14 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

4,000-Year-Old Lion Jaw Bone Unearthed in Kültepe

Excavations continue in Kültepe, the starting point of Anatolian written history. During the excavations, a 4,000-year-old lion jawbone was unearthed.

For the first time, a lion’s jawbone was found in Kültepe.

Prof. Dr. Fikri Kulakoğlu of Ankara University’s Faculty of Language, History-Geography, and Archeology Department said that in 2021, they discovered many animal bones and large storage logs in the basement of a large edifice in the region.

Providing information about the lion bone found in the Kültepe excavation site to journalists, Kulakoğlu said, “For the first time, a lion’s jawbone has been found in Kültepe.”

According to the news in Anadolu Agency (AA), Kulakoğlu said:

4,000-year-old lion jawbone Photo: Esma Küçükşahin – Anadolu Agency
4,000-year-old lion jawbone Photo: Esma Küçükşahin – Anadolu Agency

“During the excavations, we made this year, we found a group of bones of two lions, bears, mountain sheep, deer, and wild pigs in a trench. These bones were found in bulk. All of these animal bones belong to large, large, and wild animals. For the first time, we found two separate jawbones from two different lions, a very large bear, and bones from a large deer in this period in Anatolia. It is necessary to evaluate them as follows, these are the animals that we will accept to be raised in this region. Animals living around Erciyes or in mountainous areas or up to Sivas. There are no lion bones unearthed in other regions dating back 4,000 years. Of course, there are bones from several million years ago. But these are two of the earliest examples of human settlement. We date these bones to 4,000 years ago. These are wild animals, they must be hunted and brought to Kültepe..”

4,000-year-old lion jawbone
4,000-year-old lion jawbone. Photo: Anadolu Agency

Animal bones might be linked to mythos

Kulakoğlu stated that the animal bones discovered at Kültepe may be connected to a myth:

“There is a tablet found in Boğazköy, its name is the Anitta tablet. According to this tablet, the king named Anitta captured Nesha with his father, and they did not touch anyone. They even built palaces and temples. These bones were found in the area of ​​these temples and palaces. In the inscription allegedly written by this king, it is written that he went hunting. ‘I hunted and brought back more than 100 animals, including two lions, leopards, panthers, bears, deer, and wild animals.’ he writes. This is the area right next to the temple. Of course, we don’t think for sure that these bones are related to this story, but there is a high probability that they are. Because there are traces of injury among the animal bones we found, so these were brought by hunting. This must have a historical significance and a relationship with a subject in Kültepe..”

On the lion’s jawbone and bone finds of other animals, a member of the Kültepe Excavation Committee, zooarchaeologist Prof. Dr. Claudia Minniti does scientific studies.

Cover Photo:4,000-year-old lion jawbone Photo: Esma Küçükşahin – Anadolu Agency

Related Articles

Funerary urn depicting Maya corn god uncovered during Maya Train work

10 January 2024

10 January 2024

Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) conducting salvage work along section 7 of the Maya Train...

Where We Saw Sin, There Was Care: A Baby Buried in a Medieval Belgian Brothel

23 May 2025

23 May 2025

A medieval brothel in Belgium yields a discovery that forces historians to confront forgotten tenderness in places long seen only...

An Etruscan Home Discovered in Corsica “First-Of-Its-Kind Find for the Island”

11 July 2024

11 July 2024

Archaeologists have discovered the first Etruscan domestic structure, dating to the 6th to 4th centuries BC, off the east coast...

300-Year-Old Sacred Mummified Mermaid From Japan’s Mystery Solved

20 February 2023

20 February 2023

A mummified mermaid has been worshiped in Japan for centuries because locals believe it has healing powers. However, upon closer...

Ancient Roman Breakwater Discovered Underwater in Misenum: Sculptures and Architecture Reused to Tame the Sea

27 June 2025

27 June 2025

An underwater excavation off the coast of Bacoli, in southern Italy, has uncovered a remarkable Roman-era breakwater built from reused...

Excavations at a 4th millennium BC settlement uncover evidence for the emergence and rejection of the earliest state institutions in Iraq

6 December 2024

6 December 2024

New excavations of the 4th-millennium B.C settlement at the archaeological site of Shakhi Kora, located in the Iraqi Kurdistan region...

Human remains found at prison sewer site are 4,500 years old in East Yorkshire

26 March 2024

26 March 2024

Archaeologists investigating the site of a new sewer to serve a jail being built at Full Sutton in East Yorkshire,...

Archaeologists identify a sunken Nabataean temple dedicated to the God Dusares at Pozzuoli

12 April 2023

12 April 2023

Off the coast of Pozzuoli on the Phlegrean Peninsula in Campania, Italy, underwater archaeologists have identified a sunken Nabataeans temple...

The excavation, which started in a cave in Turkey’s Mardin, turned into a huge underground city

19 April 2022

19 April 2022

In an underground city known used as a settlement in the early Christian era, in the Midyat district of Mardin,...

HS2 archaeologists discover Romanization of Iron Age village in Britain

12 January 2022

12 January 2022

Archaeologists have uncovered a vast Roman trading town on Britain’s HS2 high-speed rail route. Evidence found during a dig of...

Roman-era Mixers and Millstones Made with Geology in Mind

22 September 2021

22 September 2021

A study on stone tools from an outpost of the Roman Empire has found that for ancient bakers and millers,...

Archaeologists discovered the secret ingredient that made Mayan plaster durable

20 April 2023

20 April 2023

Ancient Mayan masons had their own secrets for making lime plasters, mortars, and plasters, which they used to build their...

Burial Cave in Israel May Belong to Herodian Princess Salome: From Royal Tomb to Christian and Islamic Pilgrimage Site

6 July 2025

6 July 2025

A recently reexamined Second Temple-period burial cave in southern Israel—long revered as the resting place of a Christian saint—may actually...

Archaeologists discovered a dragon made of mussel shells in in Inner Mongolia

26 August 2023

26 August 2023

Archaeologists discovered a dragon made of mussel shells earlier this week in Chifeng, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which...

A 42,000-year-old pendant found in northern Mongolia may be the earliest known phallic art

20 June 2023

20 June 2023

An international team of researchers has found a pendant in northern Mongolia that may be the earliest known example of...