Excavations at Stratonikeia in Turkey’s Muğla province revealed 65 tombs containing remains of inhabitants of the city from Roman times.

Archaeological investigation of the graveyard area in ancient Stratonikeia, also called city of gladiators, revealed 65 rock tombs dated to the Byzantine era.  The tombs are said to contain both adult and children skeletons. Archaeologists also uncovered finds connected with a settlement from 3500 years ago and artefacts from various periods, including Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Anatolian beylik, Ottoman and Republican eras. In the Byzantine era the city housed Leleges and the Carians. Excavations focused in the area of the Western Street, on of the main streets of the city, where in the Byzantine times a church was built. After the structure collapsed the Byzantine population used the area as a graveyard, where the rock tombs were constructed. In one of the tombs researchers found a 120-centimetre-long skeleton belonging to a woman that died 1300 years ago.

(after Hurriyet Daily News, AA photo & Daily Sabah)