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8,000-year-old skeleton discovered in southern Turkey
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-02 22:06

ANKARA: An 8,000-year-old skeleton was found during excavations in one of the oldest residential areas in southern Turkey, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Sunday.

The skeleton was discovered inside a Neolithic-age tomb unearthed in Yumuktepe Hoyuk of the southern Mersin province by archeologists from the Italian Lecce University and Turkish Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, said the report.

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Other discoveries along with the skeleton were three bowls, a wheat kernel and an olive seed, it added.

"Vases, bowls and food products were often put in tombs in the late Neolithic period. This shows that people living in that era believed in life after death," said professor Isabella Caneva of Italian Lecce University.

Systematic excavations in Yumuktepe Hoyuk first started in 1936 under the supervision of British archeologist John Garstang.

Since 1993, the excavations have been conducted by a team presided by Caneva, according to the report.