🐢 About 25 limestone turtle figurines (largest ~30cm) at Gedikkaya Cave in Turkey, dated 14,500–11,200 BCE, were found deliberately placed in stone arrangements. Many were left unfinished, suggesting ritual deposits rather than decoration. Prof. Denise Şah led the 2026 investigation, drawing parallels with tortoise rituals at Hilazon Tachtit.
25 turtle figurines found in Turkish cave suggest 14,500-year-old sanctuary
Key facts
- Gedikkaya Cave, İnhisar district, Bilecik province, northwestern Turkey
- Investigation during the 2026 season, led by Prof. Denise Şah of Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University
- Around 25 small turtle figurines recovered; the largest is about 30 cm long
- Most carved from local limestone; a few still retain a clay coating
- Many were shaped quickly and left only partly finished, suggesting they were never meant to be admired as decoration
- Several found pushed upright into earth around circular or curved arrangements of stone, interpreted as deliberate deposits
- Radiocarbon dating places surrounding layers in the Epipalaeolithic, roughly 14,500-11,200 BCE
- Earlier work around 20 m inside the cave found natural niches packed with deliberately grouped animal remains and tools (vertebrae, horns, a raptor's claw) and tortoise shell fragments
- Deeper inside, prehistoric people arranged two curved rows of chosen stones around a large natural stalagmite, with a stylized human figure and other bone/stone objects beside it, interpreted as an offering pit
- Comparisons drawn with Hilazon Tachtit cave in Israel (Natufian tortoise burial and feast) and Manot Cave in Israel (engraved boulder resembling a tortoise shell dated to as early as 37,000 years ago)
- Hypothesis that the hill of Gedikkaya itself resembled a turtle, with figurines representing miniature landscape models tied into a single belief system
Site mentioned
📍 Gedikkaya Cave🌍 Show on the globe
Sources
globaltimes.cn
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info.zcu.cz
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