Göbeklitepe

Göbeklitepe: a striking example of the first Neolithic settlements

Göbeklitepe dating back to 11,500 years ago is located near Örencik village, 15 km northeast of Şanlıurfa province. Home to earliest vestiges about belief in the world, Göbeklitepe is one of the most important known centres of Neolithic Age. Göbeklitepe’s history traces to 9600 BCE and reflects an uninterrupted period of 1500 years. This time frame refers to neither one place, nor a given moment: the process had happened in a vast region and had remained dynamic for a long time. Anatolia is the place where today’s civilisation was born. It is also the place par excellence where humans established the first long-haul commercial relations, tried to tame animals and to do agriculture, founded villages for the first time, and built the world’s oldest monumental structures. All these constitute also the most important features of modern human life.   

Communities who lived in this primaeval marvel, passed from hunting-gathering to sedentism and built monumental megalithic structures. The T-shaped limestone pillars set in the middle of the structures are one of the first manifestations of human-made monumental architecture. The monuments are believed to be used in social events and rituals. 

Some structures are up to 20 metres in diameter, where terraces stretch along the walls and T-shaped and equally spaced stelae are installed in the middle.  

In the centre of 12 stelae around, there are two other stelae whose weight reaches 15 tons. The steles, some of which are 5.50 metres high, are decorated as if they were mythological representations: depictions of wild animals, geometrical figures, and few abstract depictions of humans. 

Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2018, the mysterious and impressive Göbeklitepe promises its visitors a time-travel into the most unknown periods of human history. 

The boar in Göbeklitepe: the first painted life-size statue 

During the excavations conducted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a life-size wild boar statue made of limestone was found in the D structure of Göbeklitepe. The sculpture, which shows red, white, and black pigment residues on its surface, is the first painted life-size example found from its period to the present day. The wild boar sculpture discovered in Göbeklitepe was found on a bench adorned with decorations, an H-shaped symbol, a crescent, two snakes, and three human faces or masks.