Nestled in the fertile crescent of Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, the archaeological site of Nevali Cori offers a captivating glimpse into the dawn of human civilization. Predating the renowned site of Göbekli Tepe, Nevali Cori's remnants from the 9th millennium BCE provide unprecedented insights into early Neolithic life, marking significant leaps in architecture, agriculture, art, and spiritual practices. This comprehensive exploration reveals how Nevali Cori not only shaped the trajectory of human history but also challenges our perceptions of ancient societies' capabilities and complexities.

A PROTO-GÖBEKLI TEPE
The discovery of Nevali Cori has reshaped our understanding of Neolithic progression in the region, suggesting a possible ideological and cultural continuity leading to the construction of Göbekli Tepe. The parallels in architectural styles and religious symbols between the two sites indicate that Nevali Cori might have served as an inspiration or even a precursor to the later monumental achievements at Göbekli Tepe. This connection underscores the site's significance in tracing the evolution of religious and societal structures within early human communities, providing a clearer picture of the gradual development of complex belief systems and communal identities.

THE DAWN OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
Artistic artifacts unearthed at Nevali Cori represent some of the earliest known depictions of the human form, marking a milestone in the history of artistic expression. These statues and reliefs, with their intricate detailing and symbolic significance, offer invaluable insights into the community's spiritual beliefs, social structures, and aesthetic values. The presence of such sophisticated artistry challenges previously held notions about the artistic capabilities of Neolithic peoples, suggesting a complex understanding of human and divine representation. Through these artistic expressions, we gain a deeper appreciation for the cultural richness and intellectual depth of Nevali Cori's inhabitants.

Taşlı Tepe or Taşlıtepe approximately 1 km north of Başbük village in Siverek district.. It was a settlement used as a cult centre during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. The archicectural elements has been destroyed by agricultural activity. 

The small finds at Tashli Tepe are mostly flint and a small number of obsidian tools mainly blades.

Sources:

1. Bahattin Celik, A small-scale cult centre in Southeast Turkey>Harbetsuvan Tepesi, Documenta Praehistorica XLIII (2016) 
2. Gül Güler, Bahattin Çelik and Mustafa Güler: New Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites. and cult centres in the Urfa Region, Documenta Praehistorica XL (2013)

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Located in modern Turkey, Göbekli Tepe is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. The discovery of this stunning 10,000 year old site in the 1990s CE sent shock waves through the archaeological world and beyond, with some researchers even claiming it was the site of the biblical Garden of Eden. The many examples of sculptures and megalithic architecture which make up what is perhaps the world's earliest temple at Göbekli Tepe predate pottery, metallurgy, the invention of writing, the wheel and the beginning of agriculture. The fact that hunter–gatherer peoples could organize the construction of such a complex site as far back as the 10th or 11th millennium BC not only revolutionizes our understanding of hunter-gatherer culture but poses a serious challenge to the conventional view of the rise of civilization.

Göbekli Tepe (Turkish for the 'hill of the navel') is a 1000 foot diameter mound located at the highest point of a mountain ridge, around 9 miles northeast of the town of Şanlıurfa (Urfa) in southeastern Turkey. Since 1994 CE, excavations conducted by Klaus Schmidt of the Istanbul branch of the German Archaeological Institute, with the cooperation of the Şanlıurfa Museum, have been taking place at the site. Results to date have been astounding; especially bearing in mind the excavators estimate that their work has uncovered a mere 5% of the site.

Göbekli Tepe consists of four arrangements of monolithic pillars linked together by segments of coarsely built dry stone walls to form a series of circular or oval structures. There are two large pillars in the center of each complex which are encircled by slightly smaller stones facing inward. Archaeologists believe that these pillars could have once supported roofs. The structures vary in size between around 33 and 98 feet in diameter and have floors made of terrazzo (burnt lime).

The Megaliths at Göbekli Tepe
The megaliths themselves, 43 of which have been unearthed so far, are mainly T-shaped pillars of soft limestone up to around 16 feet in height, and were excavated and transported from a stone quarry on the lower southwestern slope of the hill. Geophysical surveys on the hill indicate that there are as many as 250 more megaliths lying buried around the site, suggesting that another 16 complexes once existed at Göbekli Tepe.

