Longest poem of classical-era unearthed in western Turkey

ANKARA - Cihan News Agency

The stela is an extraordinary finding that offers a treasure trove of data to historians and philologists.

Excavations around the Hecatomnus Mausoleum in the western province of Muğla’s Milas district have unearthed a written stela that dates back over two millennia.

The stela is an extraordinary finding that offers very important data to historians and philologists, according to academics.

The stela, which is estimated to have been written for the ruler of its era, is in the poetry format and the longest among other similar classical-era findings.

According to information provided by the Milas Uzunyuva Project Epigraph Professor Christian Marek, the writing on the stela has a poetical language in a style called “catalectic trochaic tetrameter.”

There are 121 lines in the stela, although its upper surface has been eroded. It is estimated that the stela was erected at the end of fourth century B.C. or at the beginning of the third century B.C.