An ancient sundial estimated to be approximately 1,000 years old has been found at the Ani Archaeological Site in Kars, Turkey. Discovered during excavations in 2021 in the bath area of Ani, the sundial has recently been opened to visitors, attracting interest from both local and foreign tourists as well as academic circles.
"In 2021, our sundial, which was found in the excavation carried out in the bath area of Ani Archaeological Site, has been completed and put into our exhibition," said Hakim Aslan, Deputy Director of Kars Archaeology and Ethnography Museum, according to Anadolu Agency. He emphasized the importance of the find, noting that it is being exhibited for the first time.
"The sundial we found in the bath excavation at Ani Archaeological Site is important for us, especially designed in a semicircular form and with 12 segments," Aslan explained. "In the middle, a shadow is created by an object with a metal rod, and the hours are shown as a result of the shadow created by the sun on the rod," he added.
"We know that especially in the Roman and Hellenistic periods, sundials gained momentum and developed, but in the Middle Ages, developments related to sundials did not reach an advanced level, and they fell behind even the Hellenistic period," Aslan noted. He emphasized that similar examples are common in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, but technology regressed in the Middle Ages, making this find in Ani quite valuable.
"Examples of sundials can be seen from very early periods," Aslan noted,
The ancient city of Ani spans 85 hectares, where civilizations have flourished and found life.
Approximately 25 structures remain standing in Ani, among them walls, mosques, cathedrals, palaces, churches, monasteries, baths, a bridge, and a partially collapsed covered passage. The city also illuminates the past with nearly 1,500 underground structures, indicating that a portion of its population lived underground.
Ani was the first gateway from the Caucasus to Anatolia.
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