Archaeologists have unearthed a 7,000-year-old figurine that looks like an alien.
Researchers discovered the unusual form while digging at a site in Kuwait called Bahra 1.
They described the clay figure as a ‘small, finely crafted head, with slanted eyes, a flat nose and an elongated skull’.
It somewhat resembles an alien, or even the Sorting Hat from the Harry Potter franchise.
While it might look strange, this style was actually common in ancient Meopotamia, although this marks the first time one has been found in Kuwait or the Arabian Gulf.
The archaeologists who discovered it described the find as a ‘total surprise’.
‘[The] discovery of the figurine was a total surprise for the whole team,’ Agnieszka Szymczak, an expedition leader, told Live Science.
‘It was the first such find not just among the over 1.5k [1,500] small finds excavated from the Bahra 1 site but also from the Arabian Gulf region.’
Archaeologists have unearthed a 7,000-year-old figurine that looks like an alien
Researchers discovered the unusual form while digging at a site in Kuwait called Bahra 1
They described the clay figure as a ‘small, finely crafted head, with slanted eyes, a flat nose and an elongated skull’
The joint Kuwaiti-Polish team have been excavating one of the Arabian Peninsula’s oldest settlements, with occupation lasting from around 5500 to 4900 B.C.
The researchers say although the find is typical of figurines from the Neolithic Ubaid community, it is the first of its kind discovered in the Gulf region.
Professor Piotr Bieli*ski, of University of Warsaw’s Mediterranean Archaeology centre, said: ‘The presence of this figurine at our site raises intriguing questions about its purpose and the symbolic, and perhaps ritual, meaning it may have had for the community inhabiting this settlement.’
Another important discovery sees the confirmation of local production of pottery.
Since the beginning of the research at the Bahra 1 site, two types of vessels have been discovered.
This includes imported pottery associated with the Ubaid culture and completely different pottery, the so-called Coarse Red Ware (CRW), also known from other contemporary sites on the Arabian Peninsula.
CRW pottery has long been considered a local product, but until now there has been no evidence as to the specific places of its production.
The key discovery was the discovery of an unfired clay vessel, which helped confirm that Bahra 1 is the oldest known site of pottery production in the Gulf region.