This figurine was discovered at the neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. It was carefully buried beneath a platform in a house, along with a valuable piece of obsidian. Made of marble, it’s nearly 7 inches long. (credit: Çatalhöyük Research Project)
Nine thousand years ago in Turkey, a large settlement called Çatalhöyük thrived for over a millennium. Full of densely-packed mud brick houses covered in paintings and symbolic decorations, its population hovered around 5,000. That made it one of the biggest settlements of its era, somewhere between an outsized village and tiny city. Now, archaeologists excavating there have discovered a rare, intact statuette of a woman buried carefully with a valuable piece of obsidian.
Figurines resembling this one, with large breasts, belly, and buttocks, have been found throughout the Anatolian region. But this is one of the only intact examples ever found. At nearly seven inches long, it’s also one of the largest. Made of marble, it lay buried beneath the floor of a neolithic home for 8,000 years before its excavation this past summer.
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Artist’s reconstruction of the east and west mounds at Catalhoyuk. In the foreground, you can see the newer west mound, with the older east mound decaying in the background. The figurine was found in the east mound, from a layer that indicates it was late in the occupation period for the site.
Catalhoyuk Research Project
News of the discovery first broke in The Daily Sabah, and spread quickly through Turkish media. Few details were available, but Ars has confirmed the find with Stanford archaeologist Ian Hodder, who has led excavations at Çatalhöyük since the 1990s. He offered a complete description of the figurine, as well as thoughts about its context in both the ancient city and the Anatolian region in the 6th millennium BCE.
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Source: Ars Technica – Amazing, intact figurine unearthed at the neolithic city of Çatalhöyük in Turkey