During excavations at the ancient city of Ani in eastern Kars province, a stone tub was found in a large bath dating back to the Seljuk period. In one of his works, the Turkish scholar and poet Kadı Burhaneddin-i Anevi from Ani mentioned the bath as his birthplace. Thus, the tub is considered to be the place where water birth was performed for the first time in history.
Archaeological excavations bring historical riches to light in Ani, which is located on the Türkiye-Armenia border and is described as a "world city" and "cradle of civilizations" because it has hosted many civilizations.
In Ani, which was included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 2016, scientists from 20 universities, art historians and students are participating in the excavations, headed by Muhammet Arslan of Kafkas University Faculty Member.
At the ongoing studies in Ani this year, a stone tub was unearthed in the Seljuk-era bath, where the Turkish scientist and poet Burhaneddin-i Anevi points as his birthplace in his work.
Excavation Head Arslan told Anadolu Agency (AA) that they are continuing their work in the 4th term of the 2022 season.
Noting that the recent excavations are carried out in five points in Ani, he continued: "Excavations in the bath, which we started to unearth for the first time in the working season of 2020 while it was mostly buried underground, are now nearing the completion stage. Kadı Burhaneddin-i Anevi describes his life in the preface of his work 'Enisü'l-Kulub,' the only copy of which is in the Süleymaniye Library today, and states that he was born in 1143 in the great bath in Ani. According to the author, his father, Mesud, had five daughters, respectively, and then his mother became pregnant with Kadı Burhaneddin. The birth process of his mother was very painful and he was born in 1143-44 in the great bath in Ani with the advice of a physician.' Key phrases such as 'physician advice' and 'hammam' in the birth process of Kadi Burhaneddin show us that water birth was practiced here."
Arslan stated that they have been looking for the existence of such a stone tub during the excavations in this bath since 2019, adding that they finally found a stone tub during their work this year.
Talking about the examples of water birth described in history, Arslan informed: "Although it is stated that there are scenes related to water birth in Egyptian hieroglyphs, the scenes in question include normal birth scenes, not water birth. The claims that Egyptian pharaohs were born by water birth method cannot go beyond legends. It is known that the first water birth in the world took place in France in 1803. However, both the information about the birth of Kadı Burhaneddin and the stone bathtub we uncovered during our excavations reveal that one of the first examples of water birth in the world was practiced in Anatolia in the 12th century. At the same time, this practice is very important in terms of showing the level that Turkish culture and civilization and Turkish medicine reached in the 12th century."
According to Arslan, the stone bathtub has a rectangular base with a length of 1.93 meters (6.3 feet), a width of 1.40 meters and a depth of 50 centimeters (1.6 feet).
