Discovery site of statue of Kybele in danger of demolition

A Turkish site where a 2,100-year-old statue of Kybele was once unearthed is now in danger of being dynamited by a quarry dig.

Kurul Castle in the Turkish Black Sea port city of Ordu is close to the construction of an andesite quarry. The dynamite used to quarry also damages or even destroys historic sepulchers--or rock tombs in the area. further threatening the remaining areas, including Kurul Castle, Turkish daily Hurriyet reports. Local environmentalists are speaking up:

"We don’t know who to complain to, or what to do. Every day, those responsible for the stone quarry destroy the historic castle’s foothills with dynamite. We are anxiously waiting to see if the castle will crumble."

In 2016, excavations revealed an ancient marble mother goddess sculpture of Kybele in Kurul Castle, one of the first archaeological digs in the region. Kybele, sometimes referred to Cybele in Hellenic and Roman writings after her worship spread west across the Mediterranean, is an Anatolian mother Goddess thought to have been revered by the Phrygians: a civilization which inhabited central Turkey not far from the Black Sea.

Dominant in the region from circa 1200 BCE to 700 BCE, the Phrygian civilization has many ties to ancient Western mythology. The famous King Midas, whose touch was able to turn ordinary objects to gold, was said to have been a Phrygian king. Other notable mythological figures include King Gordias, the man who created the Gordian Knot that Alexander the Great so famously unraveled; while in the Iliad, the Phrygians were said to have been allies of the Trojans, coming to their aid during the Trojan War.

I am quite sure the statue has since been removed from the site, but it was only discovered in 2016. Who knows what else hasn't been discovered yet in the area that is now being destroyed.