Archaeologist Findings in an Underwater Ancient City Expose a Different Story of Power and Survival
The word archaeologist now carries an unusual double meaning in Turkey: it describes the people uncovering the past, and the crisis helping expose it. In one case, a submerged Roman-era city has revealed evidence of trade, agriculture, and religious influence. In another, falling reservoir levels have brought an 11, 000-year-old structure back into view. Together, these archaeologist discoveries show how water can conceal history for centuries and then strip it bare in a matter of seasons.
What is the hidden story beneath Juliopolis?
Verified fact: Juliopolis, now mostly underwater beneath a reservoir formed by the Sariyar Dam project in the late 1950s, was a powerful urban hub nearly 2, 000 years ago. A study published in the Journal of Management and Economic Studies examined structures and artifacts excavated from 2009 to 2025 by a team from Karabuk University and the Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.
Their findings point to a city that was not marginal, but strategically important. The authors concluded that Juliopolis was “a developed city characterized by local production, extensive trade, and powerful religious authority, ” and that it was located on an important transportation route. That assessment matters because it changes the way the submerged site should be understood: not as a forgotten ruin, but as a regional center with economic and institutional weight.
Informed analysis: The combination of location, production, and authority suggests a city that functioned as more than a settlement. It appears to have been integrated into movement, exchange, and local governance in ways that outlasted the political changes that first shaped it.
Why does the larder matter so much to archaeologist research?
One of the most significant finds came in 2022, when archaeologists uncovered what was once the city’s mortar-and-stone larder. The cold storage area contained five large clay pithoi jars fixed to the floor, where they had remained unmoved for more than 1, 000 years. The jars had once stored liquid food, and possibly grain, olive oil, or wine.
The study authors linked one jar’s cross to a likely connection between a local church’s monastery vineyard and the city’s wine production. They also wrote that the use of the pithoi for storing liquid foods suggests the city was self-sufficient in viticulture and other agricultural products, and that the city’s religious structure was at the center of social and economic life. Juliopolis was also the seat of a Christian bishop throughout the Byzantine period.
Verified fact: The city stood on the historically valuable Pilgrim’s Road connecting Iznik and Ankara. Excavations also uncovered African Red Slip Ware ceramics, evidence that Juliopolis was tied into the Mediterranean trade network for luxury goods.
Informed analysis: Taken together, the storage complex, the ceramics, and the religious role point to a city that combined local provisioning with outside exchange. That balance helps explain why the site remained important long after its original founding.
What does the drought reveal at the Atatürk Dam?
A second archaeologist story is emerging from a very different landscape. Receding waters at the Atatürk Dam in Adıyaman have revealed a new archaeological site, where archaeologists identified T-shaped stone structures. Those structures may connect to the same design seen at Göbeklitepe, which dates to the early Neolithic period of 11, 000 years ago.
Professor Sabahattin Ezer, from Adıyaman University’s Department of Archaeology, identified these finds as part of the broader Tas Tepeler culture. The discovery became visible because the dam’s water levels dropped, exposing what had long been buried under soil. Similar relics are also surfacing around Lake Iznik as water levels fall.
Verified fact: The same drought that is revealing ancient remains is also creating major strain. Rainfall reached a 52-year low in 2025, Kadıköy Dam is running low, and local farmers are facing related consequences, including sinkholes on farmland.
Who benefits, and who pays the price?
For archaeologists, the receding water has created a narrow window to recover material before it is lost again. Teams at the Atatürk Dam are rushing to excavate as many relics as possible, and recovered items are being sent for display in the ancient city of Perre. In Juliopolis, the submerged setting has preserved a long record of urban life, but only partially and under difficult conditions.
For residents, the same conditions are alarming. Turkish leaders are implementing water-use measures and encouraging responsible consumption, while agriculture remains a major user of water. The public cost is not limited to heritage: drinking water supply and farming are both under pressure.
Informed analysis: These two stories are linked by scarcity. In one place, water has hidden a city’s past. In another, its absence is revealing prehistory. But in both cases, the larger warning is the same: the landscape is changing faster than institutions can comfortably manage.
The evidence from Juliopolis and the Atatürk Dam makes one thing clear: archaeologist work is now being shaped by environmental pressure as much as by excavation skill. That should push authorities toward faster documentation, stronger conservation planning, and transparent public communication about what is being lost, what is being recovered, and what conditions are making both possible. The public deserves to know that the future of archaeologist research, and the survival of water itself, are now tightly connected to the fate of archaeologist discoveries in Turkey.
