Archaeologists excavating Türkiye’s Taş Tepeler region have uncovered a Neolithic bust from Sayburc with a mouth carved to appear stitched shut, likely a symbol of silence in death. Finds across Göbeklitepe, Sefertepe and Karahantepe — including a skull placed in a stone cavity — point to complex secondary burial rites and ritual treatment of the dead. Together, these discoveries illuminate early signs of social stratification and evolving community life about 12,000 years ago.
Neolithic Bust With Stitched Lips Unearthed in Türkiye’s Taş Tepeler — A Silent Symbol of Death
Scientists Found an Figure with Its Mouth StitchedBy Frantisek Trampota - This image has been extracted from another file, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=173132807
Echoes of some of the earliest settled communities in human history continue to surface across the Taş Tepeler region of southeastern Türkiye. The area — whose name means "Stone Hills" — has produced a rich array of Neolithic artifacts from sites such as Göbeklitepe, Karahantepe, Sefertepe and Sayburc, shedding light on ritual life and social change roughly 12,000 years ago.
Archaeologists who have been excavating Taş Tepeler for five years report finds that include obelisks, stelae, sculpted stone figures and the remains of settlements that document a shift from mobile hunter‑gatherer groups to more permanent communities as the landscape became more fertile.
A striking new discovery comes from Sayburc: a carved human bust showing what appear to be ribs and a mouth depicted as stitched closed. Researchers interpret the stitched mouth as a symbolic representation of silence in death — possibly the face of an ancestor or an element of funerary ritual whose precise meaning remains unclear.
"An impressive example of the aesthetic and expressive sculptural tradition of the Neolithic period," Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Türkiye's Minister of Culture and Tourism, told Türkiye Today. He added that the find opens an "opportunity to reassess prehistoric concepts of death beyond burials and skull traditions."
Knowledge of Neolithic funerary practices in the region has expanded recently. At Sefertepe, archaeologists uncovered a skull laid on its side inside a stone cavity, evidence that some skulls were set aside and possibly displayed before later burial steps. This supports the idea that secondary burial practices were used: bodies were left to decompose until only bones remained, with selective treatment or display of some remains prior to final interment.
It is not yet known whether the Sayburc bust with the stitched mouth is directly associated with these secondary-burial rites. Sefertepe has also yielded two carved human faces and a black serpentinite bead engraved with faces on both sides; stylistic differences in brow, nose and cheek treatment suggest local carving conventions distinct from other Taş Tepeler sites.
Elsewhere, a human figure embedded in a wall at Göbeklitepe — a site better known for its animal sculptures — may have been placed as an offering, underscoring the ritual complexity of these communities.
Social Change and Ritual Life
Finds across Taş Tepeler point to early signs of social stratification and household organization. After the last Ice Age, increasing fertility allowed groups to settle, grow crops and accumulate surplus food. That surplus appears to have created economic differences: those who produced more gained greater wealth and status, while others occupied lower social positions. Architectural evidence also shows that domestic and religious activities were often closely intertwined.
As excavations continue and more artifacts are documented, officials like Minister Ersoy believe Taş Tepeler could become a central locus for understanding Neolithic life — perhaps even "the Neolithic capital of the world." Whatever the final interpretation, the stitched‑lips bust and related discoveries add powerful new evidence about how early communities commemorated the dead and organized their societies.
