People keep calling the new site in Turkey a 'lost city' and it's not right

I keep seeing news articles about the 2021 dig at Karahantepe in Turkey. They all call it a 'lost city' found in the hills. That's wrong. It's not a city, it's a ritual site from about 11,000 years ago, older than Gobekli Tepe. Calling it a city makes people think of houses and streets, but it's mostly T-shaped pillars and carved animal heads in round buildings. I read the lead archaeologist's report, and he said it was likely a special place for ceremonies, not where people lived every day. This mix-up matters because it changes how regular people understand what life was like back then. Has anyone else noticed this trend of calling every big find a 'lost city' just because it sounds better?

4 comments

4 Comments

parker_hall523d ago

Hang on, think about this from the news side for a second. Calling it a "lost city" sells way more clicks and ads than "ritual complex near Gobekli Tepe." That's the whole reason they do it. People scroll past "archaeological site" but stop dead at "lost city" because it sounds like a movie. So the real problem isn't just lazy reporters, it's the whole system that rewards them for making everything sound like Indiana Jones. Once you see that, you can't blame them for playing the game even if it waters down the truth.

juliaa653mo ago

Totally agree about the "lost city" label being wrong. I was just reading an article that called it a "metropolis" which is even worse (like, come on). It makes you picture a whole busy town, but like you said, it's those round rooms with the big stone animals. @the_faith has a point about the Roman "supermarket" thing too. It's the same kind of lazy word choice. They did it with that place in Jordan a few years back, calling a big temple complex a "city" when it was clearly mostly for pilgrims. Once that picture gets in your head from the news, it's hard to fix it later.

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sandra_moore303mo ago

Tell me about it. Once they plant that wrong idea, it just lives in your head rent free.

the_faith3mo ago

Yeah, the "lost city" thing is everywhere. It reminds me of when they kept calling that old Roman dig in England a "supermarket" just because they found a bunch of shops in a row. It just sticks in your head wrong and you can't unsee it.

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