An ancient site dating back 11,800 years was unearthed in southeastern Turkey. Archeologist Ergül Kodaş said his team was excavating a site as part of a project focusing on documenting and rescuing sites located in the Dargecit district, when they came across the 11,800-year-old sewer system and over two dozen architectural artifacts.
     A total of 15 archaeologists as well as 50 workers are currently excavating the area, which was designated a historical and cultural site by Turkish authorities.
     Kodaş, the head of the excavation team, said the historical site was inhabited for a long period around 9800 BCE and that there were eight-story buildings reaching up to seven meters in height. Pointing out that they found the oldest known sewer system structure among the houses in the excavation, Kodaş said, "This was very interesting for us as well. We unearthed it, which was adhered to the bottom of a wall. At first we thought it was a wall, but with the progress of the excavation we saw that it was a sewer. We partially unearthed it."
     An excavation team member, Yunus Çiftçi said, "There is no mention of such a sewer structure even in the pottery Neolithic period. It is built on a sloping base to prevent water from entering the buildings. We think that rainwater or wastewater are allowed to flow east to the Tigris because of its slope. We consider that the sewage is used for this purpose."
     Last October, an ancient temple estimated to be over 11,000 years old - which belongs almost to the same period as Gobeklitepe, the famed 'oldest temple in the world' located in southeastern Sanliurfa province of Turkey - was found at the same excavation site.

Edited from AA.com.tr (7 November 2019), Hurriyet Daily News (8 November 2019)