Animal skeletal remains recovered from the Harem (Concubine’s) Hospital and the black eunuchs’ ward at the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract

Animal skeletal remains were discovered in the entrance of the gasilhane (a place where the deceased were washed and prepared for burial) of the Harem (Concubine’s) Hospital and the Black Eunuchs’ ward during the renovations in the Harem of the Topkapı Palace (Istanbul, Turkey) in 2015. The bones/specimens found in the hospital (the Concubine’s hospital) were the post-consumption remains of the sheep (Ovis aries) and chicken (Gallus sp.) while the bones found in the Black Eunuchs’ ward belonged to sheep (Ovis aries), rats (Rattus sp.) and cat (Felis catus). These remains constitute the first zooarchaeological evidence of the meat products of the Ottoman Palace cuisine that appeared as sheep and chicken livestock purchases in the logbooks of the palace kitchen known as “Matbah-ı Amire“. The bones with extensive butchery marks revealed boiling process-related impressions and were considered the post-consumption leftovers found in the Gasilhane section of the Harem hospital, which had outside access only through the Meyyit gate.