An 11,000-year-old statue of a human figure riding a leopard has been discovered in Turkey

Archaeologists in Turkey have uncovered a 11,000-year-old sculpture depicting a human figure riding a leopard, one of the oldest known examples of religious iconography in the ancient Near East. The artifact was discovered during excavations at Karahan Tepe, located in southeastern Turkey near the modern city of Şanlıurfa. According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the sculpture's unique style and depiction mark it as a significant find in understanding early human history and spiritual practices. The 70-centimeter-tall sculpture shows a human figure seated atop a leopard. It was found embedded in a stone platform extending along the wall of a three-meter-high structure. The ground beneath had been covered with flat stones. Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy described the discovery as groundbreaking, stating that it opens new questions about the earliest periods of human history. He noted the sculpture’s composition and artistic style were unlike anything previously documented. Elizabeth Carter, a professor of archaeology specializing in the Near East at the University of California, Los Angeles, emphasized the significance of the find. She stated that the sculpture comes from the Taş Tepeler region, which includes several early Neolithic sites near modern-day Urfa. While Göbekli Tepe is more famous than Karahan Tepe, she highlighted that this particular sculpture, showing a human on an animal, is unique. Although animal sculptures have been found before, none depict a human riding an animal in such an abstract form. Ergun Lafli, a professor of archaeology at Dokuz Eylul University in İzmir, stressed the importance of further dating research. He pointed out that both calibrated and uncalibrated dating methods used in scientific publications have yet to be fully presented and analyzed. The sculpture, carved from limestone typical of the Şanlıurfa area, appears to combine abstract human and leopard iconography. Lafli explained that the first similar sculpture was found at Karahan Tepe in 2021, depicting a large cat sitting on a man’s shoulders. This latest discovery is not just unique to northern Mesopotamia but also significant because it was unearthed in what seems to be a space designated for offerings. He called the sculpture one of the earliest pieces of evidence for religion and cult practices across the entire ancient Near East, linking it to the broader Neolithic world stretching from Spain in the west to Afghanistan in the east, including sites like Stonehenge in Britain. According to Lafli, the abstract nature of these representations in both Karahan Tepe and the neighboring Göbekli Tepe mirrors the stylized depictions found in Paleolithic cave paintings in continental Europe, such as those in Lascaux. This similarity suggests a shared cultural unity and common iconographic language among prehistoric societies, a concept that challenges current understandings of the ancient world before the advent of writing. The discovery continues to spark academic interest and ongoing research into the symbolic and ritualistic aspects of early human life.