Although some of the standing stones at Göbekli Tepe are blank, others display extraordinary artwork in the form of elaborately carved foxes, lions, bulls, scorpions, snakes, wild boars, vultures, water fowl, insects, and arachnids. There are also abstract shapes and one relief of a naked woman, posed frontally in a sitting position. A number of the T-shaped stones have depictions of what appear to be arms at their sides, which could indicate that the stones represent stylized humans or perhaps gods. Although the pictograms at Göbekli Tepe do not represent a form of writing, they may have functioned as sacred symbols whose meanings were implicitly understood by local populations at the time.

The depictions of vultures at Göbekli Tepe have parallels at other Anatolian and Near Eastern sites. The walls of many of the shrines at the large Neolithic settlement of Çatal Höyük (in existence from approximately 7500 BCE to 5700 BCE) in south-central Turkey were adorned with large skeletal representations of vultures.

Curiously, Schmidt and his team have so far found no evidence of settlement at Göbekli Tepe - houses, cooking hearths, and refuse pits are all absent. The archaeologists did, however, find over 100,000 animal bone fragments, many of which exhibited cut marks and splintered edges which indicate that animals were being butchered and cooked somewhere in the area. The bones came from wild game such as gazelle (which accounted for over 60% of the bones), boar, sheep and red deer, and different species of birds such as vultures, cranes, ducks and geese. All of the bones were from wild species; evidence that that the people who inhabited Göbekli Tepe were hunter-gatherers rather than early farmers who kept domesticated animals.

Similar Sites in the Area
Due to the presence of multiple monumental complexes at such an early date Göbekli Tepe is a somewhat unique site. However, there are some parallels with the site at the early Neolithic settlement of Nevalı Çori, on the middle Euphrates River in Eastern Turkey, which lies only 12.5 north-west of Göbekli Tepe. The main temple at Nevalı Çori was dated to around 8,000 BCE, perhaps a thousand years later than Göbekli Tepe. The cult complexes at the settlement had a number of features in common with Göbekli Tepe, such as a terrazzo-style lime cement floor, monolithic T-shaped pillars built into dry stone walls, and two free-standing pillars in the center of the complex area. The T-shaped pillars show reliefs of what appear to be human hands. Unfortunately, Nevali Çori is now lost, submerged beneath a lake created by the Atatürk Dam in 1992 CE.

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Şanlıurfa-Yeni Mahalle is a settlement located at Şanlıurfa downtown area within the ancient ramparts of Şanlıurfa. The settlement is underneath Yeni Mahalle district, which accommodates Balıklıgöl sacred area. In 1997 an excavation was carried out at the ground section of 15 m on Yeniyol Avenue in Yeni Mahalle district57.

The excavation carried out revealed two terrazzo floors of circular buildings. The circular wall of one of the floors were unearthed and revealed as intact, although partially. The small findings discovered from the section are Byblos and Aswad type arrowheads made of flintstone, sickle blades, shoulder blades, cores and very scarce ob– sidian flakes, and arrowhead fragments. The C14 analyses performed on the carbonated plant remains revealed that the settlement is dated back to cal. 8600 BC.

Yenimahalle Statue

Text Source.

Source : Şanlıurfa Museum Directorate
Address : Haleplibahçe Mahallesi, 2372. Sk. No:74/1, 63200
E-mail : sanliurfamuzesi@kultur.gov.tr

Phone : +90-414 313 15 88

Factsheet

Ayanlar Höyük was discovered in 2013. It is located near the village of Ayanlar, about 30 km west of Şanlıurfa.

Although no “T” shaped stelae could be found in Ayanlar Höyük, this find gives important clues that it could be a cult center like Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe.

The obelisk tradition, seen from the end of Phase A to the middle of Phase B of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, seems to have disappeared at the end of Phase B of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. Archaeologists anticipate that, thanks to future research, there is also the stelae tradition related to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period in Gaziantep, Mardin, and Adıyaman provinces and that many settlements will be revealed.

Researchers think that since the end of the 9th millennium BC, such settlements were abandoned by covering them with soil, and the first agricultural communities began to be established on the plains and near the waters.

The recent finds from the Karahantepe excavations are exhibited at the Şanlıurfa Archaeological Museum in the “Karahantepe and Neolithic Human Exhibition”, which opened on September 23, 2021.

In this article, excerpts are made from the article titled “The Neolithic Period in and around Urfa in the Light of New
Findings” by Bahattin Çelik and Kaya Tolon.

The first settlement in Sayburç, which is 19 km away from the city center of Şanlıurfa, took place in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period, the area was settled again later in the Roman Period, and the village known as Sayburç was established in the 1950s. This cultural continuity observed in the settlement emphasizes that this is a living mound.

