Gobekli Tepe is an archaeological site on a hilltop in southeastern Turkey, near Sanliurfa, where hunter-gatherers raised enormous stone enclosures at the start of the Neolithic. The structures are circular and contain T-shaped limestone pillars, some weighing many tonnes, decorated with carved animals such as foxes, snakes and boars. They have been dated to about the tenth and ninth millennia BCE, thousands of years before pottery or farming, and well before Stonehenge. The site was surveyed in 1994, and the German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt began excavating in 1995. It challenges the idea that monumental building came only after agriculture. The purpose is unclear, though it was probably a ritual or ceremonial centre. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018.
Before and after
- about 13,000 years agoThe megafauna of the Americas die out
- from about 13,000 years ago to 9,750s BCEYounger Dryas
- about 12,400 years agoEruption of Moekeshiwan [Lvinaya Past]
- about 12,000 years agoHolocene extinction
- from about 12,000 years ago to 7th millennium BCEConstruction of Göbekli Tepe
- c. 9,750s BCEQuaternary extinction event
- 10th millennium BCEThe Holocene begins
- c. 9,501 BCEBuilders raise the first monumental temple at Gobekli Tepe
- from c. 9,050s BCE to 8,850s BCEClovis culture
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- from 8th millennium BCE to 4th millennium BCEOrigins of Khirokitia
- from c. 7,000 BCE to 586 BCEConstruction of Tel Megiddo
- 5th millennium BCEOrigins of Jerusalem
- from c. 3,600 BCE to 2,500 BCEOrigins of Megalithic Temples of Malta
- c. 3,501 BCEPeople first tame horses on the steppe
- from c. 3,500 BCE to 2,500 BCEOrigins of Brú na Bóinne
The era
This moment belongs to the Human prehistory (300,000 years ago to 3,200 BCE), the human story before writing.