Ancient Elephant Rises Anew
At the museum in Kahramanmaras, a special construction technique has been used to raise the skeleton of a Great Asian Elephant whose bones were found in the Gavur Lake Swamp and date to 1400 B.C. The missing bones were added in and no damage done to the existing onesduring the construction.
The most striking elements found in the displayroom of the Kahramanmaras Museum are two elephants, the smaller of which is displayed as it was found, in a glass case. The larger one, though,is being displayed upright, after the work done by the expert restorers of the Culture and Tourism Ministry.
In raising the Great Asian Elephant, known in Latin as 'Elephas Maximus Asurus', a 'first' in Turkey was achieved. The expert restorers, advised by specialists from MTA (Maden Tetkik Arama-Mine Investigation and Discovery) and the Italian Paleontology Institute, completed an elephant's skeleton with bones that are not its own. The original bones were restored without damage and the entire skeleton raised with the special construction system.
