A regional programme studying Neolithic transformation
Stone Hills is not one ancient city. It brings Göbeklitepe, Karahantepe, Sayburç and other Neolithic settlements into a regional programme studying different paths from mobile lifeways toward settlement.
✓The institutional relationship is verified against official project and institution pages.
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Evidence at a glance
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Multiple Neolithic settlements around Şanlıurfa
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Around 12,000 years old
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Monumental and domestic spaces studied together
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Göbeklitepe is World Heritage
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Read the site layer by layer
Sources for this dossier are listed together in the bibliography below. Individual claims are marked at section level only when a direct source mapping has been verified.
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A region, not one site
The programme compares Göbeklitepe, Karahantepe, Sayburç, Sefertepe and other centres, replacing a single 'first temple' story with relationships among settlements.
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Overview of the excavated Neolithic structures at Karahantepe.Captured: 2025Photo: CampelsWikimedia Commons ↗CC0 1.0 ↗Cropped for web
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Settlement and social organisation
Round and rectangular buildings, communal spaces, storage and production show that the move toward settled life was not a single event. Shared labour and specialisation are key questions.
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Bedrock-cut pillars and carved human head in Structure AB at Karahantepe.Captured: 2025Photo: tobeytravelsWikimedia Commons ↗CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Cropped for web
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T-shaped pillars and images
Anthropomorphic pillars, animal reliefs and sculpture are evidence for identity, memory, ritual and relationships with nature—not merely isolated artworks.
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T-shaped pillars from Göbeklitepe displayed in Şanlıurfa Archaeological Museum.Captured: 2025Photo: Marco RestanoWikimedia Commons ↗CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Cropped for web
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Food and production
Animal bone, plant remains, grinding stones and spatial patterns point to a complex transition in which hunting, plant processing and early production overlapped.
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Limestone mortar and pestle from Nevalı Çori, a regional comparison for Neolithic Şanlıurfa.Captured: 2026Photo: BautschWikimedia Commons ↗CC0 1.0 ↗Cropped for web
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Protection and accurate description
The entire programme is not a UNESCO property; that status belongs to Göbeklitepe. It is in Şanlıurfa and is not a single 'ancient city'.
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The excavation area and visitor route beneath Göbeklitepe's protective roof.Captured: 2025Photo: PhilrockWikimedia Commons ↗CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Cropped for web
Through an Archaeologist's Eye
What should you notice in the field?
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What deserves attention on site?
Read communal buildings against domestic spaces and keep pillars within their spatial context.
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How should this layer be read?
The sequence of round and rectilinear plans shows that sedentism was not a single step.
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What is the common misreading?
Calling every Stone Hills settlement a single 'temple civilisation' obscures domestic and economic evidence.
These boxes do not claim personal discoveries. They are field-reading questions grounded in published archaeological context. Verifiable original observations by Ersin İğde are added separately and explicitly labelled.
Field mode
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Why does it matter?
Stone Hills
Stone Hills strengthens the view that civilisation emerged through long experiments among different communities, not at one centre in one sudden moment.
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Programme scope check
Official project sources were used to reconfirm that Stone Hills is not one site and UNESCO status applies only to Göbeklitepe.
Stone HillsOpen official source Scientific leadRepublic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and TourismOpen official source 
