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In Turkiye, Ancient Carved Faces Shed New Light on Neolithic Society
New artifacts from Karahan Tepe reveal early social hierarchies and belief systems in Neolithic communities, part of Turkey's Stone Hills project describing a highly organized society.
At Karahan Tepe in southeastern Turkey, excavators uncovered a stone figurine with stitched lips, carved faces and a black serpentinite bead, shedding light on settlements from around 10,000 years ago.
After the last Ice Age, environmental shifts led to fertile conditions that supported population growth and permanent settlements, and Lee Clare said, 'Once people produced surplus, they got rich and poor.'
At Karahan Tepe, human-centred imagery appears in a T-shaped pillar with a human face and a statue, contrasting with animal symbolism at nearby Göbekli Tepe, with finds displayed at Karahan Tepe visitor centre.
The Stone Hills project, launched in 2020 across 12 sites in Şanlıurfa province, has diversified visitors beyond religious groups, with Yakup Bedlek noting it "mainly attracted religious tour groups" before.
Researchers say the expanding dataset allows comparative statistical analyses, transforming Neolithic understanding despite limits in identifying individual statues, Emre Guldogan and research teams say.