Archaeologists Digging Near an Ancient Theater Found 5 Uncanny Ancient Faces

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Popular Mechanics
Archaeologists Were Digging Near an Ancient Theater and Found 5 Uncanny Ancient Faces
Tim Newcomb
Tue, December 9, 2025 at 8:30 AM EST
3 min read



Archaeologists Dug Up 5 Uncanny Ancient Faces Julian Ward - Getty Images


Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

*Five theatrical masks discovered at an ancient Turkish site are dated to the time of the Roman Empire.

*The masks were found alongside a 5,000-seat theater built by the Romans in the first century C.E.

*An elderly philosopher depicted on one mask shows the diversity of programming within the ancient theater.


A series stone reliefs discovered in southern Turkey is truly befitting of the theater district they were found in. Archaeologists uncovered five distinctly theatrical mask-style reliefs sporting faces carved into stone at a nearly 2,000-year-old site.

While the ornate masks are newer than the 2,700-year-old ancient settlement of Kastabala, experts still believe they come from the first century C.E. and were designed alongside the Roman Empire’s 5,000-seat theater at the site.

“We unearthed masks in Kastabala in previous seasons as well,” Faris Demir, an archaeologist at Osmaniy Korkut Ata University, told Turkish-language Anadolu Agency. “We have also brought to light numerous architectural elements belonging to the stage building. These finds will make it possible to restore the structure.”

In all, the team has located 36 masks this year alone.

With excavation work focused within the ancient theater area, the continual uncovering of masks further cements the theatrical history of the site. Of the newly found reliefs, Demir said the face of an elderly philosopher was distinct within the bunch.

“Masks on stage buildings rarely depict philosophers” Demir observed, per Anatolian Archaeology. This led Demir to conclude that this space may have had uses beyond staged dramas, and may have also “hosted philosophical lectures, literary recitations, or public debates, enriching the city’s cultural life far beyond entertainment.”

Demir said that the masks feature styles found in both Eastern and Western design traditions, suggesting the intersections of cultures across the Roman Empire’s theatrical community.

Kastabala, also known as Hierapolis and Pyramus, is located near the Ceyhan River and enjoyed a deep and varied culture throughout the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, according to Arkeo News. Archaeologists excavating the ancient site over the years have previously dug up a sanctuary devoted to the deity Artemis Perasia (which inside featured the cult practice forcing priestesses to walk barefoot over hot coals), a temple dedicated to the Luwian goddess Kubaba dated to the sixth century B.C.E., a colonnaded boulevard that emphasizes to the city’s prominence, and a medieval fortress that showed the site’s use beyond the Roman Empire.

The History Blog wrote that the city was founded roughly 2,700 years ago in the Late Hittite period. Kastabala joined the Roman Empire’s province of Cappadocia, leading to the creation of the first-century theater.

Demir hopes they can add the theater to the list of intriguing ancient finds saved by modern archaeology. “By the end of this project,” he said, “we will be able to restore the stage building and hand it down to future generations.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/archaeologists-were-digging-near-ancient-133000506.html