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Hungarian scientists said Friday they have found the remains of an Ottoman-era town in the area in southern Hungary where the heart of Suleiman the Magnificent is believed to have been buried in the 16th century.
The sultan died in Szigetvar in 1566 while his troops besieged its fortress, defended by locals led by Croatian-Hungarian nobleman Miklos Zrinyi. His death was kept a secret from his troops for some 48 days.
The siege was a pyrrhic victory for the Turks and delayed their ultimately unsuccessful advance toward Vienna for decades.
Historians believe Suleiman's heart and internal organs were buried near Szigetvar, and his body taken back to Constantinople, as Istanbul was then known.
Norbert Pap, a member of the research and excavation team, said the discovery of the Ottoman town should offer clues that will help them narrow down their search for the tomb containing the sultan's heart.
"The town called Turbek was founded by the Ottomans after the death of Suleiman," Pap said. "The settlement was destroyed in the 1680s" after the Turks were driven out of Hungary.
Until his death at age 71, Suleiman was the Ottoman Empire's longest-ruling sultan, and the Turks greatly expanded their dominance in the Balkans, the Middle East and northern Africa during his 46-year reign.
Pap said the objects found in the area so far, including luxury goods such as Chinese porcelain, Persian ceramics and glass, indicate that the town's population was wealthy. The discovery is also considered extraordinary because the Turks rarely built their own cities in the areas they occupied, preferring instead to inhabit already existing settlements.
The mayor of Szigetvar, Janos Kolovics, said the find would help expand relations between Hungary and Turkey, which has provided financial support for several projects meant to highlight the Turks' historical presence in the region.
"We are looking ahead at an enormous scientific task," Kolovics said. "The discovery is so significant that we have to rethink the work ahead of us, but it is certain that we will immediately begin to explore the lost holy city."
Pap said the bricks-and-mortar town was most probably built with commemorative, spiritual and political purposes around or near the tomb said to contain Suleiman's heart.
Historical sources indicate that a mosque, a dervish cloister and military barracks were built near the tomb, later expanded with a tavern, a madrasa and an inn for pilgrims journeying to the resting place of Suleiman's heart.
"We are closer and closer to the tomb," Pap concluded, adding that the area expected to be explored is now covered by vineyards and orchards, and belongs to around 12 different owners.
Cool.
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This is interesting, too.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/01/buddha-birth-archaeology-nepal-durham
There was no gas-fired heating and power was limited to around 10 hours a day, so each morning at 5.30 Coningham would wash himself with a bucket of hot water and a cup. The diet, he says drily, was "great if you like curry and rice and dhal three times a day". The team also had to contend with thousands of pilgrims visiting the site every day from Tibet, Thailand and Sri Lanka, each bringing their own rituals. "At any one time, you were sprayed with cologne, covered with banknotes or had rice thrown at you," Coningham recalls. "Or there were nuns busy scraping mortar out from between the bricks and eating it to imbue the relics and sanctity of this sacred site into their bodies. Sometimes it can be quite distracting."
I never cease to be fascinated by the many forms that superstition can take.
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this thread is an anthropologist's dream. i can't even begin to process the myriad strata that constitute even just the city of london. people just blithely going about their day without realising or appreciating the lost city beneath them. i've got a really good book on london actually. would anyone like to do a historical sites ride soon? has that already been done?
anyway - i shouldn't hijack the thread and make it so london-centric, ha. the pictures above of the sri lankan rock fortress remind me of the Emishi people of C16th Japan who were forced to flee and build fortress settlements up in the mountains. i wish i could find pictures, i know the physical layout of the municipality interests you perhaps more than the social history oliver!
i also recently saw this account of underwater ruins off the coast of Okinawa. how amazing would it be to see that in the flesh!
finally since the title encompasses "lost cities" i don't think it's too tangential to drop Agartha into the discussion... i doubt it'll fly with many here though (pics or it didn't happen, etc)
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Some good stuff on here - 1950s/60s Archaeology programmes on iplayer
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It's amazing what British geezers come out with.
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One of the worst acts of anti-archaeological vandalism that I know of is what happened to the well-preserved remains of the Roman city of Nida, in Frankfurt am Main, which were simply bulldozed in two separate phases when new residential neighbourhoods were built.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nida_%28Roman_town%29
The German Wikipedia article has more detail and pictures:
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Archaeologists working on the Crossrail project uncover a historical burial ground at Charterhouse Square, Farringdon in central London. Scientists were called in to investigate bones found during the digging of a new railway in central London, after 13 skeletons were found. The skeletons were be tested to see if they died from the Black Death plague which killed between 30 and 60 percent of the European population in the 14th century, and scientist hope to map the DNA signature of the plague bacteria. (AP Photo/Crossrail Project)
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/01/crossrail-tunneling-beneath-london/100666/
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http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/10/priceless-bronze-statue-apollo-gaza-strip
They cut two fingers off it to find out if it was made of gold ...
It's worthless, anyway, doesn't look like Apollo at all.
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Whoa ^^^ I love the look of that and if it was actually found in that region would only make it more interesting!
I saw this the other day;
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1664894/About the Chauvet cave, what was found there is incredible. The documentary was a bit sappy, but you appreciate the length because its worth looking at and thinking about for a long time!
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I didn't think this would ever be deciphered.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-26198471
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^ this is what really confused me while reading the article. I assumed it was the same guy but misquoted in at least one of them. The article I saw about it being South American was in the New Scientist, but I do remember it was kind of light on details other than "these plants look kind of Mexican". I don't seem to remember the New Scientist article suggesting any of it had been successfully translated, though.
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More Inca sites:
Whoever lived there would definitely have kept fit.
I love the setting of this.
The layout of the houses in this is really interesting.
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Prehistoric forest revealed in Cardigan Bay - http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2014/feb/21/prehistoric-forest-uncovered-by-storms-in-cardigan-bay-in-pictures
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/17/giants-of-monte-prama-sardinian-sculptures-display
The Nuragic civilisation is really fascinating. The ruins found there are spectacular (and there's skiploads of them).
http://tracks.vagabondo.net/Sardinia/Tiscali/Tiscali-Panorama-Grotta.jpg.html
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Doge's Palace
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Belated thanks, winston.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/17/save-syria-bombed-buildings-unesco-ruin
DFP
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About
Lost cities / archaeology / ancient history
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@Oliver Schick
While we're on the subject of clifftop fortresses:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/22/how-excavators-tackled-riddes-of-masada
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/22/israel-masada-myth-doubts