There are two Neolithic settlements, one to the north and the other south of the modern village. In the north, on the southwest slopes of a small mound dating to the Roman period, structures built directly on the bedrock were found. One of the partially excavated structures has a circular plan, probably 15 m in diameter, with a base carved into the bedrock. This is a gathering place used for public purposes. The dimensions of the building, its base carved into the bedrock, its bench parallel to the wall and the obelisk nests on the bench are characteristic for the period and region. Undoubtedly, the most important feature of the building is the reliefs carved on the bench stretching along the wall. These reliefs consist of two men, two leopards and a bull figure. For the first time, these figures were depicted together to form a story in Sayburç.

Gürcütepe is located in the northwest of the Harran Plain, 4 km southeast of Şanlıurfa city center. The settlement was established on a fertile land to the south of Sırrın Stream and right next to the natural spring waters.

Surveys carried out in the region in the 90s revealed that Gürcütepe consists of eight settlements, four of which are mounds and the other four are flat, and that the earliest occupation is dated to the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Age. 

As a matter of fact, sounding excavations in the mounds revealed a similar architectural stratification known from the Çayönü Tepesi settlement in Diyarbakır. The "Large Roomed Buildings" and "Cell Planed Buildings", in which two possible special structures were partially identified, are the architectural phases identified.

The second period excavations in Gürcütepe started in 2021. In the 20 years that passed between the two excavation campaigns, the tops of the settlements were subject to resettlement. For this reason, excavation works have started to be carried out in an area used as agricultural land. The agricultural activities carried out in the area and the re-usage of old structures in the houses of the modern village have greatly damaged the settlement.

Interdisciplinary studies show that people living in Gürcütepe, unlike other settlements, started to produce food, domesticated goats, sheep, pigs and possibly cattle, and made agricultural experiments. Therefore, it is seen that a transition to a new social and economic model has been made with the Gürcütepe settlement in the Harran Plain.

Çakmaktepe unveils a significant chapter in Anatolian history, predating Göbeklitepe and revealing the earliest traces of settled life in the region. The presence of intricately carved structures into the bedrock, exceeding 15 meters in diameter, signifies that even during the initial phases of transitioning to settlement, hunter-gatherer societies not only sought sustenance but also placed considerable importance on social ties and communal life.

Located on the Fatik Mountains near the village of Ödüllü in the Eyyübiye district, approximately 20 km southwest of Şanlıurfa, Çakmaktepe has been the focus of excavations. These efforts have unearthed circular pit-based domestic shelters and specialized structures carved into the bedrock. The prevalence of pit-based shelters suggests both a dense population and highly favorable environmental conditions for habitation. The bedrock served as the flooring for these structures, with terrazzo floor experiments conducted on sloped bedrock areas.

Intriguingly, certain buildings contained deliberately positioned wild animal heads at the base of walls, suggesting ritualistic practices. All of these animal heads underwent burning outside the structures before being placed within these spaces.

Based on flint chipped stone data, Çakmaktepe is dated to the end of the Epipaleolithic and the onset of the Pottery-Free Neolithic (PPNA). As the oldest identified settlement of settled hunter-gatherers in Anatolia, Çakmaktepe challenges previous notions, revealing that the transition to settled life in the region is far more ancient than previously understood.

Text Source. 

Factsheet

“T” shaped pillars were unearthed at Kurt Tepesi that was recently discovered in 2013 at Şanlıurfa region as a result of the survey studies. The findings unearthed from other recently discovered sites were circular building remains that are rather characterized as domestic architectural buildings resemblinge the features of the period: stone vessels, grinding stones, pestles, and lithic tools. One of the intriguing sites identified in the same year is the Ayan- lar Höyük settlement. Several findings unearthed from this settlement that cover a land of 140 decares indicate that this settlement might be one of the settlements that accommodate a “T” shaped pillar. Harbetsuvan Tepesi, on the other hand, was discovered during the surveys conducted in 2014. “T” shaped pillars were discovered in this settlement as well. The settlements recently discovered in years 2013 and 2014 are located at the mountain ranges and plateaus located east and west of the Harran plain.

