Ancient Neolithic Statue Shows Human Sitting on a Leopard at Karahantepe

Archaeologists at Karahantepe in southeastern Türkiye have uncovered a ~70 cm tall, 11,000-year-old statue of a human seated on the back of a leopard. Found in 2026 on a stone bench inside a small, stone-floored structure, this piece adds a new variation to the site’s human-animal imagery, where leopards are common but usually depicted differently. The exact meaning remains uncertain pending further publication, underscoring the Neolithic community’s complex relationship with predators and the role of narrative stone art at Karahantepe.