Archaeologists working at Turkey’s Karahan Tepe monumental complex report the discovery of a limestone sculpture showing a human figure riding a leopard. The figure is described as being about 70 centimeters tall and was found inside a small stone structure, placed on a bench against a wall. Sources date the sculpture to roughly 11,000 years ago, placing it in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic era.
The find adds to an emerging set of images from the same site. Coverage notes that earlier excavations at Karahan Tepe have already uncovered additional leopard-related imagery, including several statues of humans carrying leopards on their backs, along with animal reliefs and other three-dimensional depictions. Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, is cited as saying the object was recovered during the 2026 field season. Some outlets characterize the statue as especially unusual or rare, while others focus on what the broader iconography may suggest about early ritual or social ideas.
