Göbekli Tepe: monumentality before agriculture
Göbekli Tepe: monumentalidad antes de la agricultura
- Date
- 1994-1995 · confidence high
- Place
- Göbekli Tepe, Şanlıurfa, Turkey
- Credited to
- Klaus Schmidt (German Archaeological Institute); recognised in a 1963 survey (Benedict)
- People
- 👤 Klaus Schmidt1953–2014
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Schmidt excavated circular enclosures with T-shaped pillars up to 5.5 m tall decorated with animals, dated to 9500 BCE, built by hunter-gatherers before agriculture and pottery. It overturned the idea that temples follow cities.
Coordinates of the site. Local farmers knew the hill ('hill of the navel'); in 1963 it was catalogued as a medieval cemetery.
What it led to
- Revision of the origin of the Neolithic: did ritual precede agriculture?
- Study of wheat domestication at nearby Karacadağ
- World Heritage status (2018) and discovery of Karahan Tepe
Built on
- Nevalı Çori
- 1963 Chicago-Istanbul survey
Made possible
- Archaeology of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Anatolia