TAYINAT, TURKEY—The International Business Times reports that archaeologists have unearthed a large fragment of an Iron Age statue in eastern Turkey. Discovered near the gate to the citadel of the Neo-Hittite capital of Kunulua, the statue depicts a woman with curls in her hair, and would have once stood between 13 and 16 feet high. The team, led by University of Toronto archaeologist Timothy Harrison, believes that the monument dates to the early ninth century B.C. and probably was erected to honor an important noblewoman. “The discovery of this statue raises the possibility that women played a more prominent role in the political and religious lives of these early Iron Age communities than the existing historical record might suggest,” says Harrison. The team's recovery of smaller fragments of the statue might allow it to reconstruct the face, which could aid in the identification of the woman it depicts. To read more about artifacts from this period, go to “Artifact: Iron Age Figurines.”
