Göbekli Tepe

The city of Göbekli Tepe (Turkish: [ɟœbecˈli teˈpe],[2] 'Potbelly Hill';[3] Kurdish: Girê
Mirazan or Xirabreşkê, 'Wish Hill'[4]) is a Neolithic archaeological site in
the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. The settlement was inhabited from c.
9500 to at least 8000 BCE,[5]during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. It is famous for its large
circular structures that contain massive stone pillars – among the world's oldest
known megaliths. Many of these pillars are decorated with anthropomorphic details,
clothing, and sculptural reliefs of wild animals, providing archaeologists rare insights
into prehistoric religion and the particular iconography of the period. The 15 m (50 ft)
high, 8 ha (20-acre) tell is densely covered with ancient domestic structures[6] and
other small buildings, quarries, and stone-cut cisterns from the Neolithic, as well as
some traces of activity from later periods.

Current excavators interpret Göbekli Tepe as a settlement, based on recent findings

such as domestic structures and features, water supply installations, and Neolithic
tools associated with domestic use.[7] The site's original excavator Klaus Schmidt had
described it as a sanctuary used by groups of nomadic hunter-gatherers from a wide
area, with few or no permanent inhabitants.[1]

The site was first used at the dawn of the Southwest Asian Neolithic period, which
marked the appearance of the oldest permanent human settlements anywhere in the
world. Prehistorians link this Neolithic Revolution to the advent of agriculture, but
disagree on whether farming caused people to settle down or vice versa. Göbekli
Tepe, a monumental complex built on the top of a rocky mountaintop, with no clear
evidence of agricultural cultivation produced to date, has played a prominent role in
this debate. Archaeological evidence suggests that the inhabitants
processed cereal at the site, though it is unclear whether it was wild or cultivated.

No definitive purpose has been determined for the megalithic enclosures; Schmidt
had described them as the "world's first temple[s]", but incorrectly surmised that they
were intentionally and ritually backfilled. Recent stratigraphic studies have instead
revealed that they were filled by slope slide events, and sometimes repaired and
modified thereafter.[8] The architecture and iconography is not unique to the site, with
over a half-dozen other similar sites like Karahan Tepe having been found across
modern Şanlıurfa Province, dating to approximately the same time period.[9]

The site was first noted in a survey in 1963. Schmidt recognized its significance in
1994 and began excavations there the following year. After his death in 2014, work
continued as a joint project of Istanbul University, Şanlıurfa Museum, and
the German Archaeological Institute, under the direction of Turkish prehistorian
Necmi Karul. Göbekli Tepe was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018,
recognising its outstanding universal value as "one of the first manifestations of
human-made monumental architecture".[10] As of 2021, less than 5% of the site had
been excavated.[11]
Geography and environment
 Present day landscape around Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe is located in the Taş Tepeler ('Stone Hills'), in the foothills of
the Taurus Mountains.[12] It overlooks the Harran plain and the headwaters of
the Balikh River, a tributary of the Euphrates.[12] The site is a tell (artificial mound)
situated on a flat limestoneplateau.[13] In the north, the plateau is connected to the
neighbouring mountains by a narrow promontory. In all other directions, the ridge
descends steeply into slopes and steep cliffs.[14]

At the time when Göbekli Tepe was occupied, the climate of the area was warmer
and wetter than it is today.[13] It was surrounded by an open steppe grassland,[13] with
abundant wild cereals, including einkorn, wheat, and barley,[15] and herds of grazing
animals such as wild sheep, wild goat, gazelle, and equids.[16] Large herds of goitered
gazelle may have passed by the site in seasonal migrations.[17] There is no evidence
of substantial woodlands nearby;[13] 90% of the charcoal recovered at the site was
from pistachio or almond trees.[18]

Like most Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) sites in the Urfa region, Göbekli Tepe was
built on a high point on the edge of the mountains, giving it both a wide view over the
plain beneath, and good visibility from the plain.[19] This location also gave the
builders good access to raw material: the soft limestone bedrock from which the
complex was built, and the flint to make the tools to work the limestone.[19] The
prehistoric village acquired drinking water through a rainwater harvesting system,
consisting of carved channels[20]that fed several cisterns carved into the bedrock
under the site,[21] which could hold at least 150 cubic metres (5,300 cu ft) of water.[22]
[23]
Additionally, the local water table may have been higher, activating springs closer
to the site which are dormant today.[24]

Excavations have taken place at the southern slope of the tell, south, and west of
a mulberry that marks an Islamic pilgrimage,[25] but archaeological finds come from
the entire plateau. The team has also found many remains of tools. At the
western escarpment, a small cave has been discovered in which a
small relief depicting a bovid was found. It is the only relief found in this cave.[26]

Dawn of village life

Göbekli Tepe was built and occupied during the earliest part of the Southwest
Asian Neolithic, known as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic(PPN, c. 9600–7000 BCE).
[27]
Beginning at the end of the last Ice Age, the PPN marks "the beginnings of village
life",[28] producing the earliest evidence for permanent human settlements in the
world.[28][29] Archaeologists have long associated the appearance of these settlements
with the Neolithic Revolution—the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture
—but disagree on whether the adoption of farming caused people to settle down, or
settling down caused people to adopt farming.[30] Despite the name, the Neolithic
Revolution in Southwest Asia was "drawn out and locally variable".[31] Elements of
village life appeared as early as 10,000 years before the Neolithic in places,[32][33] and
the transition to agriculture took thousands of years, with different paces and
trajectories in different regions.[34][35] Archaeologists divide the Pre-Pottery Neolithic
into two subperiods: the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A(PPNA, c. 9600–8800 BCE) and
the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB, c. 8800 and 7000 BCE).[29] The earliest phases at
Göbekli Tepe have been dated to the PPNA; later phases to the PPNB.[36]

