Archaeologists are "totally surprised" by a 7,000-year-old figure from Kuwait that resembles an alien.

A 7,000-year-old clay figurine that resembles an extraterrestrial from today's culture has been found by Kuwaiti archaeologists.

Although this figurine is the first of its sort to be discovered in Kuwait or the Arabian Gulf, its style was widespread in ancient Mesopotamia, despite its more otherworldly than human appearance.

Archaeologists are "totally surprised" by a 7,000-year-old figure from Kuwait that resembles an alien. Known as lizard-headed or ophidian such figurines hold historical ties to rituals as seen in Mesopotamian graves and sacred spaces

This year's digs at Bahra 1, a prehistoric site in northern Kuwait that a combined Kuwaiti-Polish team has been excavating since 2009, yielded the small, exquisitely carved head with slanted eyes, a flat nose, and an elongated skull. Bahra 1 was inhabited from around 5500 to 4900 B.C., making it one of the oldest settlements on the Arabian Peninsula.

The Ubaid, a Mesopotamian society renowned for its unique pottery, notably its alien-like figurines, was established in Bahra 1 around this period. In the sixth millennium B.C., the Ubaid merged with Neolithic, or New Stone Age, communities in the Arabian Gulf, transforming the region into an ancient melting pot, according to Agnieszka Szymczak.

An expedition leader at Bahra 1 is responsible for the site's minor discoveries, such as the recently found figure.

The clash of these peoples and their civilizations created a "prehistoric crossroads of cultural exchange," according to an email from Szymczak, an archaeologist at the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, to Live Science. Art, like the recently discovered figure, was a part of this transaction.

Some of the earliest representations of actual people may be lumpy flint figures. The discovery of the figurine was a total surprise for the whole team, as it was the first such find not just among the over 1.5k [1,500] small finds excavated from the Bahra 1 site but also from the Arabian Gulf region," Szymczak stated.

Furthermore, the Ubaids were aggressively bringing their indigenous customs into the area since it is composed of Mesopotamian clay, as opposed to the "Coarse Red Ware" ceramics found in the Arabian Gulf.

According to papers from the University of Chicago, Ubaid figurines are frequently described as "lizard-headed," "bird-like," or "ophidian," which means "snake-like." Even though the figure was found in a "mundane activity area," rather than in a special or symbolic location, such as the graves they have been found in throughout Mesopotamia, Szymczak stated that the recovered figurine is probably "imbued with symbolic meaning."

The discovery at Bahra 1 has the "potential to clarify," according to Aurelie Daems, a Near Eastern archaeologist at Ghent University in Belgium who has written book chapters on Ubaid ophidian figurines but was not engaged in the current investigation.

study issues about the Ubaid's social and ritual customs, as well as the connections between Mesopotamia and the ancient Gulf region.

The peculiar facial features of these figurines have been the subject of several speculations. According to one theory, the sculptures display "head-shaping," or intentional cranial distortion, a procedure common in Ubaid society and demonstrated by skeletal remains found in Mesopotamia. The Ubaids could have used head-shaping, which is accomplished by bandaging an infant's pliable skull, as a means of identifying with their class, culture, or membership in a particular group within their community.

Head-shaping peaked in the eighth and seventh millennia B.C., when the Ubaid may have adopted this custom in what is now Iran. Societies of the Ubaids in the fifth millennium B.C. Research on the clay figurine head discovered this year is still ongoing, as are excavations at the location.