Karahan Tepe Mystery: Latest Archaeological Finds

Karahan Tepe is rewriting the earliest chapters of human civilization. Located in southeastern Turkey, just 35 kilometers from Göbekli Tepe, this extraordinary site has emerged through excavations begun in earnest after 2019 as one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the twenty-first century. Its carved pillars, human-headed sculptures, and evidence of permanent ritual occupation predate agriculture, predate pottery, and predate every assumption scholars once held about what hunter-gatherer societies were capable of building, organizing, and believing. Karahan Tepe Mystery examines what the latest excavations have revealed—and what those revelations demand of our understanding of human prehistory.

Drawing on field reports from the Karahan Tepe Archaeological Project, comparative analysis with Göbekli Tepe and the broader Taş Tepeler network of sites, peer-reviewed archaeological literature, and the accounts of excavating researchers, each chapter examines a distinct dimension of the discovery: the architectural complexity of its T-shaped pillars, the unprecedented three-dimensional human sculptures, the evidence of multi-season occupation, and the emerging picture of a ritual landscape connecting a dozen related sites across the Harran Plain. The book situates Karahan Tepe within the wider revolution in Neolithic studies that has followed decades of fieldwork in the region.