Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe are two of the most important archaeological sites from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period in southeastern Türkiye (near Şanlıurfa).

Dating to roughly 11,000–12,000 years ago (primarily ~9600–8000 BCE), they represent a profound transformation in human history: the emergence of monumental architecture, complex symbolism, and large-scale social organization by hunter-gatherer societies, before the full development of agriculture and settled farming villages.

Göbekli Tepe (“Potbelly Hill”): The best-known of the sites. It features large circular and rectangular enclosures with towering T-shaped limestone pillars (up to ~5.5 m / 18 ft tall, weighing several tons). Many pillars are carved with animals (foxes, snakes, vultures, boars, etc.), abstract symbols, and human-like features. Radiocarbon dating places the earliest monumental phases around 9500–9000 BCE. Long interpreted primarily as a ceremonial or ritual center, recent excavations (as of 2026) have revealed possible residential structures nearby, suggesting a more mixed settlement function. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Karahan Tepe (also called Girê Keçel or Keçilitepe): Located about 40–60 km east of Göbekli Tepe, it is often called its “sister site”. It is broadly contemporary (and some phases may be slightly earlier). It contains hundreds of T-shaped pillars, but much of the architecture is rock-cut—carved directly into the bedrock rather than built from freestanding stones. Notable finds include elaborate snake reliefs, a large human statue with visible ribs, carved human heads/faces, and possible ritual chambers. It shows clearer evidence of permanent or semi-permanent settlement alongside ritual spaces. Systematic excavations intensified around 2019.

Both belong to a wider network of similar sites known as Taş Tepeler (“Stone Hills”), indicating a regional cultural tradition.

These sites challenge the traditional “Neolithic Revolution” narrative that farming and sedentary life came first, followed by surplus food, social complexity, and then monumental building.

Instead, they show that:

• Hunter-gatherers organized large cooperative labor forces to quarry, carve, transport, and erect massive stones.
• They developed sophisticated symbolic and possibly religious systems (animal imagery, human representations, possible astronomical alignments such as solstice light effects at Karahan Tepe).
• Permanent or semi-permanent gatherings and settlements existed at the very dawn of the Neolithic, potentially helping drive the later adoption of plant cultivation and animal domestication in the Fertile Crescent.

In short, complex social and ritual life may have preceded (and helped enable) the shift to agriculture, rather than resulting from it.

This makes Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, and related sites a shared ancestral chapter in the human story—evidence of creativity, cooperation, and worldview-building that connects all later civilizations.

Ongoing excavations continue to refine dates, functions (ritual vs. domestic), and the exact relationship between the sites.

They remain among the oldest known examples of monumental human-made architecture anywhere on Earth.

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The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) is the earliest phase of the Neolithic period in the Near East (primarily the Levant, Upper Mesopotamia/Anatolia, and parts of the Fertile Crescent).

It dates roughly from c. 10,000–6500 BCE (about 12,000–8,500 years ago) and is defined by the beginnings of plant cultivation, animal management, permanent or semi-permanent settlements, and complex social organization, before the widespread use of pottery.

It was first defined by archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon based on her excavations at Jericho. The period follows the Epipalaeolithic (including the Natufian culture) and precedes the Pottery Neolithic.

Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) — c. 10,000/9600–8800 BCE
Early experimentation with plant cultivation (wild cereals like einkorn wheat, barley, legumes), continued heavy reliance on hunting wild game, and the rise of more permanent settlements. Architecture typically featured circular or oval, semi-subterranean houses with stone foundations and mud- brick or plastered floors. Communal structures appear (e.g., the Tower of Jericho). Key sites include Jericho, Göbekli Tepe (early phases), Karahan Tepe, Mureybet, and others. This is the era of the earliest monumental architecture by hunter-gatherer groups.

Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) — c. 8800–6500 BCE
Greater reliance on domesticated plants and animals (sheep, goats, later cattle and pigs), larger and more complex settlements, and a shift toward rectangular multi-room houses with polished lime-plaster floors. Stone tool technology advances (naviform blade production). Long-distance exchange networks expand (obsidian, etc.). Villages can grow quite large. Later phases sometimes include a transitional PPNC. Sites include ‘Ain Ghazal, Çayönü, later phases of Göbekli Tepe, and many others across the region.

