The face at the foot of the pillar

As excavation continued at Sayburç under Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eylem Özdoğan, a new carving came to light: a clearly recognisable human face, cut into the bedrock base from which a standing pillar rises. It was found in one of two small special buildings near the centre of the village — structures that stand apart from the ordinary houses around them.

Two small buildings, set apart

Near the middle of the settlement sit two compact buildings, each about eight metres across. The number and arrangement of their pillars, and their distinct architecture, mark them out from the domestic units nearby. In the eastern of the two, human skeletons were placed in niches cut into the inner walls — a strong sign that the building served a special, probably ritual, purpose rather than everyday living. We look at that practice across the village on the burials page.

A face, a niche, a leopard and a pig

The new carving is in the western building, immediately beside the one with the burials. One of its pillars rises from a base cut straight out of the natural bedrock, and on the front of that base is the human face. The pillar stands directly opposite a large niche set into the wall — and the inner faces of two neighbouring pillars carry a leopard and a pig. A face at the foot, animals on the pillars, a niche across the room: the pieces read as a composed, deliberate arrangement.

What it adds

Sayburç already shows the symbolic and the domestic sharing the same ground. This small building sharpens that picture: the face, the animals and the niche together suggest a space with a ceremonial charge, built at village scale. The leopard is familiar — the same predator that frames the man on the bench relief — while the pig is a quieter presence in the regional bestiary. As with the relief, we can read the care and the intent clearly; the exact meaning stays open.