A photographic tour of Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey
Few archaeological sites have the potential to fundamentally change our views on prehistory. Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe (9600–8000 BC) is one of them. Built by hunter-foragers after the end of the last Ice Age, the site features monumental stone buildings richly decorated with reliefs. This was quite unexpected for that region and time when Klaus Schmidt discovered the site in 1995, and Göbekli Tepe has accordingly made a rapid career as the supposed place of the “earliest temples of humanity”. Working as an archaeologist there since 2005, I have accumulated a large stack of photos made strolling around the site in breaks and after work. They are mainly from the time before Göbekli Tepe became a major tourist attraction covered by protective roofs. So let´s take a tour.
Approaching Göbekli Tepe coming from Urfa, the way goes up when leaving the main road. The site is situated on a high point of the Germuş mountain range overlooking the Harran plain, on a vast and barren limestone plateau. The mound has a diameter of around 300m, a height of about 15m and is characterized by several hilltops divided by depressions.
Sediments are only presereved in the immediate vicinity of the site. Looking down, you would notice the first hint of its age: the surface is scattered with finds, mainly flint — debitage from the production of tools as well as the tools themselves.
There is also a lot of limestone rubble. This is another indicator of prehistoric activities at the site — you are walking through a large Neolithic quarry zone, where the components for the buildings of Göbekli Tepe were hewn from the bedrock. A closer look reveals some building elements left where they were made 12.000 years ago, like this 7 m long pillar-like object of a peculiar T-shape.
Reaching the top of the mound, you stand next to the main excavation area in the southeastern depression. A multitude of walls in 9x9m large excavation areas, partly still subdivided by baulks left to document the stratigraphy of the site.
Regarding stratigraphy, a rough differentiation may suffice for this short visit. There is an older phase (9600–8800 BC) with the well-known, round to oval monumental buildings and their T-shaped limestone pillars of up to 4m height. They were set into the walls and are interconnected by bench-like limestone slabs (sometimes too high to actually sit on) and surround a central pair of even higher pillars. The buildings measure 10–20m. Four of them have been excavated in the southeastern depression.
The other types of buildings at Göbekli Tepe are rectangular or apsidial constructions with smaller or no limestone pillars at all, dating to the 9th millennium BC. Activities at the site ceased around 8000 BC.
The pillars in the monumental round buildings are frequently decorated. Some of them show arms, hands and items of clothing (belts, loincloths). Their T-shape thus seems to be an abstract depiction of the human body .
The most common reliefs on the pillars show animals. Most interestingly, every building has a clearly dominating species. For Building A it´s snakes, for Building B foxes, for Building C boar and for Building D birds. The dominant animal could be connected to certain groups of people, in the sense of emblematic, or totemic symbols related to the identities of the builders.
Of course the reliefs are not the only interesting finds at Göbekli Tepe. Inside the buildings and within sediments a large number of sculptures were found. Some show humans; particularly remarkable are broken off sculpture heads frequently found next to pillars.
Scultures also depict animals, most frequent are wildcats and boar. Some of these sculptures were freestanding, others were part of building components, like this large stone slab with two rectangular openings, which may have had the function of a door.
So, what does this all mean? Göbekli Tepe has produced the oldest yet known evidence for monumental architecture. The execution of large communal projects before the completion of the transition to agriculture has widely changed our understanding of early sedentary societies. The site is interpreted as a central place for meetings and feasts of different groups of people within the wider region. The imagery focuses on strong and dangerous animals and seems to be connected to group identities. It is likely that the buildings played an important role in reinforcing group cohesion through ritualistic behaviour.
There would be much more to show and to tell. If you want to know more about Göbekli Tepe and the interpretation of the finds, there´s some material on the research project´s blog. If you come to Urfa, a visit to the fantastic Museum is also highly recommended.
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