The Archaeological Museum of Istanbul houses a disturbing artifact in its vaults: a Sumerian object resembling a miniature rocket, a piece that borders on the impossible.

Among the display cases of the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, an artifact forgotten by official archaeology raises a question that borders on the impossible. This is the so-called Istanbul Shem, a stone figure about 23 centimeters long and 10 centimeters high. At first glance, it seems like a simple worn archaeological object, but a closer look reveals something disturbing: its elongated, conical shape, the supposed rear fins, and the presence of a humanoid figure in a control-operating position lead many to compare it to a space rocket.

Is this figure merely a trick of the mind, a pareidolia, or are we looking at a deliberate representation of unknown technology in antiquity?

Out-of-Place Object

The Istanbul Shem is considered an OOPART (Out-of-Place Artifact): an object that appears to be out of its expected historical or technological context. Supposedly, it was discovered during an archaeological excavation in 1975 in the ancient city of Tuspa, also known as Toprakkale, from which the mysterious object’s nickname comes: the Toprakkale Space Shuttle. This city is located northeast of Lake Van, in the region where the Kingdom of Urartu existed between 830 and 612 BCE.

For decades, the figure has sparked speculation among alternative archaeologists, ancient astronaut theorists, and UFO researchers.

Toprakkale Space Shuttle and Its Graphic Representation.

The piece — as can be seen in the images — appears to show an individual seated inside a projectile-shaped capsule, with hands resting on some type of control. The rear portion features what some interpret as stabilizers or aerodynamic fins, similar to those of a modern rocket.

Technology in the Age of the Gods?

The most significant research on the so-called “Space Module” came from Zecharia Sitchin, who became the leading proponent of the idea that the object is about three thousand years old. In an article published in issue 15 of Atlantis Rising magazine, Sitchin describes the artifact as “a sculpted model of what, at first glance, appears to be a space rocket with a conical nose… Powered by a set of four exhaust engines at the rear, surrounding a larger central exhaust engine, the rocket has room for a single pilot, who is indeed represented and included in the sculpture.”

Sitchin visited Turkey a year earlier, in 1997, where he met with the museum director, Dr. Alpay Pasinli. The director removed the artifact from a drawer and allowed Sitchin not only to examine it but also to photograph it. The piece had previously been photographed in 1993 by the British publication Fortean Times. Sitchin named it the Istanbul Shem, linking it to the theory of ancient extraterrestrial visits, as described in his book The Lost Kingdoms.

Sitchin translated numerous Sumerian texts that mentioned the “Shems” — vehicles of the Anunnaki gods — as if they were actual spacecraft. For him, the term “Shem” did not refer to a temple or divine glory, as Assyriologists claim, but to an aerospace vehicle capable of transporting the gods from Earth to the skies.

Could this object be a symbolic representation of those Shems? Or is it merely a modern interpretation projected onto an ambiguous figure?

Are we looking at a rocket depicted 3,000 years ago?

Academic Silence

The Istanbul Shem exists physically and can occasionally be seen at the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul. However, the institution does not provide official information about its origin or the context in which it was discovered.

The museum curators decided that this small artifact must be a forgery, as it differed from the style of the period and, more importantly, resembled a space capsule. Since space capsules did not exist in the past, it could only be a modern forgery, a hoax made of plaster and marble dust.

They claim that chemical and petrographic analyses conducted by the Department of Monuments and Museums of the Ministry of Art and Culture demonstrated that these theories do not align with historical reality. There are diverse and contradictory accounts of how the artifact arrived at the museum.

Are we looking at a modern forgery, an object taken out of context, or something truly inexplicable?

The story of the Istanbul Shem exists in that unusual space where history and myth intertwine. What if the ancients had truly seen — or imagined — technologies that we are only beginning to understand now? Could this small stone object be a clue, an anachronistic relic suggesting a past more complex than we dare to admit?

Perhaps it is not a rocket. Perhaps it never was. But, as with any good mystery, the unsettling part is not what we know… but what we have yet to explain.