Karahan Tepe
Karahan Tepe is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic archaeological site in Şanlıurfa, Turkey. The site is in the same geographical region as Göbekli Tepe and archaeologists have also uncovered T-shaped stelae there and believe that the sites are related. Additionally, the site may be the earliest known human village, predating the construction of Göbekli Tepe by several centuries, dating to between 10,000 and 9500 BCE.
The site is located near Yağmurlu and roughly 46 kilometers east of Göbekli Tepe, which is often called its sister site. It was discovered in 1997 by Bahattin Celik. It is part of the Göbekli tepe Culture and Karahan tepe Excavations project. The area is known as “Keçilitepe” by local people. It is part of a group of about 12 similar sites now being investigated, known as "Taş Tepeler". Research is being made to better understand the organization of the workforce and the degree and nature of the specialization involved in the construction of these monuments.
History
The ancient structures at Karahan Tepe were discovered in 1997 by "researchers near the Kargalı neighborhood in the Tek Tek [Mountains National Park]."Necmi Karul, an archeologist at Istanbul University, told Anadolu Agency in 2019, “Last year, excavation work restarted in Karahan tepe – around 60 km from where Göbekli tepe is located – and we encountered traces of special structures, obelisks, animal sculptures, and descriptions as well as similar symbolism”. The site was filled with dirt and rubble at some point, preserving T-topped columns carved into bedrock. These structures have been described as 'phallic totems'.
Site
The Karahan tepe archaeological site covers almost 10 hectares, which increases by another five hectares if the quarries for the T-shaped columns are included.As of 2023, around 5% of the surface extent of the site has been excavated.