Gold necklace of great value from the province of Manisa (Magnesia), a province of western Turkey belonging to the Aegean Department, is repatriated to Turkey.

The necklace, from the Ancient Kingdom of Lydiawas officially handed over to Turkish officials in a ceremony at the Turkish consulate in Boston.

The necklace, about 20 centimeters long, is made with pomegranate-shaped carnelian beads, Hilal Demirel, Turkey’s cultural and publicity attache in New York, told Anadolu. It was stolen from Manisa and smuggled to the US in 1982.

It had been on display in a museum in Boston for many years.

Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said 20 historical artifacts have been returned to Turkey since the beginning of this year.

“We are bringing another historical artifact from Anatolia back to Turkey, bringing the total to 21,” Ersoy told X.

The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a statement that the necklace will be transferred to Turkey in the coming days.

The ministry added that the necklace, which has significant historical and cultural value for the region, dates to the 6th or 5th century BC.

What was the kingdom of Lydia?

Lydia (Assyrian: Luddu, Greek: Lydia, Turkish: Lidya, French: Lydie) was an ancient kingdom in western and central Asia Minor that today corresponds to three Turkish provinces: Usak Province, Manisa Province and Smyrna Province. Its inhabitants in ancient times were known as Lydians and the capital of the kingdom was Sardis. The starting point of the kingdom of Lydia is conventionally placed around 1200 BC. while a period of particular prosperity was that of the last century and a half of its existence. The kingdom was overthrown by the Achaemenid Empire in 546 BC and remained known as “Satrapia of Lydia” or “Spard”, it was conquered by the Roman Empire (133 BC) and became part of the Roman province of Asia. Coins began to be produced in Lydia around the 7th century BC. The Endonym “Sfard” appears in bilingual stone inscriptions that have survived from the Achaemenid period. The “Satrapy of Spard” in the Ancient Persian language was called “Spadra”, in the Aramaic language “Shaparda” and in the Akkadian language “Shapardu”.

These names are probably related to the toponym Sardis, the name of the capital founded by King Gyges in the 7th century BC. The territory of the Lydian kingdom during the 15th and 14th centuries BC. it was, at least in part, part of the Arzava kingdom, but the Lydian language is not usually classified in the Luvian subgroup, which includes Luvian, Caric, and Lycian. At the beginning of his reign (550 BC), Croesus saw to the construction of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus which soon became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Croesus was defeated in battle by the Persian king Cyrus the Great (546 BC), Lydia lost its autonomy and became a Persian Satrapia.