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Figurines over 8,000 years old representing man, woman and child unearthed in Aegean Turkiye

October 5, 2023 at 7:49 pm

A view of sunset in Izmir, Turkiye on August 10, 2022. [Lokman İlhan – Anadolu Agency]

In Turkiye’s Aegean province of Izmir, figurines dating back to around 5700 BC, believed to represent a male-female pair and child have recently been unearthed, said the scientists responsible for the find, Anadolu Agency reports.

Ozlem Cevik, an archaeologist at Trakya University in north-western Turkiye, who heads the dig team, told Anadolu that they have been continuing excavations at the Ulucak Mound in Izmir’s Kemalpasa district, which has a history dating back some 8,500 years.

Saying that they came across significant findings in this year’s excavations, she explained that “the figurines were found in a space we thought was a storage area and are dated to around 5700 BC. They appear to be a female and male pair, with the female “holding a baby in her lap”.

She added: “Their hat-like headgear is quite different from the figurines found in Ulucak, so far, and has no known equivalents in Anatolia.”

Cevik said the figurines were made of baked clay and clay materials.

READ: Previously unknown language discovered at ancient site in Turkiye