Archaeological finds predate history in Turkey

A transport infrastructure project in Turkey has uncovered a significant find. Archaeologists now believe that Istanbul's Old City is much older than previously thought.

The Marmaray project is upgrading about 76 kilometers of commuter rail.

It will do this by connecting both sides of the Istanbul - or Bosphorus - Strait through a railway tunnel underneath.

Yasar Anilir is the Archaeologist responsible for the Yenikapi digging area. He explains that a settlement dating back 8,000 years was found in the area containing an urn of the ashes of a cremation.

He says it is considered to be evidence of the first settlement in the area.

Researchers have also linked the findings to the remains of a Neolithic site in southern Anatolia, which was excavated in the 1960s.

The similarity between the sites suggests that settlers in the Anatolian plains migrated to Istanbul's shores some 8,000 years ago.

The urns are a first in Anatolian history, which proves human tribes lived in Istanbul before the reigns of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.

In ancient times, most funerals in the region were held by simple burial by cremation. After cremation the ashes were usually put in ceramic urns or small stone containers, known as larnax.

Other forms of cremation in Anatolian Archaeology were seen in the early Bronze Age, but this type of burial was uncommon.

The Marmaray project was scheduled to open in 2010.

However, the opening was delayed when excavation teams came across a Byzantine harbor in 2006.

The long lost harbor has been known about but had never been located.

The archaeologists call it the Port of Theodosius, after the emperor of Rome and Byzantium who died in 395 A.D.

There have been 32 Byzantine ship wrecks found in the area of the Port of Theodosius.

The archaeological discoveries can now be seen in a private gallery of the Istanbul Museum of Archaeology.

Digging for the Marmaray tunnel has also led to archaeological finds in the Uskudar district on the Asian side of Istanbul and Sirkeci and Veznedar on the European side.

Giant machines constructing the tunnel are dredging up artifacts from the sea floor in the Bosphorus.