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| The Ottoman-site TV series “Muhteşem Yüzyıl” used Yarımburgaz Cave without permission while shooting. |
Used recently without permission as the set for one of the most watched TV series in Turkey, the Ottoman Empire-set “Muhteşem Yüzyıl” (Magnificent Century), the Yarımburgaz Cave, which dates back 15,000 years, came into the spotlight because of damage that was caused during the shooting of several episodes of the TV series.
According to a Radikal daily report on Sunday, two young archaeologists -- Yiğit Ozar and Berkay Dinçer -- who were watching episodes 43 and 44 of “Muhteşem Yüzyıl” realized that what they were seeing might be the Yarımburgaz Cave.
After they verified that the series was shot in the cave, they filed a complaint against the TV series.
Due to the complaint from the two archeologists, professionals from the İstanbul Archaeological Museum went to the cave to examine it and drafted a report based on their findings. The report was sent to the İstanbul Public Prosecutor's Office. Turkish Penal Code (TCK) Law 2863 stipulates a prison sentence of up to five years and fines equivalent to TL 5,000 per day for anyone who damages historical sites under protection.
The comedy series “Leyla ile Mecnun” is another TV series that used the Yarımburgaz Cave as a set for its episodes.
The Yarımburgaz Cave, located near İstanbul, is the oldest known evidence of human presence in Turkey. It is placed among the first-degree archeological sites and is on the List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection.
Noting that damaging historical sites is a crime, Dinçer told Radikal that a plan to protect the cave should be drawn up as soon as possible and added, “We cannot protect the cave using only metal bars.”
Source: Todays Zaman
About Yarimburgaz Cave
The data came from the archaeological excavations of the Cave of Yarimburgaz (near the city of Istanbul, northwestern Turkey), dated roughly 400 kyrs, obtained a well preserved statigraphy for a very long time in the middle of the Middle Pleistocene.
The excavations of the cave have yielded 1600 culturally Lower Paleolithic artifacts. There are no bifacials and levallois technique used flakes. The industry is generally characterized by small flakes with retouch. There are some chopper and chopping tools, but not so many. The tolls seems very primitive but they are very functional. No human remains found, but possible Homo erectus occupied the cave.
The faunal assemblage in the cave is mainly of bears that used the cave for hibernation. There are two co-extant bear species: Ursus deningeri (cave bear) and Ursus arctos (brown bear). Bear bones shows that all of the bears in the cave died from nonviolent reasons. The bones of the bears and other animals show no sign of human activity. This shows that the occupation of cave by human groups and other animals occurred in different times. Before the excavations of the cave, the distribution of the Middle Pleistocene cave bear (Ursus deningeri) did not contain eastern Balkans and Thrace. Yarimburgaz excavations showed that the cave bear existed in this region in the Middle Pleistocene.
Herbivores like Equus caballus, Equus hemionus (?), Capreolus aff. sussenbornensis, Dama sp., Cervus elaphus, Megalocero ssp., cf. Bos primigenius, Bison cf. priscus, Sus scrofa, Capra aff. aegagrus, Capra cf. ibex, Gazella sp. and pachyderm existed in the cave deposits. Herbivores are not very much in number. But it is interesting that they show a very high variation. Probable, those bones was carried to the cave by nonursid carnivores like Pantera (leo and possible pardus), Felis (caracal and sylvestris), Crocuta crocuta, Canis lupus, Vulpes spp., and Canis aureus (?). The investigation of small mamalian fauna from the cave showed that the cave sediments can be dated to a cold era in the Middle Pleistocene.
Additional resources:
- Cave Bears and Paleolithic Artifacts in Yarimburgaz Cave, Turkey: Dissecting a Palimpsest, Mary C. Stiner, Güven Arsebük, F. Clarck Howell, Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, Vol. 11, No 4, pp. 279-327 (1996)
- The Middle Pleistocene Lithic Assemblage from Yarimburgaz Cave, Turkey. Kuhn S. L. , Arsebük G. , Clark Howell F. Paléorient, Vol. 22, No 22-1, pp. 31-49 (1996)
- History of the Sedimentary Infilling of Yarimburgaz Cave, Turkey, Willam R. Farrand, Jill P. McMahon, Geoarcheology: An International Journal, Vol. 12, No. 6, 537-565 (1997)