The discovery
In October 2025, excavators at Karahan Tepe announced a T-shaped pillar, roughly 1.4 metres tall and about 11,000 years old, carved with a clear human face — a prominent nose, deep-set eyes, and a sharp, angular jaw. It is the first time a human face has been found carved onto one of the region's signature T-pillars.
Why it matters
Archaeologists have long suspected the T-pillars were abstract human figures — many carry arms, hands and belts. This face turns suspicion into something close to proof. As dig leader Necmi Karul put it, the pillar gives clear evidence that T-shaped pillars symbolised humans.
Karul links the rising number of human sculptures at Karahan to settled life itself: as people began living together in one place, they seem to have made more and more images of themselves. The face on the pillar is that shift, carved in stone.