Archaeologists have unearthed a 9,000-year-old 'magic wand' with two realistic human faces carved into it in Syria.
The ancient artifact was discovered near a graveyard where about 30 people were buried without their heads.
The bone wand was probably carved from the rib of an auroch, the wild ancestor of cows, and is about 12 centimetres long, researchers said.
The wand, which was likely used in a funeral ritual, is one of the only naturalistic depictions of human faces from this time and place, said Frank Braemer, an archaeologist at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France.
"The find is very unusual. It's unique," Braemer told LiveScience.
The wand was first uncovered during excavations in 2007 and 2009 at a site in southern Syria called Tell Qarassa, where an artificial mound made from the debris of everyday human life gradually built up in layers over millennia.
After the skeletons and wand were buried, someone seems to have dug up and removed the skulls, placing them in the inhabited portion of the settlement.
The bone wand contains two natural-looking faces, with eyes closed, carved it, and it was intentionally broken at both ends, with more faces likely originally adorning the staff.
The wand's purpose and symbolism remain a mystery.
"It's clearly linked to funerary rituals, but what kind of rituals, it's impossible to tell," Braemer said.
The study is published in the journal Antiquity.
