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News Article :-
Archaeologists in Kuwait have discovered a 7,000-year-old alien-like clay statue thought to be the first of its kind ever to be found in the Gulf region.
The statue has a small head with slanted eyes, a flat nose and an elongated skull.
It was found by a team of Kuwaiti and Polish archaeologists who were carrying out excavations at Bahra 1, one of the Arabian Peninsula's oldest settlements.
The Bahra 1 settlement dates back to about 5500 to 4900 BC.
Experts said it was settled by the Ubaid during that time, a culture that was known for its unique pottery, including alien-like statues.
“Its presence raises intriguing questions about its purpose and the symbolic, or possibly ritualistic, value it held for the people of this ancient community,” Professor Piotr Bielinski, who studied the piece, said.
Figurines of this type have been found in both grave and domestic contexts in Mesopotamia, The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw said.
“The ongoing excavations reveal Bahra 1 as a critical site for understanding the cultural exchanges between Arabian Neolithic societies and the Ubaid culture which spread from Mesopotamia to a vast territory, from Anatolia to the Arabian Peninsula,” The Centre said in a statement.
The discovery also sheds light into the region’s environmental history and the types of pottery produced at the time.
Researchers examined pottery fragments for traces of plants that might help identify local flora from the mid-6th millennium BCE.
“Early analyses have revealed traces of wild plants, particularly reed, within the locally produced pottery, while cultivated plant remains, including cereals, such as barley and wheat, have been found in the imported Ubaid ware,” Archaeobotany specialist Dr. Roman Hovsepyan said.
