Since 2017, excavation works have been ongoing at the Castle, conducted by a team of academics led by professor Rafet Çavusoglu, head of the archaeology department at Van’s Yüzüncü Yil University.
Over the course of the protracted dig, the team discovered a necropolis believed to mark the burial site of the Urartian ruling class.
Recently, this has led to the unearthing of the skeletal remains of a woman buried with a full set of exquisite jewelry. The team’s anthropologists are now set to examine the skeleton in a lab environment to determine the cause of death and the exact age of the woman.
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Urartu also known as the Kingdom of Van, is an Iron Age kingdom centered around Lake Van in the historic Armenian Highlands. The kingdom rose to power in the mid-9th century BC, but went into gradual decline and was eventually conquered by the Iranian Medes in the early 6th century BC.
