Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe: The History of Neolithic Anatolia’s Mysterious Religious Sites

Despite the fact some Neolithic communities grew to considerable sizes, they’re typically not considered when people think of the first ancient civilizations or the first major cities, so when German archaeologists discovered the archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey in the 1990s, it created an academic firestorm that is still raging. Far from being just another settlement, Göbekli Tepe has been described as the world’s first temple and perhaps one of the locations where human civilization began. Subsequent archaeological work at Göbekli Tepe has revealed that the site was a spiritual center for the local population during a time when humans were undergoing a transition as hunter-gatherers in the Paleolithic Period to a more sedentary lifestyle in the Neolithic Period, more than 10,000 years ago. Further research in the disciplines of anthropology, religion, and history indicate that the activity at Göbekli Tepe subsequently set the tone for elements of Neolithic and Bronze Age religion and ideology in the Near East, especially in Anatolia (roughly equivalent with modern Turkey).

Likewise, archaeologists have been able to determine when Karahan Tepe was built, possibly how long it was occupied, and that it was probably related to the larger, better-known site of Göbekli Tepe, but several important questions remain. What was the purpose of Karahan Tepe? Was Karahan Tepe a permanent or semi-permanent settlement? What was the background of the people who built the site, and how long did it take them to build it?

Karahan Tepe was just one of many sites in ancient modern Turkey, and as part of a greater complex, Karahan Tepe represents one of the earliest known attempts to build a complex society, so understanding more about the site can tell historians about how the process worked.

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Audiobook: 1 September 2025