The year 2020 marked a quarter of a century since the beginning of archaeological excavations at G\u00f6bekli Tepe. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, this anniversary was somewhat forgotten. Reason enough for us to briefly summarise the story behind the now 28 years of research at this famous site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Initially identified as a prehistoric site in 1963 in the frame of a Turkish-American archaeological survey project, G\u00f6bekli Tepe was more or less forgotten for over thirty years, attention turning instead to the site of \u00c7ay\u00f6n\u00fc Tepesi (Ergani\/Diyarbak\u0131r) discovered during the same survey. In the interim years, excavations at \u00c7ay\u00f6n\u00fc and other sites, including Cafer H\u00f6y\u00fck, Hallan \u00c7emi and Neval\u0131 \u00c7ori, revealed much more about the transition from hunter-gatherer to sedentary societies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story behind the re-discovery of G\u00f6bekli Tepe has meanwhile entered the realms of modern archaeological myth. Although synonymous with the name Klaus Schmidt, a German archaeologist who dedicated much of his career to Early Neolithic research in Southeast Turkey, the re-discovery of G\u00f6bekli Tepe in 1994 takes pride of place in the accounts of the local community from \u00d6rencik, a village located just two kilometres west of the site. Unaware of the outstanding role that the mound would one day play in Neolithic research, the local families considered their finds – made during ploughing and field-boundary wall construction – important enough to report them to the nearby Sanliurfa Museum. Additionally, the fact that Schmidt was guided to the mound by a local farmer (\u015e. Y\u0131ld\u0131z) after enquiring about flint surface scatters is clear evidence of this local knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It goes without saying that the infrastructure that we see today at G\u00f6bekli Tepe, which allows hundreds of visitors to pass through its gates every day, was inconceivable to Klaus Schmidt and his companions at the time of their initial visits in October 1994. Access to the site was only possible by foot from the outskirts of \u00d6rencik village; the modern asphalt roads now leading to the site either did not exist or were still mere dirt tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1995, fieldwork began at G\u00f6bekli Tepe under the auspices of the \u015eanl\u0131urfa Museum (Adnan M\u0131s\u0131r), with Harald Hauptmann (German Archaeological Institute) as acting site director. From the very beginning, fieldwork was coordinated by Klaus Schmidt, who, following Hauptmann\u2019s retirement, became director of excavations in 2006 until he passed away in 2014. The directorship of excavations passed to the \u015eanl\u0131urfa Museum with Lee Clare as field director and coordinator of DAI\/DFG research activities. In 2019, Necmi Karul became the new director of the “G\u00f6bekli Tepe Culture and Karahantepe Excavation” Project. Archaeological research by the DAI continues unabated and is coordinated and supervised by Lee Clare (DAI Istanbul).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2010, research at G\u00f6bekli Tepe has been generously supported by the DFG (German Research Foundation) in the frame of a long-term research project, “The Prehistoric societies of Upper Mesopotamia and their subsistence”. At present, this international and interdisciplinary project is being undertaken by the German Archaeological Institute (Orient and Istanbul Departments), the Ludwig Maximilian Universit\u00e4t M\u00fcnchen (Archaeozoology) and the Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin (Geography) in cooperation with the University of Cologne (Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology) and the Istanbul University (Arkeoloji B\u00f6l\u00fcm\u00fc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In over 28 years, many colleagues have contributed to our understanding of G\u00f6bekli Tepe. It is a natural process that team members move on and take up different tasks and positions elsewhere. Therefore, in the coming weeks, we will introduce you to the current team members and also present some of the latest results and insights from G\u00f6bekli Tepe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a brief summary of research post-2014, see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/doi.org\/10.34780\/efb.v0i2.1012<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n