A Cat Skeleton from the Balatlar Church Excavation, Sinop, Turkey

Abstract

In the 2015 excavation season, an east–west oriented burial (2015-Grave-14) built with large dimension stone blocks was unearthed on the south edge of “Area IVi” at the Balatlar Church in Sinop, on the northeastern Black Sea coast of Turkey. In this grave, which is dated between the end of the 6th century AD and the first half of the 7th century AD, a human skeleton was found with the head to the west and a cat skeleton was carefully placed next to the right femur. This study on the burial and the cat skeleton within it shows that, compared to the Roman period, the status of cats reached a higher level during the Byzantine period. It was found that alongside of being a pet, the Balatlar cat was a young healthy female individual that instinctively hunted rodents and birds, given that the remains of a rat and a sparrow were found in the region of the abdominal cavity, corresponding with the stomach location in the living animal. The grave presents the most significant direct archaeological evidence of a pet–human bond recorded at any Byzantine site so far.

Stray cats: Pets or pests? Cats and kittens everywhere in the medieval harbour site of Qalhāt (Oman)

“…These cat bones were found more or less mixed in with many meal leftovers, mainly comprised of caprines (sheep/goat), chicken and fish. There were also many black rat remains ( Rattus rattus ) in this house; this species was probably hunted and consumed by cats, a conclusion suggested by the gastric contents of an individual found in Egypt (Driesch von den & Boessneck, 1983) and in Turkey (Onar et al, 2021).…”

“…It is certain that these were attracted by a consistent food source that the Qalhātis settlements provided. Thus, it could seem that cats depended more on local garbage for food than on prey like rats (vermin) or birds (Brickner‐Braun et al, 2007; Hamilton‐Dyer, 2013; Onar et al, 2021). As we can currently see in various ports of the Peninsula (e.g., Oman, Bahrain, Kervran pers.…”

A dietary perspective of cat-human interactions in two medieval harbors in Iran and Oman revealed through stable isotope analysis

“…The dietary differences between cats from Siraf and Qalhât indicate either differences in the availability of marine resources and/or distinct living conditions, induced by the specific feeding opportunities offered in the anthropogenic space of the two sites. A dietary reconstruction of domestic cats from various sites and periods could shed more light on how humans and cats interacted, thereby creating both unique bonds and mutual dependencies 121 , 122 that resulted in cats being one of the most popular pets in the world today 118 .…”