“These figures, engraved together to depict a narrative, are the first known examples of such a holistic scene,” explained Eylem Özdoğan, author of the paper and archaeologist at Istanbul University, in a statement.“This was a picture of the stories that formed the ideology of the people of that period.”Dating to the 9th millennium BCE, the site in southeastern Turkey is located under a present-day village in Şanlıurfa Province.“The development of collective activities and rituals, and the construction of communal buildings with strong symbolic elements, was instrumental in advancing this new way of life.”While older examples of narrative art have been identified—among them, the nearly 17,000-year-old cave paintings at Lascaux and a roughly 44,000-year-old cave panel on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi—these are the first known to show a progressing narrative structure.The 36-foot communal structure at Sayburç was carved into the limestone bedrock—it is thought to have been a place for special communal gatherings, with engraved benches lining the walls.The Sayburç reliefs, Özdoğan offers, are broadly speaking, “the reflection of a collective memory that kept the values of its community alive.”Further excavations will likely reveal more ancient scenes, as the communal building has only been partially uncovered."