‘Unlike anything seen before’: Archaeologists unearth a unique, 11,000-year-old statue of a person riding a leopard from one of the world’s earliest settlements

Archaeologists working at a Stone Age site in Turkey have discovered a unique depiction of a person sitting on the back of a leopard. The 11,000-year-old statue may reflect the culture’s fascination with virility and masculinity, experts say.

The statue was unearthed this summer at Karahan Tepe (also written as Karahantepe), a Neolithic site in southern Turkey, according to an Aug. 25 translated statement from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.