türkçe links to original Turkish article
(Hürriyet Newspaper, 17 June 2020)
One fat-cat's healthy remains of the Byzantine day.
In the course of the construction of the Marmaray and Metro subway
stations from 2004 to 2014 at Yenikapı in Istanbul, in addition to
finding many Byzantine works, the remains and skeletons of cats
were found and sent to the Veterinary Faculty of İstanbul University-
Cerrahpaşa (İÜC) for examination.
IÜC osteoarchaeology expert Prof. Dr. Vedat Onar said that the cats'
remains provide information about life in Istanbul during the
Byzantine period. He explained that, contrary to the dismal fate of
cats living in Europe at that time, the cats of 'Constantinople' fared
quite well and he noted that he had found no pathologic indications
in the cats' remains and skeletons.
Dr. Altan Armutak, the head of İÜC's Veterinary Faculty's History
and Deontology Department, stated that around the year 1000 A.D.
"the Pope issued a decree declarıng that cats were injurious animals
in league with the devil as his representatives on Earth. As a result,
in Europe in those days cats were put into sacks and beaten or hung
from tree branches and burned. The resulting cats' screams were
supposedly the sound of the devil running away. Consequently,
without any cats left in Europe, rats multiplied and caused the
plagues that swept through the continent from 1300 to 1500."
OK, take a break but then go get those rats!
Dr. Armutak added that at that same time Byzantium experienced
the effects of Islam, which was expanding from its south, and he
pointed out that the Prophet Muhammed had a cat named 'Müezza':
"this love for cats came from the Prophet Muhammed and was
adopted by Arab culture. Byzantine traders who went to the south
noticed that cats were living in peoples' houses, were loved and
kept the rats under control. This prompted Byzantium to act
differently towards cats than Europe."
"One of the most telling indications of this is the state of the cat
skeletons we found in the subway excavation, which told us that
cats were well-cared for in the homes and shops of Byzantium,
contrary to the situation in Europe. This was the result of Islamic
culture's impact on 'Constantinople', where there were no rat-
generated plague epidemics that lasted months and years because
cats were nurtured rather than demonized."
Yenikapı is on the Sea of Marmara coast in Istanbul's Fatih
district.
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