line inscription emerged, he added.

The inscription has an official decree and was sent to experts, but some of it was unreadable and needed more study.

It includes “a text about honoring and giving privileges to a commander who was sent to Antandros by King Eumenes I of Pergamum and [King] Attalus.”

Much like a modern-day newspaper, it was “displayed where everyone can see to ensure that everyone knows about the decree," said Polat.

Pergamon was an ancient Greek city near the Aegean and the modern Turkish city of Bergama.

King Eumenes was succeeded by Attalus (Attalos), and they lived in the second and third centuries B.C.

Attalos founded what would become the Turkish coastal resort city of Antalya.

Reporting by HakanFirik:Writing by Munira Abdelmenan Awel