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A 12,000-year-old obelisk with a human face was found in Karahan Tepe

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Re: A 12,000-year-old obelisk with a human face was found in Karahan Tepe

#11

Post by AlotOfReading »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #5

Is that the oldest known carved megalithic stone statue of a person?

Keyword "megalith". We have older carved statues. We have older carved, stone statues. We have older, carved stone statues depicting people, as well as statues from this same site that are full body.

It's from basically the same period and culture as urfa man, but at a site that's been initially dated a few hundred years earlier and is generally understood to have been inhabited first. It's contemporaneous with the famous T-pillars at Gobekli Tepe. The important thing is that this is the first T-pillar discovered with a human face, aside from the one with just a human outline.

Re: A 12,000-year-old obelisk with a human face was found in Karahan Tepe

#12

Post by pavlov »

basfo wrote: post #9

Great find! and I don’t want to underestimate the discovery by any means, but... We humans are predisposed to see anthropomorphic shapes in things. I understand why that could be interpreted as a face, but at the same time, it could just be a random shape. It’s just a “T” shape. Sure, it could look like a nose and a pair of eyes, but it could also just be... something.

The translated article provides some backing to the claim that it's a face in a style that matches other finds in the area:

"The arm and hand reliefs on the T-shaped standing stones found in Göbeklitepe and its surroundings have long strengthened the idea that these stones symbolize humans. This new find, which was unearthed in Karahantepe, is described as a new turning point in Neolithic period research with the fact that the human face was carved on a T-shaped standing stone for the first time."

"With its sharp lines, deep eye sockets and blunt nose, it carries a style similar to the human statues found before in Karahantepe."

Re: A 12,000-year-old obelisk with a human face was found in Karahan Tepe

#14

Post by mikkupikku »

basfo wrote: post #9

Great find! and I don’t want to underestimate the discovery by any means, but... We humans are predisposed to see anthropomorphic shapes in things. I understand why that could be interpreted as a face, but at the same time, it could just be a random shape. It’s just a “T” shape. Sure, it could look like a nose and a pair of eyes, but it could also just be... something.

[dead]

Re: A 12,000-year-old obelisk with a human face was found in Karahan Tepe

#15

Post by infecto »

j-kent wrote: post #8

Can I just say that it is fantastic that they have included so many detailed pictures of the obelisk. How many times have you visited an article about a discovery only to have no pictures in the article.

My first exact same thoughts. Every time there is some interesting discovery it’s often with only a single photo or none and a huge wall of text. Pictures speak louder than words in this case.

I kept scrolling though multiple articles as they seem to have a format type for these types of articles where its numbers a small paragraph and a high quality photo. Simply love it.

Re: A 12,000-year-old obelisk with a human face was found in Karahan Tepe

#16

Post by AlotOfReading »

dooglius wrote: post #13

I wonder if it's possible to correct for the effects of time to see what it originally looked like

Archaeologists generally aren't that computer-savvy. I haven't seen any indications of paint residues on the pillars, but we know that many of the statues in these enclosures were also painted bright colors that would be missed by a digital reconstruction.

Re: A 12,000-year-old obelisk with a human face was found in Karahan Tepe

#17

Post by card_zero »

basfo wrote: post #9

Great find! and I don’t want to underestimate the discovery by any means, but... We humans are predisposed to see anthropomorphic shapes in things. I understand why that could be interpreted as a face, but at the same time, it could just be a random shape. It’s just a “T” shape. Sure, it could look like a nose and a pair of eyes, but it could also just be... something.

Other stuff at Karahan Tepe has faces on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karahan_Tepe

And you can look at similar things from the Taş Tepeler sites in general:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%C5%9F_Tepeler

The T-obelisk things, with their long skinny arms, do seem to represent figures. I wonder why they have to be that stupid oblong shape at all. Dual purpose as roof supports? Or just tradition, tradition causes wacky things. Looking around the various carvings from related sites, it's also evident that they were greatly interested in penises.

Re: A 12,000-year-old obelisk with a human face was found in Karahan Tepe

#19

Post by stronglikedan »

j-kent wrote: post #8

Can I just say that it is fantastic that they have included so many detailed pictures of the obelisk. How many times have you visited an article about a discovery only to have no pictures in the article.

I haven't opened the article yet, since I usually check the top comments to see if it's worth the click, but my first thought when clicking through to the comments was, "this damn article better have pictures for once".
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