Ordu Kuruk Castle digs that have been conducted since 2010 by Gazi University Department of Archaeology lecturers Prof. Dr. Yücel Şenyurt and Dr. Atakan Akçay have brought significant results. It is the first scientific excavation field in the eastern Black sea region concerted with Ordu Museum with the permission of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and the financial support of the Ordu Metropolitan Municipality.

Kurul castle is located at the summit of 570 meter high Kurul rocks and its location being at the west of the River Melet and being 9kms from the shore allows it to dominate Ordu city. The members of the excavation comprising of 22 undergraduate, graduate and doctorate students from the Department of Archaeology of our University has made our name in the national and international press with their studies this year and we are taking justified pride of their achievement.

Prof. Şenyurt stated that they unearthed the entrance door of the Castle which is located at the northern terrace of the settlement.  He said that this year they unearthed many fired ceramic sculptures and especially artifacts belonging to Dionysus and Kybele are very significant in terms of Anatolian and Black Sea archeology.  Şenyurt stated that the strongest settlement layer of the Kurul Castle was dated during the Pontus (Blacksea) King VI. Mithradates (120-63 BC) and the marble Kybele statue which is unearthed in a niche located on the corridor of the entrance door has an exclusive place among the similar sculptures that have been unearthed until now in terms of its in-situ position. He added that it is an archeological achievement to find the goddess guard of the gates and walls in its exact location as in 2100 years ago. He thanked the lecturers and the students who have contributed greatly to the adventure of the most ancient goddess, mother goddess Kybele, from the wild Black sea coast for making them proud.

19.09.2016 / Consultancy of Press and Public Relations