An ancient monument to soul is found in TurkeyNov 19, 2008

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A group of archeologists from Chicago University working in South Anatolia (Turkey) discovered a gravestone with inscription to pray for the soul of the person buried in the grave. It happened on archeological digs in an ancient city of Samal (modern Zincirli).
New York Times and Lenta reports that scientists were mostly interested in the soul term as apart from the body.

Gravestone belonged to local official named Kuttamuwa. His name was Indian-European which is usual for Zincirli where some inscriptions in Luwian language were found. Luwian language does not exist anymore but it represented Anatolian branch of Indian-European languages. The inscription on the gravestone itself is made in archaic dialect of one of the Semitic languages: Aramaic language. Letters on the stele are a variation of Phoenician alphabet.

Kuttamuwa stele is dated VII BC, an era that followed after collapse of the Hittite Empire.  Numerous small states called Syrian-Hittite were situated in Southern Anatolia and Northern Syria. Samal (Zincirli) was a center of one of the states.

Semitic people lived to the south from Syrian-Hittite people andbelieved that soul and body could not be parted. Therefore, cremation of dead people was banned. Researchers from Chicago University state that they didn’t find any bone remains on the territory of Samal and this can be a proof that they burned the dead in the city. No matter if this hypotheses is true or not, Samal should be considered a place where several near-Eastern cultures were mixed.