Brushing away the orange-tinted dirt of eastern Turkey, archaeologists noticed some rusty metal items reemerging. The artifacts turned out to be 2,600-year-old battle gear left as an offering.
The researchers were excavating an ancient temple complex at the ruins of Ayanis, a stronghold built by the Urartians about 2,600 years ago, Turkey’s minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Ersoy, wrote in a Sept. 7 Facebook post.
While digging along the base of a wall, archaeologists found three bronze shields and a helmet dating back 2,600 years. A video shows the blue-green items.
The ancient shields seem relatively large and were lined up in a row, photos show. The helmet is stacked inside one of the shields.
“We believe the helmet we found was used in ceremonies due to its detailed and intricate decorations,” Mehmet Işıklı, the excavation’s lead archaeologist, told the Hurriyet Daily News.
A close-up photo shows the pointed helmet. Some engraved rings are visible on the inside.
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“These shields likely belonged to the royal family or an elite warrior group, as Urartians were known to gift such items to nobility,” Işıklı told the Hurriyet Daily News. Another photo shows one of the rounded shields and its cone-shaped center.
The ancient battle gear was left at the temple as an offering to the Urartian god Haldi, archaeologists said.
“The god Haldi (played) a central role in the Urartian belief system,” Işıklı told the Hurriyet Daily News. The deity was associated with war, battle and the royal family.
The Urartians were an ancient kingdom that controlled parts of modern-day Armenia, Iran and Turkey, according to Britannica. They emerged around 1200 B.C. but peaked between roughly 850 to 600 B.C.
Archaeologists have been excavating Ayanis, a major Urartian site, for over 30 years, according to an article from Turkish officials. The temple dedicated to Haldi sits at the highest point of the site. There, excavations have unearthed arrowheads, quivers, shields and helmets.
Ayanis is in the Van Merkez region, a roughly 1,000-mile drive southeast of Istanbul and near the border with Iran.
Google Translate and Facebook Translate were used to translate the Facebook post from Mehmet Ersoy.
