Hurriyet Daily News – Turkey
Jan 3 2010

Syriac monastery dated back to 4,000 years

Sunday, January 3, 2010
Hurriyet Daily- news wire / Jan 3rd 2010

A recent lab analysis revealed that the Dayrulzaferan monastery, three
kilometers of the east slope of southeastern Mardin city, has a long
history dating back nearly 4,000 years, reported Radikal daily.

In an analysis conducted by Anatolia University on samples of bones,
soil and stones taken from the Sun Temple showed that the monastery is
approximately 3,830 years old. The result has been updated in
International Science Literature.

The monastery is founded over the ancient Sun Temple that probably
dates back to the days when Mardin was first inhabited.

According to Assistant Professor Niyazi Meriç, an academic from the
Engineering Department at Anadolu University, the luminescence method
was used to discover the age of the monastery during the work at
Luminescence Resources Laboratory.

The Lab previously calculated the age of fault lines along Pamukkale
Hierapolis Ancient City near the southwestern city of Denizli.

In a response to the Turkish Historical Society, the Luminescence
Resources Laboratory also worked on a cemetery sample, believed to be
an Armenian mass cemetery, in Kuru village near the Nusaybin district
of Mardin city. The lab work revealed that these cemeteries were
cemeteries of families dating back to 257 and 597 B.C.

According to written historical sources, the Dayrulzafaran monastery
used to serve as centre for the Syriac Patriarch between the years
1293 to 1932. It has been serving the Syriac monastery since 5th
century A.D. The monastery is still standing near the ancient ruins of
Dara city over the main road connecting central Mardin to the Nusaybin
district.