A scene engraved in stone around 11,000 years ago depicts a human in a rather unexpected position facing a predator.
The sculpture was recently unearthed at Karahantepe, in southeastern Turkey, near Şanlıurfa. About 70 cm high, it depicts a person sitting on the back of a leopard. Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced its discovery on August 25, 2026, following excavations carried out at the site this year.
An 11,000-year-old sculpture depicting a person riding a leopard.
The place where it was discovered contributes to its significance. Archaeologists found it on a bench running along the wall of a structure about 3 m in diameter. The floor of this small structure was covered with flat stones. According to the ministry, the object was still in the place where it had been left thousands of years ago.
To understand its age, we must go back to the beginnings of the Neolithic, long before the first cities and writing. Karahantepe belongs to a group of prehistoric sites in the Şanlıurfa region. The famous Göbekli Tepe is located in the same region. These sites have yielded numerous stone buildings and representations of humans or wild animals.
The new sculpture stands out above all for the position of the two figures. Humans and felines had already been associated in the region’s prehistoric art. At Karahantepe, another well-known work even depicts a person carrying a leopard on their back. Here, the arrangement is reversed: the human is above the animal.
The leopard was not an ordinary animal for the people of that era. This large predator lived in the region and appears in several Neolithic works. At Sayburç, another nearby site, a previously discovered sculpted scene notably depicts a man and two leopards. The repeated appearance of this feline indicates that it held a special place in the representations of these communities.
The question remains of what the new scene means. No text can provide the answer, since these populations did not yet have writing. Archaeologist Jens Notroff, of the German Archaeological Institute, suggests a possible association with strength, courage, or mastery over a dangerous animal. He did not take part in the excavations and presents these ideas as interpretations, not certainties.
This caution matters all the more because the announced age remains approximate. Specialists interviewed after the discovery point out that its dating will need to be better documented in scientific publications. Excavations at Karahantepe, which began in 2019, are continuing. The sculpture’s precise context and the next objects found in this structure could help explain why this person was depicted on a leopard.