112 graves were found in an archaeological excavation in an old quarry in Diyarbakır.

Following the discovery of a bronze cross during surface surveys in different areas of the İnkaya District, the excavation work initiated in 2021 by the Diyarbakır Museum Directorate continues this season with a team of 17 experts and 30 workers.

The teams, who continued their work on the church ruins unearthed in the area in 2022, also carried out excavations in 2023 in the area considered to be an old quarry, located approximately 500 meters south of the church.

The teams, who came across a child's grave during the excavations, intensified their work at this point.

During the excavations, which lasted approximately two years and were completed in 2025, the bones of 160 children and two adults were found in graves, some of which were made of stone cist.

Diyarbakır Museum Deputy Director Müjdat Gizligöl told an AA correspondent that they began work on identifying cultural assets in the Silvan Dam basin, conducting rescue excavations for them, and relocating the cultural assets in question, in line with the permissions of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's General Directorate of Cultural Assets and Museums in 2021.

Gizligöl, who stated that they concentrated some of the archaeological excavations they carried out in the İnkaya Neighborhood of the Kulp district in this context on the area they assessed as being used as a quarry, said, "This place was used as a quarry in the 3rd and 4th centuries during the Roman period and later turned into a cemetery during the Byzantine period."

Gizligöl stated that they determined that the area took the form of a terrace (a high plain supported by a wall, obtained with soil or another material) because it was used as a quarry during the Roman period, and explained that a fill soil of approximately 4 meters was formed in these terraces.

Gizligöl noted that they removed the fill soil and reached the stone ground, and that they found many graves in the area.

Gizligöl said, "We have found 112 graves so far, and the majority of them consist of stone cists. We also came across some that were not placed inside the cists, which we call 'isolated.' We found the skeletons of 162 individuals in 112 graves. 160 of these are children and babies. Only two belong to adults. 'Deadly gifts' were also found inside the graves."

Gizligöl stated that they had completed the excavations that had started in the area in 2023 and that only cleaning work would now be carried out in the area.

Gizligöl stated that scientific studies on the bones found are continuing and added:

"160 of the bones are from children and infants. The age range is 0-9 years. Our work on these is being carried out by our technical team in the excavation house and laboratory. We will announce the scientific data on their ages and disease status later."