Centuries-old wall paintings discovered at Seyitömer

KÜTAHYA - Anadolu Agency

The Seyitömer mound in the western province of Kütahya offers clues about people who lived in the early Bronze, middle Bronze, Achaemeni, Hellenistic and Roman eras. AA Photo

Wall paintings of animal and human shapes, as well as geometric designs, have been found by researchers at the Dumlupınar University Archaeology Department in the 5,000-year-old Seyitömer burial mound.

With a history dating back to the third millennium B.C., the mound in the western province of Kütahya offers clues about people who lived in the early Bronze, middle Bronze, Achaemeni, Hellenistic and Roman eras.

Professor Fikret Özbay said they found a new, pear-shape space enclosed in earth during the recent excavations, adding that it was the first time they had encountered such a structure.

“There are wall paintings in the wide side of these structures of different forms. Since they were made on plaster 5,000 years ago, it was not possible to protect them very well. Red dye was used in these paintings and they are human and animals figures and geometrical shapes. Such paintings are generally seen in inns in the excavation areas in Anatolia. But for the first time we have seen them in a settlement. The new spaces were covered with wattles and woods,” Özbay said. Özbay said the existence of a very large coal mine had also been discovered below the mound. Excavations at the Seyitömer mound have been continuing since 2006.