ONGOING excavations around the historic Hisar Mosque, close to the Apollo Temple, have unearthed a skeleton and other artifacts.

The excavations are being headed by the German Archaeological Institute in conjunction with the Miletus Museum and Izmir University, and will continue through to October.

Last August, researchers directed their efforts in three locations including a dilapidated small Christian chapel to the south of the Temple, in which a floor of Hellenistic or Roman origin was unearthed and the excavation under the present road upon the line followed by the Sacred Road

This year’s excavation, the latest in a long 107-year study by German archaeologists, have concentrated at the bottom end of the Apollo Temple as well as around the Hisar Mosque, the former Christian chapel.

Directorate of Miletus Museum, with responsibility for Didim, Nuri Aktakka, said work had begun on August 4, and would be extended to take in the Priene area as well.

In one of the first results of the digs, a skeleton was found during excavations of the Hisar Mosque garden. The mosque was originally a church before it was converted to a mosque.

Four years ago, the archaeologists were studying the potential that a second temple was located in the vicinity: one potentially for Artemis, – the twin of Apollon.