A transport infrastructure project in Turkey has uncovered a significant find. Archaeologists now believe that Istanbul's Old City is much older than previously thought.

The Marmaray project is upgrading about 76 kilometers of commuter rail.

It will do this by connecting both sides of the Istanbul - or Bosphorus - Strait through a railway tunnel underneath.

Yasar Anilir is the Archaeologist responsible for the Yenikapi digging area. He explains that a settlement dating back 8,000 years was found in the area containing an urn of the ashes of a cremation.

He says it is considered to be evidence of the first settlement in the area.

Researchers have also linked the findings to the remains of a Neolithic site in southern Anatolia, which was excavated in the 1960s.

The similarity between the sites suggests that settlers in the Anatolian plains migrated to Istanbul's shores some 8,000 years ago.

The urns are a first in Anatolian history, which proves human tribes lived in Istanbul before the reigns of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.