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# In the 1960s, archaeologists from the Universities of Istanbul and Chicago worked on excavations in the region of South-Eastern Anatolia and found a mound there, covered with limestone slabs
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-1960-kh-godakh-arkheologi-iz-stambulskogo-i-chikagskogo-universitetov-rabotali-na-raskopkakh-v-regione-iugo-vostochnaia-anatolii-i-nashli-tam-kurgan-zalozhennyi-izvestniakovymi-plitam/
- Published: 2024-09-04T13:17:48.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:32:46.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archaeology, Faith, The East, Science

In the 1960s, archaeologists from the Universities of Istanbul and Chicago worked on excavations in the region of South-Eastern Anatolia and found a mound there, covered with limestone slabs. The scholars documented the fact of the find, but the place did not interest them overmuch. So the mound lay untouched until 1994, when the German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt decided to travel to Antalya to carry out a properly serious study of the site. And not in vain. The finds made at this place revolutionised our notions of the Early Neolithic of the Near East and of Eurasia as a whole.

Klaus Schmidt would devote the greater part of his scholarly career to the place now known as Göbekli Tepe. As the team of German archaeologists assembled by Schmidt would establish, Göbekli Tepe was built in the 11th millennium BC at the very least, which makes it 6,000 years older than Stonehenge. The question of the structure's original purpose remains open to this day: according to one, more classical, version, Göbekli Tepe is a temple complex. There is, however, another sufficiently persuasive version, put forward by Martin Sweatman of the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. He allows that Göbekli Tepe may have functioned as a lunisolar calendar or an observatory.

In the oldest layers of the structure no traces of domesticated animals or plants have been found. Apparently the building was begun by hunter-gatherers and completed by people who had mastered agriculture. It is noteworthy that on Mount Karacadağ, 30 km from Göbekli Tepe, there grows a wild variety of wheat from which, according to genetic studies, domesticated wheat descends.

Schmidt intended to leave the greater part of the complex untouched, preserving it for scholars of future generations (when archaeological methods, presumably, will have become more refined). All conclusions concerning the Göbekli Tepe temple complex remain for now provisional, since excavations are being carried out on only 5% of its territory. Archaeologists believe that the research will continue for another 50 years or so.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_13320@04-09-2024_16-17-48.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_13321@04-09-2024_16-17-48.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_13322@04-09-2024_16-17-48.jpg)