As per a report published in the journal Antiquity, a burial mound in northern Syria may be the world’s oldest known war memorial.
- The site, known as the White Monument, in the town of Tal Banat had previously been thought to be an ancient mass grave of enemy fighters. But the new report suggests it was a memorial for the community’s battle dead from the 3rd millennium BC.
- The systematic placement of the dead suggests the mound was likely to be a memorial to a state army that had used chariots in battle, says scientist associated with the study.
- The site was excavated in the 1980s and 1990s. The area was submerged in 1999 by the construction of the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates river, and hasn’t been investigated since.
