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11,000-Year-Old “Leopard Rider” Found at Karahantepe Reverses an Earlier Neolithic Image
An 11,000-year-old “leopard rider” found at Karahantepe has reversed one of the Neolithic site’s strangest images. An earlier sculpture showed a human carrying a leopard; in the newly discovered composition, the predator bears the human. The 70-centimeter-tall stone sculpture was uncovered during the 2026 excavation season at Karahantepe, near Şanlıurfa in southeastern Türkiye. Archaeologists found…
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Karahantepe Diet Revealed: Gazelle Meat and Legumes Shaped Early Neolithic Life
A quiet detail is beginning to reshape how we understand the earliest settled communities. At Karahantepe, one of the key sites of the Taş Tepeler project in southeastern Türkiye, new research suggests that daily life was built around a surprisingly focused diet: gazelle meat and legumes. The finding may sound simple. It is not. It…
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An amphitheater-like Neolithic structure has been uncovered at Karahantepe in southeastern Turkey
Under the sharp light of the Şanlıurfa plateau, archaeologists at Karahantepe have revealed a structure unlike anything previously documented in the early Neolithic world: a circular, amphitheater-like gathering space carved directly into bedrock, lined with tiers of stone benches and flanked by human heads sculpted into its walls. The discovery pushes the boundaries of what…
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Karahantepe May Reveal Göbeklitepe Was Never Just a Temple
In the barren hills of southeastern Turkey, Karahantepe is quietly rewriting what we thought we knew about humanity’s earliest monuments.For decades, Göbeklitepe stood as an enigma — a site of stone circles and sacred carvings often described as the world’s first temple.Now, new evidence from Karahantepe suggests a more complex story: these were not places…
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Daily Life Unearthed at Karahantepe: Over 30 Neolithic Dwellings Reveal the Human Side of an 11,000-Year-Old Settlement
Archaeologists excavating the Neolithic site of Karahantepe in southeastern Türkiye have uncovered more than 30 small, subterranean dwellings dating back around 11,000 years. The discovery provides the clearest glimpse yet into how early Anatolian communities lived, worked, and organized their daily routines — long before the rise of cities or agriculture as we know them.…
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A New Chapter in Prehistory: First Human-Faced T-Shaped Pillar Unearthed at Karahantepe
Archaeologists working at Karahantepe, one of Türkiye’s oldest Neolithic sites, have uncovered a T-shaped stone pillar bearing a carved human face — a discovery hailed as a first in human history. The announcement was made by Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, who shared the news on his official X (Twitter) account, writing:…
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12,000-Year-Old Human Statue Found at Göbeklitepe Redefines Neolithic Beliefs
Archaeologists at Göbeklitepe, the world’s oldest known temple complex in southeastern Turkey, have uncovered a striking 12,000-year-old human statue embedded within a wall. The discovery is expected to reshape our understanding of Neolithic rituals and belief systems. Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced the find during his visit to the site,…