HE MYTHICAL VALLEY

Findings obtained during recent excavations in Kazakhstan have shed light on the distant origins of Turkish ancestry(...) . International Turkish Academy head, Professor Darhan Hıdıralli, said the discoveries found in the excavations overlapped(...) with the places mentioned in the Ergenekon epic. He also noted that graves found during the excavations have revealed significant information about the Göktürk era. “The geography, which is featured in the Ergenekon epic and known as the place where Turks sheltered(...) during hard times, is the same as the high peaks of the Altay Mountains. Musical instruments found in the graves prove to us a rooted(...) cultural life and a developed civilization during that period. Why did such a civilization live within these precipices(...) rather than on more comfortable lands? Iron-made tools and other items found in the excavations reveal(...) that the people of that period came to this region to escape from some difficulties, just like in the Ergenekon epic. All these things confirm our thesis that this place is Ergenekon,” Hıdıralli said. Hıdıralli said the excavations proved that epics could be a source for human history. He said, “We should not underestimate legends and myths. It is not the first time that Ergenekon has been associated with the Altay Mountains. However, for the first time, excavations have proven to us that Ergenekon and the Altay Mountains have a relationship.” Between 2012 and 2014, the first stage of archaeological work on the Altay Mountains unearthed(...) the grave of a Turkish soldier, who was buried with his horse, weapons and lute, and the grave of a Turkish poet, both of which date back to the period of the Göktürks during the 6th and 8th centuries. Hıdıralli said the plant motifs(...) found on the musical instruments proved the findings were from the Göktürk era. “The fish skin used on the sword hilts(...) is a type of fish which only survived in the Pacific Ocean. This proves to us that either the Göktürks also resided in the Pacific Ocean area, or they had good relations with the people there. It is also known that the unearthed swords were forged(...) in the Turkish style of that era(...) and were not brought from another region; in other words, they were produced locally,” he said. The International Turkish Academy announced that excavations would continue in the Altay region and Mongolia, and that the findings would be shared during an international archaeology seminar titled “From the Celestial Mountains to Ötüken.” (Reading text adapted from hurriyetdailynews)