A recently uncovered clay head dating to the sixth millennium B.C. is the first artifact of its kind ever discovered in Kuwait, though similar examples are well known from ancient Mesopotamia.

Archaeologists working in northern Kuwait unearthed a 7,000-year-old figurine that bears a striking resemblance to modern portrayals of extraterrestrials. Despite its otherworldly appearance, the figurine’s style is characteristic of Mesopotamian art, making this the earliest find of its kind in Kuwait or the Arabian Gulf.

The small, carefully modeled head—with slanted eyes, a flat nose, and an elongated skull—was discovered this year at Bahra 1, a prehistoric settlement where Kuwaiti and Polish teams have been excavating since 2009. Bahra 1, occupied between roughly 5500 and 4900 B.C., is among the oldest sites in the Arabian Peninsula.

At that time, the settlement was inhabited by the Ubaid culture, which originated in Mesopotamia and is renowned for its distinctive pottery and anthropomorphic figurines with alien-like features. The Ubaid interacted with Neolithic communities in the Gulf region during the sixth millennium B.C., creating what archaeologist Agnieszka Szymczak describes as a “prehistoric crossroads of cultural exchange.” This dynamic interaction also extended to art, exemplified by the newly found figurine.