In the middle of this room there is some sort of a mummy, 6-7th century, found in a cave in the region. For the rest there are nice, but not particular items.

This mummy of a 17-years old girl came from the Manazan cave near Taşkale (c. 45 km East of Karaman). The spot is in fact a large number of rooms, connected with each other, cut out in a steep rock flank. One of the rooms is a large ‘arcasolium’ (graveyard rock chamber) with twenty niches.
The complex was probably a Byzantine fortified village, the ‘fortification’ being the fact, that the houses were not accessible without ladders (the same kind of defence can be seen in the rock dwelling complexes of the Ortahisar and Üçhisar citadels in Cappadocia).

The mummification process was naturally induced by environmental conditions. Several other mummified male and female body parts are kept in the museum’s depot. The dress found on the body gives us an idea about the textiles of the age; surprisingly, the stockings have the same motifs still used in the area today.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen
Sources: ‘Karaman Museum’ (Ilhan Temizsoy & M. Vehbi Uysal) - Personal visit to Manazan (2001)
& ‘Karaman (Tarihi ve Kültürü)’ (Ilhan Temizsoy & M. Vehbi Uysal) – Konya 1981.