Evidence indicates the inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe were hunter-gatherers who

supplemented their diet with early forms of domesticated cereal and lived in villages
for at least part of the year. Tools such as grinding stones and mortars and pestles
found at the site have been analyzed and suggest considerable cereal processing.
Archaeozoological evidence hints at "large-scale hunting of gazelle between
midsummer and autumn."[22]

PPN villages consisted mainly of clusters of stone or mud brick houses,[28] but
sometimes also substantial monuments and large buildings.[29] These include the
tower and walls at Tell es-Sultan (Jericho), as well as large, roughly
contemporaneous circular buildings at Göbekli Tepe, Nevalı Çori, Çayönü, Wadi
Feynan 16, Jerf el-Ahmar, Tell 'Abr 3, and Tepe Asiab.[37] Archaeologists typically
associate these structures with communal activities which, together with the
communal effort needed to build them, helped to maintain social interactions in PPN
communities as they grew in size.[38]

The T-shaped pillar tradition seen at Göbekli Tepe is unique to the Urfa region, but is
found at the majority of PPN sites there.[39]These include Nevalı Çori, Hamzan Tepe,
[40]
Karahan Tepe,[41] Harbetsuvan Tepesi,[42] Sefer Tepe,[39] and Taslı Tepe.[43] Other
stone stelae—without the characteristic T shape—have been documented at
contemporary sites further afield, including Çayönü, Qermez Dere, and Gusir Höyük.
[44]
 Göbekli Tepe

Karahan Tepe

Nevalı Çori

Known PPN sites in the Urfa region.[19][43][42] Sites with T-shaped pillars are marked with .
Chronology
Radiocarbon dating shows that the earliest exposed structures at Göbekli Tepe were
built between 9500 and 9000 BCE, towards the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic
A(PPNA) period.[8][36] The site was significantly expanded in the early 9th
millennium BCE and remained in use until around 8000 BCE, or perhaps slightly
later (the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, PPNB).[36] There is evidence that smaller
groups returned to live amongst the ruins after the Neolithic structures were
abandoned.[36]

Schmidt originally dated the site to the PPN based on the types of stone tools found
there, considering a PPNA date "most probable".[45] Establishing its absolute
chronology took longer due to methodological challenges.[46][47] Though the first two
radiocarbon dates were published in 1998,[48] these and other samples from the fill of
the structure dated to the late 10th and early 9th millennium – 500 to 1000 years
later than expected for a PPNA site.[46] Schmidt's team explained the discrepancy in
light of their theory that this material was brought to the site from elsewhere when it
was abandoned, and so was not representative of the actual use of the structures.[46]
[47]
They instead turned to a novel method of dating organic material preserved in
the plaster on the structure's walls, which resulted in dates more consistent with a
PPNA occupation, in the middle or even early 10th millennium BCE.[49][50]
[8]
Subsequent research led to a significant revision of Schmidt's chronology,
including the abandonment of the hypothesis that the fill of the structures was
brought from elsewhere, and a recognition that direct dates on plaster are affected
by the old wood effect.[51] Together with new radiocarbon dates, this has established
the site's absolute chronology as falling in the period 9500 to 8000 BCE – the late
PPNA and PPNB.[1][52]

Building phases
The preliminary, now abandoned,[53] stratigraphic model by Klaus Schmidt consisted
of three architectural layers. The large circular enclosures were attributed to Layer
III, dated to the 10th millennium BCE (PPNA). The smaller rectangular structures
and the abandonment of the site were assigned to Layer II in the 9th
millennium BCE (early to middle PPNB). Layer I consisted of all post-Neolithic
activities up to the modern surface.[8]

The revised chronology consists of eight phases that span at least 1,500 years. It
details the history of the large circular enclosures, including events that led to their
alteration or abandonment, and the evolution of the domestic buildings surrounding
them.[54]

 Phase 1: The earliest settlement phase dates to the second half of the
10th millennium BCE and includes the first versions of enclosures A to D
and round-oval domestic structures, which indicate a (semi) sedentary
lifestyle.[53]
 Phase 2: In the second phase (early 9th millennium BCE) significant
modifications of enclosures A-D were undertaken: New walls were
erected, which incorporated the first monolithic T-shaped pillars. An
increasing number of domestic structures were built, still mostly oval-
round, though with a rising tendency for a rectangular floor plan.[53]
 Phases 3–5: In the early PPNB, the northern and western slopes saw the
erection of rectangular (domestic) structures. They underwent multiple
construction phases, for instance, the addition of benches with
incorporated T-shaped pillar, and new inner walls resulting in more
rectangular rooms. The large enclosures were modified as well. Walls
were repaired and new ones added. Benches were placed against the
interior sides of phase 2 walls.[54]
At the end of the early PPNB, a slope slide inundated the lower lying
structures, flushing sediments and domestic rubble (likely including
midden and burials) downhill. This caused extensive damage to enclosure
D, and led to stabilization works in Phase 5. Building C was reconstructed
for the last time, and a terrace wall was placed above it, to prevent future
slope-slides. Nonetheless, a second major slope-slide event occurred,
which likely resulted in enclosure D being abandoned in the late 9th
millennium BCE.[54]
 Phases 6 and 7: Building activity gradually declined in phases 6 and 7
(late 9th to early 8th millennium BCE). The loss of enclosures B and D
may have led to the construction of building G and the "Lion Pillar
Building". In Phase 7 another terrace wall was constructed in a last
attempt to stabilize the northern slope.[55]
 Phase 8: In the final occupation period, small habitation structures were
built within the remains of the abandoned Neolithic village.[55]

The End.