The archaeologists in Cologne, Germany, announced that they had found ‘the oldest library of Germany’ dated to the 2nd century BC. Experts from the Roman-German Museum in the city reached the library during the foundation excavation for a new Protestant church building.
Dr. Dirk Schmitz explained that the library was hosting 20,000 parchment scrolls. Schmitz defined the discovery as a great event. It is stated that the size of the library building was 20 meters x 9 meters, including two floors.
Director of the Roman-German Museum Marcus Trier said: “At first we thought we found residences of a public gathering place, but the walls are unusually thick and big,”
They were sure that they have found the remains of a library, after intensive research and ancient structures, similar to the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey.
Archaeologist Dr. Schmitz said “It took a while for us to discover the parallelism. We saw that the interior niches were very narrow for statues. These are unique niches for libraries, you can see the same in the library in Ephesus”.
There were also niches and boxes of 20 thousand parchments and papyrus hiding in the remains. There are frequent antique remains in Cologne, which has a history of 2,000 years along the Rhine River.
Cologne is the only German city that goes up to the second century BC. Cologne, with its original name “Colonia”, is known for its large Gothic cathedral in the city.
The library building will be part of a new Protestant church which will be open to public visits. Other remains of the library will be subjected to archaeological examinations.
