Ancient carvings depicting five figures, including a man holding his penis, tell a tale of man and beast in the world’s oldest tale.
A 10,000-year-old stone slab on a wall unearthed in Turkey shows two males and three animals engaging in separate but related “scenes.”
The etchings depict a story of two men being attacked by animals, both operating in a sort of self-defense position against leopard and bull attacks.
The discovery was made by archaeologists from Istanbul University, who uncovered the ominous story in the ruins of a Neolithic building found beneath a modern village.
Not only is this the oldest of its kind, but the study notes that the carvings “reflect the complex relationship between humans, the natural world, and the animal life that surrounded them during the transition to a sedentary lifestyle.”
The carvings depict two men, one holding his genitals with leopards on each side
The archaeologist Dr. Eylem Özdoğan of Istanbul University said in a statement: “These figures, engraved together to represent a narrative, are the first known examples of such a holistic scene.
“This was a picture of the stories that formed the ideology of the people of that time.”
Archaeologists have been working in the Turkish village of Sayburç since 2021, removing layers of earth to reveal ancient Neolithic mysteries.
This work uncovered two community buildings and a number of residential buildings spaced about 70 meters apart.
Archaeologists believe the image shows the man defending himself by protecting his genitals
The leopard’s mouths are open, teeth showing, and long tails curled towards the body
The excavations revealed that the site dates back to the Neolithic period in the 9th millennium BC. was inhabited.
‘During this period there was an important transition when people switched from a mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture and lived in long-term settlements like Sayburç,’ the researchers said.
The wall with the narration was found in one of the community buildings, which is 36 feet in diameter and carved into the limestone cliff, with stone walls resting on a bench rising from the ground.
The images are etched on the inside of the bench, forming a two foot high panel that spans 12 feet.
“The direction and posture of the figures imply that there are two related scenes. While the other figures face each other, only the male figure – in high relief – looks out into the room and stares within,” reads the study, published in Antiquity magazine
“This human protagonist holds her phallus in her right hand.”
The wall with the narration was found in one of the community buildings
The narrative was sculpted along a wall inside the building along a bench
The other male figure is shown in a crouching position, with his back turned to the other, holding a snake in one hand with six fingers. A bull is carved to have exaggerated horns like a leopard’s teeth
The figure has been damaged over time, but researchers said it was a male figure between two leopards, ready to pounce.
The leopard’s mouths are open, teeth showing, and long tails curled towards the body.
The other male figure is shown in a crouching position, with his back turned to the other, holding a snake in one hand with six fingers.
A bull is a feature in this scene, carved to have exaggerated horns like the leopard’s teeth.
This distorted perspective is comparable to that found at other prehistoric sites and must have been deliberately chosen to emphasize the horns, which, like the teeth of the leopards in the previous scene, are exaggerated,” the researchers write in the study.
“Archaeological evidence can provide some insight into the traditions of past societies, but clearer evidence is rarely preserved, so this discovery is exciting. Sayburç has very clear evidence on this and the potential to tell us a lot about the Neolithic period,” concluded Dr. Özdogan.