Artifact of Inevitability
A Glance through the Glass
Some museum displays present the past honestly: bones, skulls, fragments of amphorae. And then there are those where history becomes a mirage. In the Aksaray Museum, under glass, lies a small mummy. Tourists call it the “Yoda Mummy” — because it looks far too much like the Jedi Master from a galaxy far, far away. The ears are elongated, the head tiny, the gaze strangely inhuman. Nearby lie other bodies, adults and children, and even cats, turned into waxy shadows of their once-purring selves. You look through the glass — and you don’t know whether you’re in 11th-century Byzantium or inside George Lucas’ imagination.
Matter and Myth
Archaeologists discovered these mummies in the surroundings of Cappadocia — in the Ihlara Valley and the church of Çanlı Kilise. They date back to the 9th–11th centuries, when Byzantines and Turks lived in this land. The exhibition contains 13 mummies in total: ten adults, three children, and a cat. Their preservation owes itself to the dry climate, wax coating, textile wrappings, and a particular tradition of mummification used by local Christians. Science says: these are children and adults who died more than a thousand years ago. But myth interferes: one of these mummies looks far too much like a character invented only in the 20th century. Coincidence becomes a portal — into history, into cinema, into our imagination.
Eye of the Past
If we allow ourselves fantasy, the biography of the “Yoda Mummy” might look like this: he did not die on Dagobah. He descended to Earth, settled in Cappadocia, among underground cities and fairy chimneys. His cat lived beside him — a tiny guardian of domestic warmth. Children thought of him as a friend, elders as a counselor, and peasants shared bread and olives with him.
In this mythical version, Yoda armed Trajan’s legionaries with lightsabers, but remained in the caves to resist invasions and preserve the breath of silence. His friends — the people whose mummies now lie beside him — became a small team of forgotten guardians. His cat too was mummified, as if to symbolize that even everyday tenderness can outlast centuries.
Legacy in Dust
What does this artifact tell us? That the boundary between history and fiction is always blurred. The tourist sees Yoda — the archaeologist sees a child. But both are right: one encounters a cultural archetype, the other a material trace of the past. The mummy becomes a mirror, reflecting not only a dead body but also our desire to revive it, to weave new stories into it. Even the cat, lying preserved for a thousand years, reminds us that we want our companions to stay close — even if only inside a display case.
How Did We Get Here?
The Aksaray Museum is located in the center of the city of the same name in Turkey. Its collection spans from the Stone Age through antiquity and Byzantium. Yet it is the mummies from Ihlara and Çanlı Kilise that became its greatest sensation. To see the “Yoda Mummy,” all you need is to walk into the Byzantine artifacts hall — and in a glass coffin you’ll find a small body that has been silent for a thousand years, yet still speaks to your imagination.
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