Screengrab from video posted on Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy official X account.
Ankara: A mining workshop dating back about 8,800 to 8,900 years has been unearthed in southeastern Türkiye, Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said on Tuesday.
In a post on social media platform X, Ersoy said the workshop, covering around 5 square meters and dated to 6900-6800 BC, was found at Cayonu Mound in the Ergani district of Diyarbakir Province.
Excavations uncovered raw and semi-processed malachite, processed malachite samples, copper beads, copper objects, and a stone-paved work area within the workshop.
"The new discovery reveals the earliest production technologies in human history," said Ersoy.
Cayonu Mound is a 12,000-year-old Neolithic site that witnessed the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to settled life, agriculture, and animal husbandry.
