8,000-year-old human skeleton found in a Turkey tomb

ANKARA - An 8,000-year-old human skeleton was found during excavations in one of the oldest residential areas in southern Turkey, a media report said.

The skeleton was discovered inside a Neolithic-age tomb unearthed in Yumuktepe Hoyuk of the southern Mersin province by archeologists from the Italian Lecce University and Turkish Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

Besides the skeleton, three bowls, a wheat kernel and a dried olive seed from that era were also found in the tomb, it added.

“Vases, bowls and food products were often put in tombs in the late Neolithic period. This shows that people living in that era believed in life after death,” said professor Isabella Caneva of Italian Lecce University.

Systematic excavations in Yumuktepe Hoyuk first started in 1936 under the supervision of British archeologist John Garstang.

Since 1993, the excavations have been conducted by a team headed by Caneva, the report said.