Found 14 Years Ago By Chance: Mammoth Fossils At Samsun Museum

Opened in Samsun on March 13 by Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy and inspired by the waves of the Black Sea in its architecture, the Samsun Museum, which has an area of 15 thousand square meters, contains artifacts from the Hittite, Persian, Roman, Eastern Roman, Seljuk and Ottoman periods.

In the museum, where Amisos Ancient City finds and Amisos Mosaic, bronze athlete statue, jewelry and artifacts from the Hellenistic period are also included, mammoth (a kind of animal from the elephant family) fossils found by chance in an old mine in Ladik district 14 years ago were also started to be exhibited.

Uğur Akyüz, an archaeologist at the Samsun Museum, said that mammoth fossils were encountered in Samsun for the first time in the Black Sea Region.

Stating that there are teeth of mammoth and wild horse besides the fossils, Akyüz said, “The molars and upper jaw of the mammoth are found in an old coal enterprise in Ladik district. Other fossils found in the same place are wild horses. Paleontologists examined them and determined that the fossils are 1 to 2 million years old. We started to exhibit these fossils for the first time in our new museum building. The fossils show us that 1 or 2 million years ago, the seas started to recede, land was formed and land life began.”

Stating that a mammoth fossil has not yet been found elsewhere in the Black Sea Region, Akyüz said, “It does not mean that it will not be found, but at the moment there is only a mammoth fossil in Samsun Museum. It was delivered to us 10 years ago, but since the Samsun Museum was closed due to renovations, the new museum was expected to open. It was exhibited for the first time and opened to the exhibition.”