Fishermen in southeastern Turkey made an unexpected part to history when they name on the face of it ancient carvings in the stone surrounding a reservoir of the Euphrates river . The remarkable artwork seem to depict a human figure with a bow and pointer hunt tusk animals , as well as several more abstract SHAPE .

According toa releaseby the Turkish news agency , the entire scene measures 8 meters ( 26 metrical foot ) farseeing and 70 cm ( 28 inches ) astray . The three human beings reportedly distinguish the carvings earlier this calendar month , after water level of theLake Ataturk Damdropped by about 10 to 15 meter ( 33 to 50 ) throughout the division within the Kahta district of Ad?yaman Province . ( Lake Ataturk Dam is the third - largest reservoir in the worldly concern . )

Realizing the likely importance of their find , they brought a video of it to archeologist at the nearby Ad?yaman Museum . After inspect the carvings , museum director Mehmet Alkan stated that he believes the drawings were created in the Paleolithic , the period that extended from 3.3 million year ago to about 11,500 old age ago .

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" There will be elaborate work from now on . If not identified before , then we will commence the registration process , ” he say , adding that submergence in the lake did " very little " damage to the carvings . Although go up water could cover them once more , expert plan to study the art as it is rather than taste to strike the slab of rock candy it is on .

Like many of the region surrounding the Euphrates – land that , together with the country surrounding the Nile river and its delta , form theFertile Crescent , aka the “ Cradle of Civilization ”   – Ad?yaman hasa plentiful human historydating back to the mid - palaeolithic . archeologic explorations in modernistic - daytime Turkey have revealed that ancient hominins start inhabiting the European - Asian state bridgeover 1   million twelvemonth ago . About 12,000 years ago , the resident tribes of migratory human beings began to swap into settled agricultural groups , thus forming some of the first complex societies .

Just across the Euphrates reservoir from the sculpture ’s placement liesGöbekli Tepe , a brow site believe to lay out the world ’s sometime temple . forgo Stonehenge by 6,000 twelvemonth , the arrangement of massive chip at stones is reckon to be 11,000 year old . As of now , about 20   round clusters comprise of around   200 pillars have been unearthed .

Other hotspots of antiquity in Ad?yaman includeMount Nemrut , a UNESCO world Heritage Site featuring declamatory Harlan Fisk Stone statues of animals and God , and the small town internet site of Gritille , Hayaz , Ancoz , and Samsat .