Hellenistic cremation burial found in Istanbul train station

Istanbul is one of those amazing cities where the sheer density and richness of the history to be found there is almost hard to take in. Era stacked on era stacked on era, civilizations borrowing from each other's buildings, two thousand year old columns used as bus stops etc etc

I guess maybe Rome comes close but even then it doesn't have the sheer variety of Istanbul

A lot of infrastructure (or rather anything that involves digging) projects in Istanbul result in archaelogical discoveries.

If the amount discovered is immense, some of it will make it to light of day, and a considerable amount will simply be destroyed, as the construction will continue despite the find. To my limited knowledge, once an artifact is found, it’s illegal to continue construction.

When the discoveries are small, the news of it will be suppressed and construction will continue normally. Some artifacts usually end up in the possession of the site manager or the owner of the contracted conglomerate.

There used to be independent journalism uncovering such events, this is no longer the case.