Archaeologists at Karahan Tepe in southeastern Turkey have uncovered an 11,000-year-old stone sculpture depicting a human sitting atop a leopard, officials announced.
The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the discovery on August 25. Ministry officials stated that the artistic style of the piece is distinct from any other artifact recovered from the region to date.
The newly discovered sculpture measures approximately 70 centimeters in height. Excavators found the figure sitting on a stone bench positioned alongside the wall of a circular stone building measuring roughly three meters in diameter. Flat stones covered the floor of the ancient structure.
Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, the Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism, highlighted the extraordinary nature of the find. Ersoy stated that the artifact raises new questions regarding the earliest phases of human history and cultural development.
Unique figure positioning
Archaeologists noted that the specific arrangement of the figures sets the sculpture apart from prior discoveries. Although human and animal figures have frequently been found across Stone Age sites in the region, researchers had never before encountered a work depicting a person seated on top of an animal.
Elizabeth Carter, a professor emerita of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), confirmed the rarity of the motif. Carter explained that while numerous animal carvings have been recorded at Karahan Tepe and neighboring settlements, she had no knowledge of any comparable scene.
The discovery has one notable precedent at the same site. In 2021, archaeologists at Karahan Tepe unearthed a sculpture featuring a human male and a large feline. However, that earlier find showed the reverse posture, with the animal resting on the shoulders of the human figure.
The exact symbolic meaning of the new carving remains under investigation. Jens Notroff, an archaeologist with the German Archaeological Institute, noted that leopards were common across the local environment during the Neolithic period. Because their strength and agility made them formidable targets for ancient hunters, Notroff suggested that a depiction of a human dominating a leopard likely symbolized power, strength, or physical bravery.
Ancient Stone Age settlement
Karahan Tepe is recognized as one of the oldest known human settlements, with construction at the site dating back to around 9750 BC. The location forms a key part of Taş Tepeler, a broader network of Neolithic archaeological sites across southeastern Turkey that includes the world-famous site of Göbekli Tepe.
The leopard sculpture adds to a growing list of significant artifacts recovered from Karahan Tepe in recent years. In 2023, excavation teams at the location discovered a massive human figure representing a man. Researchers acknowledge that the precise purpose of the newly found sculpture, as well as the full meaning of the scene, remains an unsolved mystery.
