Ancient Inscription on a 2,000-Year-Old Building in Türkiye Finally Decoded!

An American professor of ancient Greek history and archeology has succeeded in deciphering the inscription on a 2,600-year-old Turkish monument.

The secret of this inscription finally revealed

For many centuries, an inscription located on a monument in Türkiye has attracted the interest of historians. This monument, where you can see engraved lions and sphinxes, is called Aslan Kaya, which means “lion rock” in Turkish. It was discovered in 1884 by William Ramsay, a British chemist. Since then, researchers have followed one another and endeavored to translate the inscription which appears on the facade, until then described as a “series of letters which did not seem to follow a clear pattern”.

But one man claims to have succeeded in deciphering this mystery. This man is Mark Munn, American professor of ancient Greek history and archeology at Pennsylvania State University. The inscription gives the “Materan”, which is a goddess of the Phrygians, present in Turkey from 1200 to 600 BC. “They knew her simply as the Mother,” Munn tells LiveScience. A belief that the Turks of the time had, but not only.

Materan, “the Mother of the Gods”

This goddess was worshiped by other ancient civilizations. The Romans, for example, used to call her “Magna Mater” or “Great Mother”. The Greeks considered her “the Mother of the Gods” according to Mark Munn.

This monument was built following the request of the king of Lydia, a kingdom that ruled the region more than 2500 years ago. These people were also known to have great esteem for Materan, which further supports the plausibility of the deciphering of the inscription which appears on the Arslan Kaya.

Doubts persist despite everything

However, Mark Munn's version raises doubts, particularly because of the state of the monument, heavily damaged by bad weather and the looting it has suffered over time. Indeed, some believe that the inscription on it is extremely difficult to read.

Others believe that it only repeats the hypotheses and suggestions made by researchers and historians of the 19th century. This is, for example, the opinion of Rostyslav Oreshko, professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in France and having carried out extensive research on Phrygian inscriptions, who states that “the Materan reading has already been suggested”. In any case, the two suggestions come together and everything suggests that this secret, which has lasted more than two centuries now, has finally been revealed.

Source: LiveScience