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Monumental Cisterns Unearthed at Metropolis

Monday, January 4, 2021

ISTANBUL, TURKEY—Hurriyet Daily News reports that four cisterns were discovered in the acropolis at the site of the ancient city of Metropolis by archaeologist Serdar Aybek of Manisa Celal Bayar University, who estimates that the monumental structures held about 600 tons of water. Some 1,500 years ago, the water in the cisterns could have supplied the settlement and bathhouse on the lower slopes of the acropolis, he explained, and would have helped the city to endure a long siege. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the structures were used as dump sites for unwanted animal bones and other garbage. To read about a terracotta mask of Dionysus that was found at the site of ancient Daskyleion in Turkey, go to "Who Is That Masked God?"

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