Possible Burial Place of St. Nicholas Uncovered in Turkey

Archaeologists in southern Turkey have just uncovered the original burial place of Father Christmas himself, formally known as St. Nicholas, but whose modern nicknames of Santa Claus, Saint Nick and Kris Kringle are known by children the world over.

While researchers already knew that the saint’s body was buried in the fourth century A.D. church in Turkey’s Antalya province, the holy man’s remains were stolen around 700 years after he died, so the specific spot where he was originally interred was a mystery.

Now, clues gathered during a new excavation of this church, including the ecclesiastical building’s similarity to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the placement of a fresco depicting Jesus, hint at exactly where St. Nick’s body was likely laid to rest.

Located on Turkey’s southern coast, the modern town of Demre boasts the Church of St. Nicholas, built in A.D. 520 on top of an older church where the Christian saint served as bishop in the fourth century A.D. Then known as Myra, the small town was a popular Christian pilgrimage spot following St. Nicholas’ death and burial there in A.D. 343.

Very little is known about Nicholas’s life, but legends abound — he is said to have rescued three girls from prostitution, to have chopped down a demon-possessed tree, to have resurrected three murdered children who were pickled in brine, and to have gotten into a fist-fight during the First Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, according to Britannica(opens in new tab). And, of course, Nicholas was said to have frequently given away his inherited wealth anonymously to the poor, eventually leading to the legend of St. Nick as Santa Claus.

Unfortunately, in A.D. 1087, “some wise and illustrious men of Bari [Italy]… discussed together how they might take away from the city of Myra… the body of the most blessed confessor of Christ, Nicholas,” according to a contemporaneous manuscript translated from Latin by late medievalist Charles W. Jones.

Their plan was to “break open the floor of the church and carry away the holy corpse.” The group succeeded, carting off most of the skeletal remains of St. Nicholas, and leaving just a few bones and a broken sarcophagus in Myra.

In spite of this desecration, the church of St. Nicholas in Demre itself has survived for more than a millennium, with archaeological excavation beginning at the end of the 20th century.

Through this work, researchers discovered the foundations of the earliest church, covered by many feet of sand and silt. Last week, Osman Eravşar, chairman of the Antalya Cultural Heritage Preservation Regional Board, announced the discovery of the location of St. Nicholas’s tomb at the base of a fresco of Jesus.

In an interview(opens in new tab) with the Turkish news organization DHA (Demirören Haber Ajansı), Eravşar noted that the current excavations have revealed “the floor on which St. Nicholas’s feet stepped” from the original church.

“This is an extremely important discovery, the first find from that period,” DHA’s English coverage quoted Eravşar as saying.

The original burial place of St. Nicholas has also been found, according to Eravşar. When the Bari contingent removed the saint’s bones in the 11th century, they also shoved some sarcophagi aside, obscuring their original location. Eravşar told DHA that “his sarcophagus must have been placed in a special place, and that is the part with three apses covered with a dome.

There we have discovered the fresco depicting the scene where Jesus is holding a Bible in his left hand and making the sign of blessing with his right hand.” A marble floor tile with the Greek words for “as grace” could mark his exact grave.

Supporting that hypothesis is the shape of the church itself. Just as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has an unfinished dome on top, so does the Church of St. Nicholas at Myra.

When it was restored by Emperor Alexander II of Russia in the 1860s, the dome was never completed. This unfinished dome may have been a purposeful attempt to link St. Nicholas with the story of Jesus’s crucifixion and ascension into the sky.

“It’s not unusual for churches to be built atop one another,” William Caraher, an archaeologist at the University of North Dakota with a speciality in early Christian architecture, who was not involved in the excavation, told Live Science in an email. “In fact, the presence of an earlier church on a site has been a reason to build a church since Early Christian and Byzantine times.” 

But Caraher thinks that the marble floor tile with Greek letters could be from some other context, reused possibly in antiquity because of the common word “charis” (grace) etched into it.

Caraher noted that St. Nicholas is significant in Orthodox and Catholic traditions, with churches and chapels dedicated to him throughout the Mediterranean. “I think many people — from eager kiddos on Christmas Eve to world-weary science reporters and grizzled archaeologists — have at some point in their lives hoped to get a little glimpse of the real St. Nick,” Caraher said.

An 8,500-year-old human skeleton and musical instrument were found in the garden of the apartment

An approximately 8,500-year-old human skeleton and a three-hole musical instrument were found during an excavation in the garden of an apartment in the Bahçelievler District of Bilecik.

This place, which is likely to be one of the first points of human settlements in Western Anatolia, was discovered for the first time when a resident of Bilecik reported some ceramic pieces found here to the Archeology Museum.

As a result of two years of work, 11 human skeletons estimated to be 8,500 years old and musical instruments with three holes from the same period were found in the garden of the apartment.

Archaeologists also found grains such as lentils, barley and vetch, as well as varieties of wheat used to make bread and pasta.

Stating that this year’s most important find is a three-hole wind instrument, Fidan added: “We also found religious objects such as ornamented boxes made of terracotta, human-shaped amulets and animal figures during the excavations. In addition, a skull we found in the courtyard gives us information about the religious life of that period.”

