12,000-Year-Old Carving Found in Turkey

News October 7, 2025

T-pillar carved with human face, Karahantepe, Turkey
Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism
SHARE:

ŞANLIURFA, TURKEY—A T-shaped pillar carved with a face on its upper section has been discovered in southeastern Turkey at the Neolithic site of Karahantepe, according to a Türkiye Today report. Similar pillars bearing stylized arms and hands have been found nearby at the site of Göbeklitepe. Researchers from the Stone Mounds Project suggest that the newly uncovered pillar, which bears deep-set eyes and a broad, flattened nose, supports the idea that such pillars served as architectural elements and early artworks depicting the human form some 12,000 years ago. For more on Karahantepe, go to "Discovering a New Neolithic World."

  • Features September/October 2025

    Spirit Cave Connection

    The world’s oldest mummified person is the ancestor of Nevada’s Northern Paiute people

    Read Article
    Howard Goldbaum/allaroundnevada.com
  • Features September/October 2025

    Here Comes the Sun

    On a small Danish island 5,000 years ago, farmers crafted tokens to bring the sun out of the shadows

    Read Article
    Courtesy the National Museum of Denmark
  • Features September/October 2025

    Myth of the Golden Dragon

    Eclectic artifacts from tombs in northeastern China tell the story of a little-known dynasty

    Read Article
    Photograph courtesy Liaoning Provincial Museum, Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and Chaoyang County Museum
  • Features September/October 2025

    Remote Sanctuary at the Crossroads of Empire

    Ancient Bactrians invented distinct ways to worship their gods 2,300 years ago in Tajikistan

    Read Article
    Excavations of the sanctuary in the village of Torbulok in southern
    Gunvor Lindström/Excavations supported by the German Research Foundation