Sefer Tepe is a small, broad and shallow mound located c. 72km east of Sanlıurfa, within the modern province borders of Viransehir. The mound is located at 600m altitude above sea level and covers a surface area of c. 7000m2. A country house is located in the south-eastern corner of the site. The closest water source is Yukarı Cırcıp creek, 1.5km to the east. The geological foundation is of calcareous rock and the closest basalt source is located 1km to the east. The most intriguing aspect of the Sefer Tepe site are the 16 in-situ T-shaped pillars. Most of the pillars were buried and placed side-by-side in a conjugate formation at c. 1.5 up to 2m intervals. The upper sections above the surface are c. 50cm long and 20cm wide. The positioning of the pillars is very similar to the architecture at Göbekli Tepe Level II and the monolithic in-situ pillars on the surface at Karahan Tepe. Moreover, another pillar was revealed during the construction of the country house in the south-eastern corner of the site. This pillar was found intact; its length is 198cm and the width of the head section is 72cm, the width of the body section 54cm and the thickness 25cm. The head section of this undecorated stele is extremely flattened; it has features identical with the pillars discovered at Nevali Çori, Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, Hamzan Tepe and Taşlı Tepe.

Author/Source: Bahattin Çelik

Karahan Tepe lies some 63 km east of Sanliurfa (Urfa), southeastern Turkey in an area called Tek Tek Daglari (Tektek Mountains). Some 266 in situ pillars were observed in the fields on the northern and eastern slopes of the hill. Since this area, which was discovered by the author in 1997. Geomorphologically, the Tektek Mountain area in the vicinity of the Karahan Tepe settlement in the southeast part of Harran plain is more of a range of high hills rather than mountains. It is a dissected Eocene and Miocene limestone formation whose valleys which were formed by erosion during interglacial and post-glacial periods under humid climatic conditions. There is no basalt in Tektek Daglari; the nearest basalt source is 15 km to the north of the settlement. Flint probably was obtained from the nodules found in the limestone of the area. The region has an average altitude of between 600 in and 800 m. In one exposure west of Karahan Tepe, a 4.5 m long T-shaped pillar is ready to be removed from the parent bedrock, similar to a situation at Göbekli Tepe. In other cases, there is "totem-pole"-like statue of superimposed animals, part of a pillar engraved with animals, some animal patterns engraved into groundstone, and a T shaped pillar with a snake relief similar to those from Nevali Çori and Gobekli Tepe. There are two side-by-side pillars 1.5 m distant from each other in a ruined sector partly destroyed by treasure hunters. On one of these broken pillars there is a relief of a snake at least 70 cm long, with a round head and a wavy body. Examples of stairs also have been seen on the platform of a nearby rock exposure. And what is most interesting here is that on both corners of the rock there are two 40x70 holes that might have been pillar bases. This is likely a ceremonial area.

Author/Source: Bahattin Çelik

The present paper aims to assess the finds from Harbetsuvan Tepesi, which we consider a small-scale satellite settlement located some 7km southwest of Karahan Tepe. The paper also endeavours to show analogous characteristics of Harbetsuvan Tepesi by comparing the site with PPN settlements in adjacent regions. The remains of a round-plan building, a recent discovery observed on the surface in Harbetsuvan Tepesi, which features T-shaped pillars, is particularly notable. The remains of this building, which has characteristics analogous to 'Enclosure F' at Göbekli Tepe, is extremely important, as it demonstrates that round-plan buildings were still in use during the early PPNB period.

Soğmatar, Şanlıurfa is 53 kilometers from Harran. It is located in Yağmurlu village, where there are important springs in the Tek Tek mountains. Tek Tek Mountains, which have important Neolithic centers such as Karahantepe, Harbetsuvan, and Kurt Tepesi, also have a cult center belonging to the Moon God Sin. The region is a cult center dedicated to the Moon God Sin in the Tektek Mountains region of the Harranians during the Abgar Kingdom Period. In the Sogmatar Cult center; There is a cave where the moon god Sin is worshiped (Pognon Cave), and a hill  (Sacred Hill- Turkish: Kutsal Tepe) on the slopes of which there are reliefs of the god and inscriptions engraved on the ground. Also, there are 6 square and round planned mausoleums, the inner castle, and many rock tombs carved into the main castle. Although the Ancient City of Soğmatar is dated to the 2nd century AD, researches show that the history of the city dates back to 2000 BC. Soğmatar was founded by the people who fled from the region due to the intense attacks of the Parthians (Iranians) in the Urfa region, especially in 165 AD, and preserved its cult center feature until the Islamic Period.

Although the name of the moon god in Mesopotamian civilizations varies from culture to culture, it is mostly seen as “Sin” and “Nanna.

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Our group by the wishing tree above Göbeklitepe.

Paul Skorpen at Göbeklitepe with the Navel of the World in the background.