3000-Year-Old 'Giantess' Statue Found in Turkey | Mysterious Universe
Archaeologists from the University of Toronto have unearthed a startling find. While excavating a site at Tell Tayinat, a fortress built by the Iron Age Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina, researchers discovered a massive 3000-year-old statue. While ancient statues are found at archaeological sites all the time, this statue stands out for who it depicts: a woman.
The statue would have been massive at the time of its creation. The researchers have recovered the face and the bust of the statue, but it was vandalized and mostly destroyed at some point in the past. Based on the size of the bust, archaeologists believe the statue would have stood between 4 and 5 meters tall (13 -16 feet). Researchers have found many fragments believed to have once been part of the statue’s face and hope to be able to piece them back together after they go through a 3D scanner.
Timothy Harrison, professor of Near & Middle Eastern civilizations at the University of Toronto and head of the Tayinat Archaeological Project, says the statue challenges some long-standing beliefs about the civilizations at the time:
The discovery of this statue raises the possibility that women played a more prominent role in the political and religious lives of these early Iron Age communities than the existing historical record might suggest.
At the time of its creation, such monuments were usually reserved for men, most of of whom were rulers or in other positions of power. The fact that such a statue was created for a woman, coupled with its impressive size, suggests that she could have been an important figure at Tayinat.
Full story and pics at site
Archaeologists from the University of Toronto have unearthed a startling find. While excavating a site at Tell Tayinat, a fortress built by the Iron Age Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina, researchers discovered a massive 3000-year-old statue. While ancient statues are found at archaeological sites all the time, this statue stands out for who it depicts: a woman.
The statue would have been massive at the time of its creation. The researchers have recovered the face and the bust of the statue, but it was vandalized and mostly destroyed at some point in the past. Based on the size of the bust, archaeologists believe the statue would have stood between 4 and 5 meters tall (13 -16 feet). Researchers have found many fragments believed to have once been part of the statue’s face and hope to be able to piece them back together after they go through a 3D scanner.
Timothy Harrison, professor of Near & Middle Eastern civilizations at the University of Toronto and head of the Tayinat Archaeological Project, says the statue challenges some long-standing beliefs about the civilizations at the time:
The discovery of this statue raises the possibility that women played a more prominent role in the political and religious lives of these early Iron Age communities than the existing historical record might suggest.
At the time of its creation, such monuments were usually reserved for men, most of of whom were rulers or in other positions of power. The fact that such a statue was created for a woman, coupled with its impressive size, suggests that she could have been an important figure at Tayinat.
Full story and pics at site
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