2 December 2023 The Future is the Product of the Past

1000-year-old Cats and Babies mummies of Turkey’s

Cat, baby, and adult mummies in Aksaray, which took its place in history as Cappadocia’s gateway to the west on the Silk Road, fascinate its visitors in the museum where they are exhibited.

Aksaray history begins with the establishment of the first village settlement of Central Anatolia in Aşıklı Höyük, 11 thousand years ago.

Aksaray and its surroundings were inhabited in the Neolithic period, in the Chalcolithic age, see when life continued uninterruptedly. After that remained under the Hittite, Persian, Hellenistic Period (Alexander the Great), Roman, and Byzantine domination.

Since Christianity, which began to spread in Anatolia by St. Paul and his disciples in the 1st century A.C., caused a great reaction from the polytheistic Roman proponents, the first Christians began to settle in safer places for protection. Also, many clergymen who wanted to cloister preferred Aksaray and its surroundings. In this period, alongside the construction of a large number of underground cities within the borders of Güzelyurt and Gülağaç, the steep slopes in the valleys were carved and in-rock churches and dwellings were built.

Mummy of a baby displayed at the Aksaray Museum, in Aksaray, Turkey. (IHA Photo)
Mummy of a baby displayed at the Aksaray Museum, in Aksaray, Turkey. (IHA Photo)

Because of the expeditions of Muslim Arabs to Istanbul over Anatolia starting from the ends of the 7th century, Christians took refuge in Ihlara and Manastır Valley surrounding.

At the Aksaray Museum, which houses Turkey’s first and only mummy section, there stands on display a total of 13 mummies, consisting of cats, babies, and adult humans from the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries unearthed in excavations in and around Aksaray.

These mummies on display were found during excavations in churches in the Ihlara valley. Some of the mummies were found in the churches built about a thousand years ago in Çanlı Church.

Aksaray Museum Director Yusuf Altın provided information on the mummies, which are preserved in showcases with special heating and cooling systems.

“With 13 mummies in our Aksaray Museum, we are the only museum in Turkey with a mummy section,” Altın said. “There is one mummy in each of the Amasya and Niğde Museums, but our museum has the only section exhibited in this way … in our country.”

“The mummies in our museum were found as a result of the excavations in the churches in Ihlara Valley. Some of our mummies were found in the churches built about a thousand years ago in Çanlı Church,” he stated.

A mummy of a cat displayed at the Aksaray Museum, in Aksaray, Turkey. (IHA Photo)
A mummy of a cat displayed at the Aksaray Museum, in Aksaray, Turkey. (IHA Photo)

Altın pointed out that the embalming technique in Turkey was different compared to Egypt.

“Of these mummies, the baby mummy is very technical work in itself. Because the mummification technique in our country is different from the mummification technique in Egypt. In this technique, after the person dies, the internal organs of the corpse are removed, the wax is melted and the corpse is covered with a layer of glaze. Then it is covered with fabric and shroud. It is buried in the ground in this way and the corpse remains preserved for centuries after it dries. We bring our mummies from these excavations to our museum and exhibit them. In particular, we also exhibit the embroideries of necklaces, booties, and shrouds on them.”

Yusuf stated that a cat loved by its owner was also preserved with the mummification technique and that a cat mummy was found during the excavation efforts.

“We have another mummy, the cat mummy, which especially attracts the attention of our children. Our cat mummy was covered with wax and preserved, probably because it was loved by its owner. So, we have been displaying it in our museum,” he said.

“All of our mummies are from the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries. So, they are almost a thousand years old.”

Related Articles

8,200-year-old lacquerware found in China

9 July 2021

9 July 2021

Archaeologists in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province have identified two items of lacquerware at the Jingtoushan ruins, the oldest ever found...

Hundreds of skeletons found on Welsh beach

4 July 2021

4 July 2021

Archaeologists found the burial site of women and children just below the surface of the sand dunes on Whitesands Bay...

Archaeologists have discovered a large-sized 4,000-Year-Old steppe pyramid of the Bronze Age in Kazakhstan

10 August 2023

10 August 2023

Archaeologists of L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University discovered a massive Bronze Age steppe pyramid associated with a horse cult...

Researchers find the earliest record of aurora in old Chinese documents

15 April 2022

15 April 2022

Researchers have found the oldest known reference to a candidate aurora in a celestial event, described in an ancient Chinese...

The 2800-year-old Urartians Lake, which is an engineering masterpiece of its time, is drying

13 July 2023

13 July 2023

Keşiş Lake in Van, in eastern Turkey, which was built by the Urartu King Rusa 2,800 years ago, was negatively...

The DNA of 4000-years-old hazelnut shells found in Kültepe

11 November 2023

11 November 2023

Excavations conducted ten years ago at the archaeological site of Kültepe Kanesh Karum, which dates back 6,000 years and is...

Authorities in New York have been accused by leading academics of repatriating fake Roman artifacts to Lebanon

19 November 2023

19 November 2023

Leading academics from France and the United Kingdom have accused New York authorities of returning fake Roman artifacts to Lebanon....

A Gold Mourning Ring Found on The Isle of Man

21 April 2021

21 April 2021

The ring found with a metal detector on the Isle of Man in December 2020 will be exhibited in the...

A rare medieval Christogram Tattoo from Ghazali, Sudan

22 October 2023

22 October 2023

A Polish-Sudanese research team investigating the medieval African monastery of Ghazali discovered a rare medieval religious tattoo in a tomb...

An 8500-year-old wooden ladder remain was discovered at Çatalhöyük

12 April 2022

12 April 2022

Remains of the wooden ladder were discovered for the first time in Çatalhöyük, one of the best-preserved Neolithic settlements in...

A 12.000 -year-old temple was found during excavations in Boncuklu Tarla in southeastern Turkey

21 October 2021

21 October 2021

A temple thought to be 12 thousand years old was unearthed in Boncuklu Tarla in the Ilısu Neighborhood of Dargeçit...

1500-year-old Amulet Made to Ward off the Evil Eye in Galilee

26 May 2021

26 May 2021

Discovered about 40 years ago in the Galilee village of Arbel, the necklace sheds light on life 1500 years ago....

Amateur makes ‘Gold Find of the Century’ in Norway

7 September 2023

7 September 2023

A Norwegian 51-year-old Erlend Bore out walking on doctors’ advice unearthed rare 6th-century gold jewellery using a newly bought metal...

A courtesan ‘hetaira’ tomb was discovered in a burial cave during excavations in Via Hebron

27 September 2023

27 September 2023

During excavations in the Via Hebron in Jerusalem, a burial cave containing the tomb of a courtesan (hetaira in Ancient...

Iron Age comb found made from human skull in UK

2 March 2023

2 March 2023

Researchers from the London Archaeological Museum (MOLA) determined that an Iron Age comb they found during an archaeological dig that...