Key Characteristics

• Subsistence — Transition from pure hunting-gathering toward mixed economies. Domestication of “founder crops” (wheat, barley, lentils, peas, etc.) and animals begins or intensifies. Hunting remains important, especially early on.
• Architecture & Settlement — From small circular dwellings to larger rectangular houses and monumental public/ritual buildings (T-shaped pillars at Göbekli Tepe and related Taş Tepeler sites). Evidence of planned communities and cooperative labor.
• Technology — Advanced stone tools, ground stone for processing plants, early lime plaster, but no fired pottery (containers were often stone, plaster, or organic materials).
• Society & Belief — Increasing social complexity, ritual practices (burials under house floors, human and animal figurines, elaborate carvings), and possible regional ceremonial centers.
• Environment — Occurs after the end of the last Ice Age (Younger Dryas), during a period of climatic warming that supported denser vegetation and human experimentation with resources.

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic marks one of the most important transitions in human history: the shift toward food production, sedentism, and more complex societies.

Sites like Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe show that monumental construction and sophisticated symbolism emerged before full agricultural economies, challenging older models that assumed farming came first.

This period laid the foundations for later civilizations across Southwest Asia and beyond.

Dates can vary slightly by region and ongoing radiocarbon refinements, and the processes of domestication and settlement were gradual and regionally diverse rather than a single abrupt “revolution.”

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Göbekli Tepe’s climate context sits at a major turning point in Earth’s recent climate history: the transition from the cold, dry Younger Dryas into the warmer, wetter early Holocene.

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) period of c. 10,000–6500 BCE falls almost entirely within the early Holocene.

Many researchers note that the end of the cold, dry Younger Dryas and the subsequent climatic improvement of the early Holocene created favorable conditions (expanded grasslands, reliable wild cereals, etc.) that supported the experiments with plant cultivation, sedentism, and the social complexity seen at sites like Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe.

10,000–6500 BCE is primarily early Holocene, beginning immediately after (or overlapping the final stages of) the Younger Dryas.

Timeline Overview

• Younger Dryas (≈12,900–11,700/11,600 cal BP, roughly 10,950–9,650 BCE): A sharp return to near-glacial conditions after an earlier warming phase (Bølling-Allerød). In southeastern Anatolia and the northern Fertile Crescent, this meant cooler temperatures and high aridity, with steppe-dominated landscapes (lots of Artemisia, grasses, and herbaceous plants) and limited tree cover. l
• Early Holocene begins ≈11,700 cal BP (≈9700 BCE) with rapid warming and increased moisture.
• Göbekli Tepe’s main occupation (roughly mid-10th to late-9th millennium BCE, ≈9600–8000 BCE / 11,500–10,000 cal BP) falls squarely in the early Holocene, shortly after the Younger Dryas ended.

The site was built and used under generally more favorable conditions than today or during the Younger Dryas:

• Warmer and wetter than the preceding cold phase, with higher precipitation supporting denser vegetation.
• Landscape around the site: Open steppe with stands of trees (pistachio, almond, deciduous oak/Quercus, willow, and others). Botanical remains (charcoal and pollen) confirm a mix of grassland and woodland rather than pure desert or dense forest.
• Rainfall was sufficient to support wild cereals and other plant resources that hunter-gatherers intensively exploited. People likely harvested rainwater using channels and cisterns carved into the limestone plateau, as natural springs are not clearly evidenced nearby.
• The early Holocene was not uniformly stable. Short rapid climate change (RCC) intervals occurred (notably around 10.2 ka BP / ≈8200 BCE, and others at ≈9.3 and 8.6 ka BP). Some researchers link increased rainfall or slope instability during these events to partial inundation or challenges at the site, and possibly to later abandonment phases.

Local Environmental Evidence

• Pollen and multiproxy studies from the immediate hinterland show a clear shift: cold and dry steppe during the Younger Dryas → increased organic productivity, deciduous trees, and more humid conditions in the early Holocene.
• Pedogenic (soil-formed) carbonate coatings and other proxies indicate ongoing environmental change through the early-to-mid Holocene, with a trend toward higher temperatures and, later, peak humidity before gradual aridization.
• Present-day climate at the site is semi-arid (hot dry summers, mild-to-cold wet winters). Conditions during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic were wetter and supported more vegetation cover and soil development than the modern landscape.

