11 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

At Göbeklitepe, believed to be the earliest known Mesolithic temple complex, grinding stones were discovered

A recent discovery at Göbeklitepe, the oldest known Mesolithic temple complex, has revealed grinding stones, new finds expected to shed light on human history.

“During this year’s work we made a large number of findings such as grinding stones and hammerstones indicating daily use in these places,” Necmi Karul, an archeologist at the Istanbul University and leader of the excavation team, according to the news reported by Anadolu Agency.

Karul stated that the information obtained in archaeological excavations changes as new studies are conducted and data analysis is made. He said that while some of the generally accepted views on Göbeklitepe are still valid, some are likely incorrect in light of new findings from excavations.

Grinding stones were frequently used in ancient times to crush or pulp plants or animals for use in cooking.  “Analysis of these findings will give us an idea of what these activities were,” he said, adding that they plan to do this during the winter.

As the team began to consider other possibilities about the ancient site, he said: “One of the prominent ones is that although it has been suggested that there were only public buildings in Göbeklitepe, called temples by some, it was known that there were places in the form of dwellings and shelters.”

He went on to say: “More of these (dwellings and shelters) have been found. So this has fueled debate over whether this was a gathering center or a settlement where people live at the same time.”

Photo: Arkeonews. by Oğuz Büyükyıldırım

The discovery of residences in Karahantepe and other stone hills that were in existence at the same time as Göbeklitepe, according to Karul, increased the likelihood that these locations were settlements with public structures.

He stated that Göbeklitepe and other sites known as Taş Tepeler “Stone Hills” in Turkish were contemporaneous and spanned a period of about 1,500 years, emphasizing that all findings from these sites reflect the culture of the time. He added that according to those findings, the first agricultural experiments were carried out in this region.

In 2016, German Archaeological Institute archaeologist Laura Dietrich began analyzing thousands of stone grinding tools that had been excavated at Göbekli Tepe over the course of nearly two decades.  Using a combination of use-wear studies, experimental archaeology, and microscopy, Dietrich analyzed the way in which the stones had been worn down over time and showed that they had been used to process grains and legumes. She identified chemical residues on many of the vessels that provided evidence they had been used to cook vats of porridge or perhaps the occasional batch of prehistoric beer. “Most probably,” Dietrich’s study says, “these people were cultivators, or at least had strategies to gather large quantities of wild grain.”

“The existence of tools pointing to agricultural experiments shows us that when the first settlements began to appear at the site, there was no agricultural activity, but wild grains were collected, and that this collection process evolved into the cultivation of plants over time,” Karul said. While the layers at nearby Cakmaktepe are “possibly older” than Gobeklitepe and Karahantepe, architectural remains pointing to the presence of complex societies in Sayburc from the beginning of the Neolithic period were unearthed last year.

Professor Necmi Karul
Professor Necmi Karul

The team also found the remains of a rectangular-planned building from the end of the Neolithic period, which would demonstrate a complex character at the Sefertepe site, adding that findings from the pre-Neolithic period were also unearthed in the Söğüt field.

“It is a fact that both Göbeklitepe and other settlements are sites that were part of an interacting social organization in a wide region about 11,000-11,500 years ago.”

While Karul described the period as the beginning of settled life and living together in larger groups for the first time, he stressed that this brought a new social order, new relationships and a division of labor.

On the presence of a developed workforce organization, Karul said that public buildings are among the best indicators of this and that the figures in these structures and the scenes depicted on the figures are the products of a communal memory based on a distant past.

“When we put all this together, we see the construction of a new society that we have never encountered before.”

Southeast Turkey’s Göbeklitepe is a UNESCO World Heritage site that dates back to 11.7 ka BCE. It consists of circular, doorless rooms that are laterally aligned and supported by five-meter-tall limestone columns that are T-shaped on the interior and exterior. Most columns contain animal drawings.

According to studies, the location may have served a special purpose, such as serving as a temple. After about 2 ka of use, the site was deliberately filled in with stones. The site predates the start of the agricultural era, so it is unclear what civilization built such massive structures using only hand axes and what the figures on the columns represent.

Related Articles

4,000-year-old Rock Art From A Previously Unknown Ancient Culture uncovered in Venezuela

4 July 2024

4 July 2024

An archaeological team in Venezuela has uncovered 20 ancient rock art sites in Canaima National Park in the southeastern part...

Rare 832 copper coins from the Portuguese era unearthed in Goa, India

11 November 2023

11 November 2023

In Sattari, Nanoda, in the state of Goa on the west coast of India, 832 copper coins that are believed...

Coins from the World’s Richest Shipwreck Could Confirm the San José Galleon

16 June 2025

16 June 2025

A recent underwater exploration off the coast of Colombia has uncovered compelling new evidence that may confirm the identity of...

A Byzantine Princess, a Mongol Khan, and a Church: The Bloody Church and Its Unknown History

13 May 2025

13 May 2025

Nestled at the base of the imposing Phanar Greek Orthodox College, a landmark intrinsically linked to the panoramic vistas of...

The Mysterious Origins of the Cerne Abbas Giant Finally Revealed

3 January 2024

3 January 2024

There’s a huge chalk image of a man with a powerful erection and no clothes on his butt located in...

Queen of Seas Who Challenged Rome: ‘Queen Teuta’

31 October 2023

31 October 2023

Illyrian Queen Teuta is one of the most extraordinary figures of Illyrian antiquity and of Albanian heritage. She was also...

A relief of a man holding his Phallus was found in Sayburç, one of the Taş Tepeler

18 October 2021

18 October 2021

In Sayburç, one of the Taş Tepeler in Şanlıurfa, a five-figure scene consisting of humans, leopards, and a bull was...

In Russia, archaeologists 2100-Year-Old Medallion of Goddess Aphrodite and a warrior tomb unearthed

30 October 2022

30 October 2022

Archaeologists have unearthed a silver medallion depicting the Greek goddess Aphrodite (Roma Venüs) in a 2100-year-old grave of a priestess...

Mummy of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep ‘unwrapped’ for the first time in 3,500 years!

30 December 2021

30 December 2021

Egyptian scientists have digitally unwrapped the 3,500-year-old mummy of pharaoh Amenhotep I. For the first time, a team in Egypt...

Evidence of textile manufacture dating back millennia was found in an area famous for the Witney Blanket

12 June 2023

12 June 2023

Archaeological excavations at the site of Oxfordshire County Council’s project to build the A40 Science Transit Park and Ride at...

Archaeologists have unearthed two early Aksumite Churches in Africa

11 December 2022

11 December 2022

New discoveries in the port city of Adulis on Eritrea’s Red Sea coast show that two ancient churches discovered more...

Evil-Wisher Well: Ancient curse tablets 2,500-year-old found in a well in Athens

14 July 2022

14 July 2022

30 ancient curse tablets were found at the bottom of a 2500-year-old well in ancient Athens. In 2020, Archaeologists from...

As Thin as Modern Tools: World’s Oldest Steel Acupuncture Needles Discovered in China

6 July 2025

6 July 2025

In a discovery that reshapes the history of traditional Chinese medicine, archaeologists have unearthed what experts now confirm to be...

Inscription dedicated to Roman Emperor Hadrian found in ancient city of Blaundus

26 November 2024

26 November 2024

An inscription dedicated to the Roman Emperor Hadrian was discovered during the ongoing excavations at the ancient city of Blaundus...

Archaeologists have found an intriguing Iron Age “shrine” in the Yorkshire Wolds

19 September 2021

19 September 2021

Archaeologists have discovered an interesting ancient Iron Age “shrine” in the Yorkshire Wolds, which was marked out by meticulously placed...