Published on 24 Feb 2013
Göbekli Tepe Turkish: [ɡøbe̞kli te̞pɛ][2] ("Potbelly Hill"[3]) is a Neolithic hilltop sanctuary erected at the top of a mountain ridge in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, some 15 kilometers (9 mi) northeast of the town of Şanlıurfa (formerly Urfa / Edessa). It is the oldest known human-made religious structure.[1][ 4] The site was most likely erected in the 10th millennium BCE and has been under excavation since 1994 by German and Turkish archaeologists.[5] Together with Nevalı Çori, it has revolutionized understanding of the Eurasian Neolithic.
Göbekli Tepe is located in southeastern Turkey. It was first noted in a survey conducted by Istanbul University and the University of Chicago in 1964, which recognized that the hill could not entirely be a natural feature and postulated that a Byzantine cemetery lay beneath. The survey noted a large number of flints and the presence of limestone slabs thought to be Byzantine grave markers. This work was first mentioned in print in Peter Benedict's article "Survey Work in Southeastern Anatolia" (1980). In 1994, archaeologist Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute of Istanbul noted Benedict's article and visited the site, recognizing that it was in fact a much older Neolithic site. Since 1995[7] excavations have been conducted by the German Archaeological Institute of Istanbul and the Şanlıurfa Museum, under the direction of Schmidt (University of Heidelberg 1995--2000, German Archaeological Institute 2001--present). The hill had been under agricultural cultivation before being excavated. Generations of local inhabitants had frequently moved rocks and placed them in clearance piles and much archaeological evidence may have been destroyed in the process. Scholars from the Hochschule Karlsruhe began documenting the architectural remains and soon discovered T-shaped pillars facing south-east. Some of these pillars had apparently undergone attempts at destruction, probably by farmers who mistook them for ordinary large rocks.