Over 2,600 artifacts unearthed in Gre Filla, southeastern Türkiye

DIYARBAKIR, Türkiye

As many as 2,687 artifacts have been unearthed after four-year-long excavations at the Gre Filla mound in southeastern Türkiye, an archeologist said.

The Diyarbakir Museum Directorate, Ayse Tuba Okse and her team had been carrying out the works, where they found artifacts reflecting the traces of life belonging to societies living in the Neolithic period.

Okse told Anadolu Agency that artifacts dating back up to 12,000 years have been unearthed by archaeologists, restorers, anthropologists and art historians, and delivered to the Diyarbakir Museum.

"We can say that a certain amount of ritual behavior has been exhibited here. We can define it as common usage areas where a belief and social life coexist. We don't want to call them temples directly, since we don't have enough data. These are also referred to as special structures, just like in Gobeklitepe," she said.

"Grinding stone, whetstone, stone ax, cutting and piercing tools, earth and stone figures, glass artifacts were found in abundance. 1,023 of these artifacts were delivered to the museum for exhibition while 1,664 will be used for publications and thesis studies," Okse added.