https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/karahan-tepe-0014605
Breakthrough Discovery: Karahan Tepe is Older Than Göbekli Tepe
Researchers in Turkey are about to embark on an excavation at the ancient site of Karahan Tepe and they believe it’s much older than Göbekli Tepe, the famous “zero point of world history.” Until now, like yesterday, if you were to ask any professor of history or even a self-respecting armchair archaeologist to name the oldest monument ever discovered, they would all have said Göbekli Tepe. But now, that answer might be Karahan Tepe, and this is creating a lot of excitement in archaeological circles.
Karahan Tepe Is Said To Be Much Older Than Göbekli Tepe
Archaeologists have been working at the Karahan Tepe site, which is often called the sister site of Göbekli Tepe , since 1997. The site is located near Yağmurlu and roughly 35 kilometers east of the 12,000-year-old Göbekli Tepe site.
Over the years, archaeologists have made a series of amazing discoveries at the Karahan Tepe site. In particular, tons of buried T-shaped obelisks, similar to the ones carved with wild animals at Göbekli Tepe, have led researchers to conclude that Karahan Tepe “is much older,” than its “younger sister,” Göbekli Tepe.
Archaeologists have already found animal carvings at Karahan Tepe similar to the well-known Vulture Stone and others at Göbekli Tepe.
(Sue Fleckney / CC BY-SA 2.0 )
Head of excavations at Karahan Tepe, Professor Dr. Necmi Karul, told Hurriyet that “12 spots estimated to be in the same period as Göbekli Tepe are known in the region, one of which is Karahan Tepe.”
Speaking at the 10th International Resort Tourism Congress , Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said that an “intensive and rapid excavation program” continues in Karahan Tepe, which to date has yielded “250 obelisks featuring animal figures.” Ersoy claims the planned excavations will prove the settlement at Karahan Tepe “will be much older that the 12,000 year old Göbekli Tepe.”
The ongoing excavations at Karahan Tepe will likely reveal more T-shaped obelisks at the center of the site like these at Göbekli Tepe.
( Joaquin / Adobe Stock)
The mayor of Haliliye, Mehmet Canpolat, told Hurriyet that there are many similarities between Karahan Tepe and Göbekli Tepe, which he said “shed light on world history ,” representing the first known temple ever built.
A 2016 National Geographic article recounted the fascinating story of the discovery and preservation of Göbekli Tepe. Professor Klaus Schmidt, a German archaeologist who led excavations at the site, argued before he died in 2014 that “a vast labor force needed to build the enclosures” and that this construction project “pushed people to develop agriculture as a way of providing predictable food—and perhaps drink—for workers.”
At the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Turkey’s Doğuş Group announced that they planned to spend “$15 million over the next 20 years” in partnership with the National Geographic Society on the Göbekli Tepe site. And Doğuş Group chairman, Ferit F. Şahenk, said in a press release that the reason so much cash was being spent on Göbekli Tepe was because this prehistoric temple was the “zero point in time.”
Karahan Tepe May Well Be Göbekli Tepe’s Older Sister!
While Göbekli Tepe holds the world record in media headlines and elsewhere as the earliest temple of its type ever discovered, there are several other contenders for this crown in Turkey. According to Jens Notroff , an archaeologist at the German Archaeological Institute who is working on Göbekli Tepe site, “smaller versions of the pillars, symbols and architecture carved into stone at Göbekli Tepe have been found in settlements up to 125 miles away,” including Karahan Tepe.
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