In 2025, ongoing digs at the UNESCO World Heritage Site revealed a discovery that scholars are calling one of the most important archaeological finds of the past century. Among the artifacts uncovered are a 4,500-year-old gold ring-shaped brooch, a rare jade stone, and a bronze pin, all dating back to the Early Bronze Age (around 2,500 BCE), El.kz reports citing Arkeonews.

Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, emphasized the significance of the find, describing it as “among the most important discoveries of the last 100 years.” The artifacts were unearthed as part of the Ministry’s “Heritage for the Future” project, which focuses on preserving and expanding the cultural legacy of Anatolia.

The centerpiece of the discovery is a remarkably well-preserved gold brooch, known as a ring-shaped brooch, used in antiquity as both a functional item and a symbol of social power and prestige. Typological studies suggest that this piece is the best-preserved example of its kind, with only two other known parallels existing in the world. Its survival over millennia places it among the rarest treasures of early human civilization.

The brooch was discovered in the stratigraphic layers of Troy II, a settlement phase long debated by archaeologists regarding its exact dating. Until now, scholars argued whether Troy II began around 2300–2200 BCE or earlier. The brooch conclusively dates this cultural horizon to circa 2500 BCE, resolving decades of chronological uncertainty and providing a fixed point for the city’s Bronze Age timeline.

Equally intriguing is the discovery of a jade stone—an object almost never found in Troy’s archaeological record. Jade was a precious material in the ancient world, often associated with elite status, ornamentation, and ritual use. The piece uncovered in Troy may have been intended as a gemstone for a ring or pendant, highlighting the city’s role in early long-distance trade networks and the consumption of luxury goods.

The jade find sheds light on the sophistication of Troy’s inhabitants and their connections to broader cultural and economic systems in the Early Bronze Age. It stands as a rare testament to how Trojans incorporated exotic and valuable materials into their daily and ceremonial lives.