The Urfa Man, also called the Balıklıgöl statue, is an ancient statue shaped like a human. It was discovered during excavations in Balıklıgöl, near Urfa, in the region of Upper Mesopotamia, which is in the southeast of modern-day Turkey. The statue is dated to about 9000 BC and belongs to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. It is considered the oldest naturalistic, life-sized sculpture of a human. The statue is from the same time period as the sites of Göbekli Tepe (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A/B) and Nevalı Çori (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B). It is part of the Taş Tepeler tradition, which includes large statues of men holding their erect phallus. The site where the statue was originally found, Yeni Mahalle, was carbon dated to 8600 BCE.
Discovery
The statue was discovered during construction work. The exact location of the find is not clearly recorded, but it might have come from the nearby Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site of Urfa Yeni-Yol. This site is close to other known Pre-Pottery Neolithic A sites near Urfa, such as Göbekli Tepe (about 10 kilometers away) and Gürcütepe. It is reported that the statue was found in 1993 on Yeni Yol street in Balıklıgöl, at the same place where the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Yeni Mahalle was studied from 1997.
The statue is almost 1.90 meters tall. Its eyes are deep holes containing pieces of black obsidian. It has a V-shaped collar or necklace. The hands are held together in front, covering the genitals. The statue is believed to be from about 9000 BC. It is often said to be the oldest statue ever found.
Context
Before the Urfa Man, many small statues from the Upper Paleolithic period are known, such as the Löwenmensch figurine (about 40,000 BC), the Venus of Dolní Věstonice (about 30,000 BC), the Venus of Willendorf (about 25,000 BC), and the realistic statue of a woman from Brassempouy (about 25,000 BC).
A little later than the Urfa Man, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C period in the Levant, statues of human figures were found, such as the 'Ain Ghazal Statues. In 2023, it was announced that archaeologists discovered a similar human statue at Karahan Tepe, which dates back to around 9,400 BC.
Gallery
- A different perspective of the statue
- Urfa man portrait, featuring obsidian stones in the eye sockets
- A close-up view of Urfa man