The crab, leaf and bone fossils that mining engineer Süleyman Burkay found and protected while the travertine blocks were being cut in Denizli attracted the attention of the French. Scientists from different universities in France examined and recorded the fossils and numbered them.
Süleyman Burkay, who established his own factory 6 years ago after working as a mining engineer in travertine quarries in Denizli for 20 years, is waiting while the travertine blocks are being cut. Burkay, who keeps the crab, leaf and bone fossils found in the cut travertine blocks in his warehouse, has nearly 30 fossils in his hands. The fossils that Burkay took under protection also attracted the attention of scientists from France.
Scientists who came to the factory and examined them gave numbers to the fossils and recorded them. Mining Engineer Burkay, who explained that they cut and resized the travertine blocks extracted from Ballık Boğazı Mevkii within the borders of Kaklık District of Honaz district, drew attention to the fact that they cut nearly 15 thousand tons of travertine per year.
‘We have encountered fossils of millions of years’
Stating that millions of years must pass for the formation of a fossil, Süleyman Burkay said, “I have been working as a mining engineer in the quarries since 2003. After working as an engineer for 20 years, I rented the factory in 2017 and started to deal with stones within my own body. We’ve found some fossils in the stones we’ve cut since then. We collected and stored the stones you found in our own structure. Since I have worked as a mining engineer before, I can understand the importance of such fossils.
We have encountered fossils millions of years old. We saw more crab and animal bone fragments. For these bone fragments, 2-3 lecturers from France came and checked and gave numbers to some of them. They recorded it and left to find out what it was. I will continue to hide them,” he said.
Explaining that he was waiting for the travertine blocks while he was being cut, and that he managed to collect the fossils with the attention of the workers and his own attention, Burkay added that he sent 15 of the fossils he collected to the fossil museum in Afyon to be exhibited, and that if a museum about fossils was established in Denizli, he could donate the fossils he took under protection to the museum.
