Karahantepe Leopard Sculpture Discovery: 2026 Facts
✓ Last reviewed: 29 September 2026 — Verified and updated by İlyas Bayrak, licensed Turkish guide (licence 070867), with the My Turkey Adventure editorial team. Prices, opening hours, transport fares and visa rules reflect the latest 2026 guidance. Published 22 September 2026 · Archaeology news from Şanlıurfa, Türkiye In August 2026, Türkiye announced an extraordinary new find from Karahantepe: a stone sculpture showing a human figure seated on the back of a leopard. The approximately 70-centimetre object was recovered in situ on a bench inside a small, stone-paved circular structure during the 2026 excavation season. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism currently describes the sculpture as approximately 11,000 years old. If that estimate is confirmed by the full excavation record, the piece belongs to the early Neolithic world of the Taş Tepeler landscape — the same wider archaeological region as Göbekli Tepe. Image note: The header photograph shows the Karahantepe archaeological site for geographical context. It is not a photograph of the newly announced sculpture. What exactly was discovered? The new object is a composite stone sculpture: one carved composition combines a human and an animal. It shows the person above the leopard, apparently seated or riding on its back. The official announcement gives a height of about 70 centimetres. Archaeologists found it on a bench within a circular building around three metres in diameter. The floor was paved with stone, and the sculpture remained in its archaeological setting when identified. That context matters. An object recovered in place can reveal far more than an unprovenanced piece because researchers can study its relationship to the architecture, floor, bench and associated material. Verified facts about the 2026 Karahantepe sculpture Question What the available evidence says What does it show? A human figure seated on the back of a leopard How large is it? Approximately 70 cm tall How old is it? Approximately 11,