ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Skeletons of a child and an infant, believed to be 7,600 years old, have been found in southern Turkey, state media reported on Friday. The remains of the child, whose age is estimated to be six or seven years, and the infant were found at Domuztepe Mound in the predominantly Kurdish province of Kahramanmaras (Maras) where excavations have been ongoing for years. The skeletons were found in two separate graves. “We discovered two graves, one belonging to an infant, next to the foundations of a structure related to a keyhole-shaped building,” Halil Tekin, who leads the excavation, told Anadolu Agency. “This was a complete surprise for us, as graves are very rarely found in Domuztepe.” Domuztepe Mound is a settlement founded in the late Neolithic period, from 7000 to 4500 BCE, that archaeologists say appears to have been reoccupied 5,000 years later. There is also evidence of Roman and Islamic construction at the site. A group of 40 skeletons were previously found in the same region by another team. The skeleton of another child was found in Domuztepe Mound in 2021, believed to belong to the Middle Ages. Tekin told state media at the time that the province had hosted many civilizations in history. "There was probably a non-Muslim settlement in the Middle Ages here. When they had a deceased baby, they buried them in the mound,” he said.
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