7000-Year-Old Seals with Animal Images Found in Turkey (Photo).

In Turkey, archaeologists found two rare seals with animal images during excavations at the Arslantepe mound. The age of the artifacts is estimated at approximately 7,000 years. The found seals became the oldest discovered in the territory of Arslantepe. Archaeologists carried out the dating not by the layers in which the seals were found, but by comparative analysis with other artifacts.

Professor Francesca Balossi Restelli, the head of the excavations, said that the age of the found seals is approximately 5000 years BC. Previously, during excavations in the same city, hundreds of seals dating back to 3000 BC were found.

These seals indicate that the local population already at that time had a developed social structure and state, even before the advent of writing. Arslantepe was the first city-state in the territory of Anatolia and had the status of a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city, which was then called Malitiya, was an administrative and trade center.