Fidan said, “We think that this musical instrument, which has 3 holes, is a part of a musical instrument that makes sounds and changes sound notes. He also stated that the tool can be used thanks to an appliqué mouthpiece attached to this piece.

The head of the excavation, Assoc. ErkanFidan said, “The human skeletons found in the excavation area belong to the oldest adolescent people in the Neolithic Age in Western Anatolia.”

Fidan stated that “the human communities that came here 9 thousand years ago and stayed here for about a thousand years, unearthed the first villages.” In addition, Fidan said that people living in the region who know how to do agriculture also domesticated animals.

Fidan also noted that they found other human skeletons in the excavation area and that these skeletons were examined in detail at the Hacettepe University Anthropology Department Laboratory.

He also stated that they aim to learn a lot about these people in the near future, about their age, gender, illness and the food they eat.

The finds found in the excavation will be exhibited in the Bilecik Archeology Museum after the restoration and research works are completed.

13,000-year-old buildings discovered in Mardin

The ongoing excavations in the southeastern province of Mardin have uncovered the remains of several buildings, which feature many beads with various depictions engraved on them dating back 13,000 years.

“There are structures dated much older in the world called pre-neolithic temporary shelters,” said archaeologist Ergül Kodaş, who leads the excavation works. “However, some structures unearthed in Boncuklu Tarla [Beaded Field] site in Mardin date back 13,000 years, and they are among the first examples of permanent villages.”

The site is one of the rare settlements which gives information about the entire early Neolithic period, according to Kodaş.

The archaeologist also pointed out that some structures unearthed at the site are 1,000 years older than Göbeklitepe, which is known as the oldest temple in the world.

Göbeklitepe, declared an official UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018, was discovered in 1963 by researchers from the universities of Istanbul and Chicago.

Various historical artefacts, including a 65-centimetre-long human statue dating back 12,000 years, have been discovered during the excavations.

“The remains of 12,000-year-old buildings that were built on top of each other from three different periods have been found during the excavations,” the expert noted.

She stated that the buildings were presumed to be temples, but it is not known what exactly they were used for.

“The buildings can be thought of as a communal living centre. What we know is that these are not residences, but we don’t know whether they were buildings used for gatherings on special occasions, for rest, for storage purposes, or if they were religious buildings.”

“It’s hard to call many of these buildings faith-centred, which is why we call them public buildings,” she added.

Stating that they encountered figures such as mountain goats, scorpions, bullhead, snakes and spider on the beads, Kodaş said these were used as pendants.

“They carved the bone and put bead stones on it,” she explained, adding that most of them belong to 8,000-9,000 B.C.

With the support of the Turkish Historical Society, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, Mardin Metropolitan Municipality, Dargeçit Municipality and the Dicle Development Agency (DİKA), excavations have been completed in a four-decare area of the site.

After the excavation works to be started in the new areas are completed, the region will be opened to tourism. Boncuklu Tarla was discovered in 2008 during a field survey. Its first excavations started in 2012.

Houses with quarry stone walls and stiffened clay floors from the Aceramic Neolithic Age, which date back to 10,000 B.C. and 7,000 B.C., were found during the excavations at the site in Dargeçit.

Along with thousands of beads used in ornaments, obsidian or flint blades, waste from ornament making and stone chipping tools were found at the site.

The tools include blades, gimlets, arrowheads and microliths.

Archaeologists find a 1,800-year-old military medal in Türkiye’s Perre

A 1,800-year-old military medal that was given to successful soldiers and troops in the Roman army has been unearthed in an ancient city in southeastern Türkiye, according to archaeologists.

During excavations this year, which has been periodically conducted since 2001, in the ancient city of Perre – one of the five largest cities of the ancient Kingdom of Commagene – in the Adıyaman province, archaeologists found the bronze military medal bearing the head of Medusa, a monster in the form of a woman with snakes for hair, the very sight of which would turn a person to stone.

Mehmet Alkan, director of the Adıyaman Museum, told reporters that excavations continue in the area with mosaics and in the section called the “infinity ladder.”

“The medal with a Medusa head appears as an award given to a soldier for his success,” he explained.

“As it is known, a bronze military diploma, which was given to a Roman soldier named Calcilius Antiquus after he served in different legions of the empire for 20 years, during the reign of Roman Emperor Hadrian, was unearthed in 2021.

This diploma was very important in terms of showing that Roman retired soldiers were placed in the city of Perre during the Roman Empire period,” Alkan said.

“The bronze phalera and the iron sword unearthed during the 2022 excavations are finds that support this thesis. Military phaleras, which have examples made of gold, silver, bronze and sometimes glass, can be explained as a kind of medal given to soldiers and troops who were successful in the Roman army,” he explained.

“They can be attached to the breastplates of the soldiers and sometimes to the banners of the troops.

The head of Medusa was carved in relief on the bronze phalera unearthed in the ancient city of Perre. The head of Medusa also functions as a kind of apotropaic symbol, that is, as a protector.”