On a bare limestone hill above the Harran plain stand rings of T-shaped pillars raised by hunter-gatherers millennia before farming, writing or pottery existed. Göbekli Tepe forced archaeologists to reconsider whether organised ritual, not agriculture, first drew people together to build.
At a glance
Göbekli Tepe is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site on a hilltop in Şanlıurfa Province, in south-eastern Anatolia. Excavation, begun in 1994, has uncovered four main stone enclosures, known as A, B, C and D, though geophysical survey suggests that as many as twenty more lie unexcavated beneath the mound. Only a small fraction of the site has so far been dug.
Key facts
- Date: the earliest structures are dated to around 9600 BCE, making the site far older than Stonehenge or the Egyptian pyramids.
- Builders: mobile Pre-Pottery Neolithic hunter-gatherers, with no evidence of permanent settlement or farming in the surrounding area at the time.
- Architecture: circular enclosures ringed by T-shaped limestone pillars, with a larger central pair; some pillars stand around 5.5 metres tall and are estimated to weigh several tonnes.
- Carvings: reliefs of foxes, cranes, vultures, boars, wild oxen, snakes, spiders and scorpions appear on several pillars, along with stylised human arms, belts and loincloths on the T-shaped forms.
- Excavator: Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute, Berlin, who led the dig from 1994 until his death in 2014.
- Status: inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018.
History
Göbekli Tepe’s main enclosures were built by hunter-gatherer communities around 9600 BCE, at a time when the surrounding region shows no evidence of farming. Several centuries later, around 8000 BCE, the builders deliberately filled the enclosures with stone rubble, flint and animal bone in an operation on the scale of the original construction. Why they did so remains unexplained, though the fill had the effect of protecting the pillars and carvings from millennia of weathering.
The hill saw further, much later activity: evidence of Iron Age and Bronze Age presence, and traces of Roman and Byzantine occupation, including a column base linked to Justinian and remains of a small church on the summit. The site’s prehistoric importance went unrecognised for a long time. A German geologist, Karl Koch, noted the hill in 1836, and a joint Istanbul University and Chicago Oriental Institute survey led by Peter Benedict recorded unusual stones there in 1963 without identifying them as Neolithic.
It was Klaus Schmidt who, while reviewing survey records at Istanbul University in 1994, recognised the significance of Benedict’s brief note on flint chippings at the site and travelled there to investigate. He identified a T-shaped pillar emerging from the soil and recognised it immediately as evidence of a very old temple. Schmidt directed excavations for two decades until his death in 2014; an international team has continued the work since.
What you see
Enclosure D, the most photographed of the excavated rings, has twelve T-shaped pillars set into its perimeter walls around a larger central pair, the tallest reaching about 5.5 metres. The central pillars carry carved arms, a belt and a loincloth suggesting a stylised human form, while other pillars in the enclosure bear reliefs of a fox, a crane, a vulture and other animals. Enclosure C has narrower, more elongated pillars; Enclosure B is smaller and among the earliest excavated; Enclosure A is irregular in plan.
A quarry roughly 500 metres from the enclosures still contains an unfinished pillar, broken during extraction and left in the ground, which gives a sense of the scale of the labour involved. Beneath the visible enclosures, geophysical survey indicates further rings still buried and unexcavated.
The Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum, in the nearby city, holds a dedicated Göbekli Tepe gallery with full-scale replicas of the pillars and their carvings.
Some researchers have proposed astronomical readings of the site, including a possible alignment of Enclosure D with the star Arcturus and an interpretation of the so-called Vulture Stone as a record of a distant celestial event. These readings, including the more speculative ones, remain disputed and unproven.
Practical information
- Access: the excavated enclosures are covered by a protective shelter; current visiting arrangements, routes and any restrictions are best checked with the site’s official management before travelling.
- Nearby museum: the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum houses related finds and full-scale replicas and is worth combining with a visit to the site itself.
- Terrain: the site sits on an open hilltop with limited shade; sturdy footwear is advisable given the uneven ground around the enclosures and quarry.
Getting there
Göbekli Tepe lies a short distance from the city of Şanlıurfa in south-eastern Turkey, with the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum in the city itself. Visitors typically travel to the site from Şanlıurfa; details of transport options are best confirmed through official local or site channels closer to the date of travel.
Nearby
- Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum — in the city of Şanlıurfa, holding finds from Göbekli Tepe and full-scale pillar replicas.
- The ancient quarry — about 500 metres from the enclosures, where an unfinished, broken pillar remains in the ground.
Sources
- German Archaeological Institute, Berlin
- UNESCO
- Istanbul University and Chicago Oriental Institute survey (Peter Benedict)
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