The most important archaeological developments reported in Türkiye in September 2026 included several discoveries that significantly expanded knowledge of Anatolia's prehistoric and ancient past. At Çayönü Tepesi, archaeologists uncovered a roughly 9,000-year-old mining workshop with malachite, copper objects, and a stone-paved working area, offering rare evidence for the organization of early metal production. At Troy, excavations revealed a 2,800-year-old agora, while at Hattusa a newly identified cuneiform fragment was recognized as part of a surviving copy of the Kadesh Peace Treaty. At Aspendos, finds beneath Roman shops pushed the known settlement history of the site back to about 6,000 years ago, while excavations at Yassıtepe Höyük revealed further evidence for a fortified, planned settlement dating to roughly 5,000 years ago. Another major discovery came from a roughly 2,100-year-old shipwreck off Antalya, where thousands of ceramic vessels shed new light on ancient Mediterranean trade in tableware. Finally, research at Göbeklitepe produced evidence potentially relevant to the long-standing question of the site's human remains, while work at Liman Tepe and Maydos Kilisetepe added important evidence for sophisticated water management and defensive architecture in prehistoric western Anatolia.

August 2026 brought a remarkable range of archaeological discoveries and announcements from across Türkiye. Among the highlights were an approximately 11,000-year-old human-and-leopard sculpture from Karahantepe, Epipalaeolithic turtle figurines from Gedikkaya Hill and In Cave, a monumental marble statue from Sardis, new Roman-period discoveries at Aspendos, including a necropolis and a statue of Asklepios, and a large early 5th-century church with mosaics and frescoes at Antandros. Excavations also revealed a monumental Hittite structure at Sapinuwa, a Roman and Early Byzantine settlement at Salkaya, and evidence interpreted as the earliest known plague in Anatolia at İznik. Particularly noteworthy was a discovery in ancient Smyrna (modern İzmir), where excavations uncovered three Late Antique rooms with previously undocumented wall paintings, adding new evidence for the city's later Roman and early Byzantine history. Together, these discoveries illustrate the extraordinary chronological and cultural diversity of Türkiye's archaeological heritage, spanning more than 10,000 years from the Epipalaeolithic to the Byzantine period.