The end of the Younger Dryas and the onset of early Holocene climate amelioration created ecological opportunities—more reliable wild plant resources, expanded grasslands, and better water availability—that helped enable the social complexity, monumental construction, and eventual experiments with cultivation seen at Göbekli Tepe and related Taş Tepeler sites.

Climate set a favorable stage, but the monuments themselves reflect human organization, belief systems, and cooperation rather than a simple deterministic response to environment.

Göbekli Tepe rose in a post-glacial world that was becoming warmer, wetter, and more productive—right at the hinge between the Pleistocene and the Holocene, when human societies in the region were transforming their relationship with the landscape.

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Göbeklitepe in Palaeoclimate Context: Human Responses to Climate Change in the Upper Tigris and Euphrates Basins from the Younger Dryas to the Early Holocene

“Göbeklitepe in Palaeoclimate Context: Human Responses to Climate Change in the Upper Tigris and Euphrates Basins from the Younger Dryas to the Early Holocene” is an open-access research article by Lee Clare (German Archaeological Institute, Istanbul Department), published on 30 April 2026 in the journal Heritage (Volume 9, Issue 5, Article 179; DOI: 10.3390/heritage9050179).

Author

Lee Clare is a research lecturer and prehistoric archaeologist and field director involved in the Göbeklitepe excavations. He has long worked on the site’s chronology, architecture, and environmental context as part of the German Archaeological Institute’s project and the broader Taş Tepeler research.

Abstract / Core Focus

The paper places Göbeklitepe (and related sites such as Karahantepe) in the wider cultural and palaeoclimate setting of the upper Euphrates and Tigris basins (northern Fertile Crescent, southeastern Türkiye).

It examines the period from the 11th to the 8th millennium cal BC, spanning the Younger Dryas into the Early Holocene, when communities shifted from mobile hunter-foragers to more settled agriculturalists while constructing the first monumental buildings.

Although the Early Holocene is generally seen as a phase of climate improvement after the cold and dry Younger Dryas, it also included short, abrupt rapid climate change (RCC) intervals.

The study analyses demographic trends against these climatic shifts to assess possible impacts on human communities during this key phase of Neolithisation.

Key Points from the Paper

Clare highlights three main milestones at Göbeklitepe that align with (or follow) climate intervals:

1. Foundation of the settlement — Following the end of the Younger Dryas, during Early Holocene climate amelioration (warmer and wetter conditions). Increased rainfall likely made (semi-)permanent occupation possible. With no clear natural springs nearby, people relied on rainwater harvesting via channels and cisterns carved into the limestone plateau.
2. Inundation / slope-slide damage — Linked to the “Hunter-Gatherer Crisis” (HGC) or related RCC events. Increased rainfall or heavy snow may have destabilised slopes, causing slides that affected parts of the site (including possible damage to Special Building D).
3. Abandonment processes — Associated with the RCC interval around 10,200 cal BP (≈8200 BCE). This period of climatic instability may have contributed to the decline of the monumental PPN sites in the Taş Tepeler region. Architectural evidence shows later, smaller, more scattered round-oval structures (possibly used by “ruin dwellers” or squatters) above earlier EPPNB layers, though absolute radiocarbon dates for the final phase are still limited.

The paper emphasises that climate influenced opportunities and challenges (e.g., resource availability, water management, slope stability) but did not deterministically dictate human history.

Communities responded in complex ways — expanding settlements and building monuments during amelioration, while later phases show adaptation or contraction during instability.

Local geomorphological data (e.g., from the Culap Suyu Basin) do not always show a simple, large-scale dry-to-wet shift at the Younger Dryas–Early Holocene transition.

The article integrates archaeological evidence from Göbeklitepe with regional palaeoclimate records to provide a nuanced view of human–environment interactions during the critical transition to the Neolithic.

It is part of ongoing efforts to move beyond earlier “temple” narratives toward a more complete understanding of the site as a long-lived settlement with both monumental and domestic components, set within a dynamic climatic landscape.

The full paper is freely available on the MDPI website.

Published: Heritage (Volume 9, Issue 5, Article 179)

DOI: 10.3390/heritage9050179

Author: Lee Clare (German Archaeological Institute, Istanbul Department)