11,000-year-old sculpture of human seated on leopard found on a stone bench at Karahantepe in Türkiye reveals unique Neolithic art
Archaeologists in southeastern Turkey have uncovered a striking stone figure dating to about 11,000 years ago, depicting a human seated on a leopard. The 70‑cm high sculpture was recovered from a stone bench that lines the wall of a small circular building at the Neolithic site of Karahantepe.
The pose is unusual for the period; no comparable motifs have been recorded at the site before. Its placement on a bench rather than in a pit suggests a deliberate display, perhaps linked to ritual or symbolic functions within the community.
The find adds to a growing body of evidence that early settled groups in the region possessed sophisticated artistic and architectural traditions long before the rise of cities. Together with other large structures and artworks from Karahantepe, the sculpture hints at complex social and ceremonial practices.
While the exact meaning remains elusive, scholars such as Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister, note that the piece could open new questions about the symbolic world of the world’s earliest agricultural societies.