TUMULUS AT ASKERTEPE

Askertepe tumulus is located in the village of Beyoglu which is 30 km far from the center of sarköy town in Tekirdag, at northwest Turkey. The tumulus and its chamber had been almost destroyed by illegal excavations before the salvage excavations were carried out by the TekirdagArchaeological Museum in July 2007. The excavations carried out here unearthed the upper covering blocks of the ceiling of the tomb chamber. It was revealed that after the construction of the tomb chamber, the ceiling above the vault was covered with big stone blocks and almost every stone was connected to each other with iron bars. Upper cover stones were connected with iron clamps and between the iron clamps and iron bars, melted lead was poured. On the ground of this area wheredromos is located, an area was found where probably the funeral ceremony took place. In this area the horses of the hearse were sacrificed by cremation. The heads of the horse appear to have been lied down carefully on the ground after the cremation. Since the body bones of the horses were cremated completely, no traces were found. Four broken East Greek Amphoras dated to the second half of fourth century B.C. were found in the ceremonial area. At the west part of the dromos, near the skull of the horse was found a terracotta oil lamp. Chamber building was destroyed by rob excavations. In the chamber, among the kline stones was found an ashy layer which probably belongs to the owner of tomb. While this ashy layer was being removed, a piece of golden leaf was found adjacent to the northern wall of the kline.