You never know what might be hiding beneath your lawn.
On an ordinary morning in 2020, in the foothills of the eastern Taurus Mountains in Turkey, a prehistoric human settlement brimming with ancient secrets was unveiled in the village of Sayburç.
The strange T-shaped stones they used to build the walls of their gardens turned out to be columns representing abstract human shapes.
These are structures closely linked to hunter-gatherer societies that preceded the agricultural era, as these columns were carved about 11 thousand years ago.
After specialists from the nearby Sanliurfa Museum identified it, excavations began the following year, and discoveries have continued at an accelerated pace since then.
As of 2026, some 70 Neolithic structures have been uncovered at Cyborg, a compact mix of dwellings and communal buildings where ancient humans lived and died.
Evidence including stone basins and grinding tools suggests they were processing grain, and perhaps also making beer, in one of the oldest known villages.
However, no discovery has excited the imagination as much as the one that emerged from the early excavations at the site: five figures carved on a stone bench inside one of the settlement's five communal buildings.
From left to right, a bull with huge horns is shown pointing towards a man who appears to be in a squatting position.
The man raises his six-fingered left hand, while his right hand holds something.
But the other man to his right is the most striking, as he is the only one carved in a relief style, and is distinguished by bulging eyes and thick lips that look towards the room, as if their owner does not care that there are two huge tigers on either side of him, with curled tails and sharp teeth protruding, just a few inches away from him.
Together, these finds represent the oldest known lithograph depiction of a narrative “scene,” Elem Ozdogan, an archaeologist at Istanbul University and head of the excavation team at the site, explained in a 2022 paper published in the academic journal Antiquity.
Other Neolithic sites in the vicinity of Şanlıurfa Province, known as "Taş-Tebiler" (meaning "stone mounds"), have similar architectural techniques and visual symbols, but none of them have examples of this horizontal style displaying a sequential and interconnected story.
Speaking with CNN correspondent Erica Hill, Ozdogan said: “If you look at the region, and specifically at the Gobekli Tepe and Karahantepe sites, you will find that all these characters appear as independent elements. But here, they appear in an interconnected context. They are elements of one story.”
Plot holes
But the actual story this scene tells remains a mystery until now. This does not mean the absence of theories. In recent years, Ozdogan has collected a large number of explanations, both from specialists and amateurs.
Some interpreted the scene as a dramatic depiction of human-animal encounters, while others considered the scene to depict a “rite of transition,” in which individuals encounter large animals as part of a ritual to join a group or as a test of maturity.
Explanations have also been proposed linking the scene to the concepts of fertility and continuity, as the male in the middle of the two tigers holds a prominent erect penis with his right hand, which has led some contemporary researchers to read the scene as a story dating back to before the era of agriculture, centered around survival and masculinity.
As Cyborg's principal researcher, Ozdogan doesn't have one hypothesis in particular. Although she welcomes diverse interpretations, she does not care much about arriving at the exact plot of the story.
She explained: “For me as an archaeologist, what matters to me is how these stories performed their function for them. Knowing the true story itself, however, is not important to me.”
For Özdogan, the importance that these bas-reliefs had for the community that carved them arouses a lot of curiosity.
The archaeologist reported that these inscriptions represent the collective memory and values of a people who were making their way towards settling into a more sedentary lifestyle, and were displayed in a public place for all to see.
Bones and belts
Other discoveries continued at the "Sayborg" site, as the Neolithic remains remained in an almost intact and complete condition, despite being subjected to some damage during the subsequent Roman settlement period, as well as as a result of the establishment of a modern village in the mid-twentieth century.
The relationship of the early settlers to the site with death has also been a constant source of interest. Excavations have revealed that the dead were often buried inside dwellings, and sometimes under the floors, according to precise arrangements, indicating that the deceased were still considered part of the family.
Last year, a carved statuette was found that most likely depicted a deceased person, with its mouth appearing to be closed or tightly sewn shut.
In some sites, animal bones were mixed with human bones.
When this practice is placed in the context of recurring images of birds of prey (eating on carrion) in the Taş Tepilar region, this leads some to propose the hypothesis that these burials were part of an intentional practice known as “excarnation,” in which the body of the deceased was offered to birds of prey, as part of a funerary ritual known as “celestial burial.”
Columns were another source of mystery, particularly the T-shaped structures scattered around and within the Neolithic dwellings at the Saiborg site.
Because these stones often contain carvings of arms and belts, they have been interpreted as personifying humans, and may have been treated as if they were human beings.
In one of the distinctive buildings in the middle of the village, there is a column bearing an engraving of a human face at its base.
Because this column faces a large cavity in the wall, and is surrounded by other columns bearing carvings of a leopard and a pig, Ozdogan believes that the design of the room was intentional, even if the exact story behind it remains a mystery.
She explained: “We notice that public art here is more prominent compared to other areas. This indicates their desire to show their traditions in a visual way.”
She added: "Since they were cultures that relied on oral heritage, it was impossible to transmit customs and traditions through writing, so they passed them on through words and stories. This may have helped them remember stories and what they needed to know, and pass them on to new generations."
To ensure these stories continue to be told, Ozdogan is currently involved in a plan to turn the Cyborg site into an open-air museum.
