Excavations at the ancient city of Troy brought to light a perfectly preserved Early Bronze Age gold ring brooch and an imported jade stone, both dated to about 2500 BCE, according to TRT World.
Archaeologists uncovered the pieces in front of the 6M Palace while clearing the area. From the same layer they also retrieved a bronze pin and several bone tools, which firmly placed the context in the Troy II phase.
“These unique artifacts will be exhibited at the Troy Museum very soon,” said Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Turkey’s culture and tourism minister, in remarks published by Hürriyet.
Scholars noted that only two comparable brooches are known worldwide and that neither approaches the condition of the Troy find.
The secure context settled a long-running debate on the start of Troy II, setting the phase at roughly 2500 BCE and pushing earlier estimates back by several centuries, according to Star.
“This shows that Troy was an important trade center in the world during the Bronze Age,” said Professor Reyhan Körpe of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in comments to Milliyet, pointing to the jade’s probable origin thousands of kilometers to the east.
Körpe added that the new brooch resembles an item from Heinrich Schliemann’s celebrated Treasure of Troy and “is the most important finding in Troy after Schliemann,” a statement carried by Hürriyet.
The brooch, jade stone, and bronze pin are to go on display at the Troy Museum in Çanakkale, Anadolu Agency reported.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.