An approximately 11,000-year-old sculpture depicting a person sitting on a leopard has been unearthed at Karahantepe, a Neolithic site in southeastern Turkey, according to reporting by Archaeology Magazine and Yeni Şafak.
The sculpture stands about 28 inches tall. It was found on a bench built along the wall of a circular structure measuring roughly 10 feet in diameter, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said. The structure’s floor was paved with flat stones.
The discovery provides evidence of a sculptural representation combining a human figure with a leopard at the site. The supplied report does not identify the person depicted, explain the sculpture’s function, or offer an interpretation of why it was placed on the bench.
Karahantepe has been the focus of reporting on other recent archaeological finds, but the available account provides no additional details about those discoveries or about the excavation that uncovered this sculpture.
