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Karahan Tepe

Karahan Tepe
Image: Frantisek Trampota, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain. Resized; not otherwise altered. All credits.
LocationTektek Mountains, east of Şanlıurfa, Türkiye
Conventional dateBroadly about 9500–8000 BCE (Taş Tepeler group).
Alternative date proposals
  • Sweatman (2024): An 11-pillar structure encodes the same calendar as Göbekli Tepe [2]
What is measured
  • Rock-cut chambers with pillars and carved human heads, excavated by Necmi Karul's team. [1]

One of a dozen or more contemporary sites around Şanlıurfa, showing Göbekli Tepe was part of a regional tradition.

Claims about this site

ClaimStatusVerdict
Göbekli Tepe's megalithic enclosures are about 11,600 years oldMainstreamMeasured: c. 9500 BCE
Göbekli Tepe's Vulture Stone records a comet impact and an ancient calendarLeading EdgeOpen question

Visiting: Göbekli Tepe and Şanlıurfa

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Sources

  1. Archaeology Magazine (March/April 2024). Discovering a new Neolithic world (Karahan Tepe and the Taş Tepeler sites). https://archaeology.org/issues/march-april-2024/features/discovering-… background
  2. Sweatman, M. B. (2024). Representations of calendars and time at Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe support an astronomical interpretation of their symbolism. Time and Mind 17. doi:10.1080/1751696X.2024.2373876 proponent

Dates are summarised in our own words from the sources listed. Conventional and alternative dates are both reported; "measured" lists only dated or documented findings. Methodology.