Language: English

Live stream event
Hosted by Filiz T.: PhD in Art History and Licensed Tour Guide in Turkey

Key Points

• GÖBEKLITEPE: The Site That Rewrote Human Prehistory
• Live Q&A
• Closed Captioning Available
• Contents suitable for children

Description

Predating both the pyramids and Stonehenge by over 5,000 years, Göbeklitepe is a 12,000- year-old megalithic complex nestled in the Taurus Mountain foothills of southeastern Türkiye — and it has fundamentally challenged everything archaeologists thought they knew about early human societies. The site’s monumental T- haped limestone pillars, some weighing up to 20 tons and adorned with precisely carved bas-reliefs of foxes, scorpions, and vultures, were erected by Neolithic hunter-gatherers at a time when permanent settlement and organized labor were not thought to be part of the human behavioral repertoire. Since its excavation began in 1995 under German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, Göbeklitepe has forced a major reassessment of the relationship between ritual, social complexity, and the origins of civilization. This virtual tour walks you through the site’s excavated enclosures, examines the archaeological evidence up close, and explores the leading theories on its function — from a ceremonial gathering site to one of humanity’s earliest centers of religious practice. What drove prehistoric humans to organize, quarry, and construct on this scale remains one of archaeology’s most compelling open questions.
– The T-shaped monolithic pillars, some up to 5.5 meters tall and weighing up to 20 tons, adorned with precisely carved bas-reliefs of foxes, vultures, scorpions, and boars
– Evidence that ritual and symbolic thinking preceded agriculture, overturning the traditional “food first, religion later” model of civilization’s origins
– A short virtual tour of the Berlin exhibition Building Community — Göbeklitepe, Taş Tepeler and Life 12,000 Years Ago, featuring reconstructions, and scholarly insights