Anti-smuggling police seized a 2,000-year-old tombstone belonging to an ancient Armenian king in Turkey's northwestern Balıkesir province on Tuesday.
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| Credit: Daily Sabah |
After searching the cars, police found and confiscated a tombstone reading "the final resting place of the Commagene Kingdom's leader Antiachos" in Greek.
The smugglers were planning to sell the invaluable artefact for TL 2 million ($281,000), reports said.
Four suspects were detained during the operation and police launched an extensive investigation into the incident.
The Kingdom of Commagene was a small Hellenised Armenian kingdom (163 BC to 72 AD), located in and around the ancient city of Samosata (southern Anatolia), which served as its capital.
One of the kingdom's most lasting visible remains is the archaeological site on Mount Nemrut, a sanctuary dedicated by King Antiochus Theos to a number of syncretistic Graeco-Iranian deities as well as to himself and the deified land of Commagene.
Source: Daily Sabah [April 03, 2019]
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