Karahantepe

Türkiye · Şanlıurfa

SettlementExcavation ongoing
Approximate period9,400 BCE — 8,000 BCEPre-Pottery Neolithic See on the map ↓

In brief

Houses and special-purpose buildings have been uncovered together at the settlement in the Tek Tek Mountains. Quarries used to produce the pillars are also part of the site's archaeological whole.

What was found?

  • 1T-shaped limestone pillars

    These are stone elements that define the arrangement of circular buildings. They show the use of local limestone in monumental architecture.

  • 2Seated human statue

    This is a human depiction found fixed to the floor within a bench. The pronounced rendering of the ribs, spine and shoulder bones shows the detailed attention given to the human body.

  • 3Vulture statue

    This is an animal depiction set into the wall in the area where the human statue was found. It documents the use of human and animal depictions together in the same space.

  • 4Stone plates

    These are stone vessels left on the floor in the area where the human and vulture statues were found. They help us understand the arrangement of objects around the statues.

  • 5Pillar extraction beds

    These are traces of production identified in the site's quarries. They allow the pillars' raw material to be connected with their production location.

What does it point to?

The pillars, statues and quarries indicate that stoneworking and visual expression developed together. Although the presence of human and animal depictions in the same space shows a shared arrangement, it does not establish the meaning of that arrangement with certainty.

What did it teach us?

  1. Documents the relationship between monumental architectural elements and local limestone resources.
  2. Shows that the human body was represented through detailed statues.
  3. Offers an opportunity to assess statues together with the spaces in which they were placed and the objects around them, rather than in isolation.

Images

Urfa museum Karahantepe Human statue with leopard on back Neolithic Age (cleaned up)
Dosseman · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Urfa museum Karahantepe Statue of Vulture Neolithic age in 2024 7318
Dosseman · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Karahantepe2
Vincent Vega · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Videos

Latest news / selected archive

Human and vulture statues were found inside a special-purpose building during the 2023 excavations.

Record

Culture
Taş Tepeler Neolithic communities
First modern dig
2019
Team / historical
Necmi Karul; Istanbul University
Coordinates
37.0929°, 39.3036°

Sources

  1. muze.gov.tr
  2. avesis.istanbul.edu.tr
  3. cdn.istanbul.edu.tr
  4. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı — Göbeklitepe ve Karahantepe heykel buluntuları

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