Göbekli Tepe and Navali Cori

Göbekli Tepe is an early Neolithic site in south eastern Turkey

The PPNA settlement has been dated to ca. 9000 BC. There are remains of smaller houses from the PPNE and some few epipalaeolithic finds as well. There are a number of radio carbon dates: 8960 – 9559 – 9452 - 8430

The site is located 15 km northeast of Urfa on the top of a range of limestone-hills that forms the south eastern extension of the Taurus mountains. The name means "hill with a navel". The tell (artificial settlement hill) is 15 m high and 300 m in diameter.

The houses or temples are round megalithic buildings. The walls are made of unworked dry stone and include numerous T-shaped monolithic pillars of limestone that are up to 3 m high. Another, bigger pair of pillars is placed in the centre of the structure. The floors are made of trraza (burnt lime), and there is a low bench running along the whole of the exterior wall.

While the settlement formally belongs to the earliest Neolithic (PPNA), up to now no traces of domesticated plants or animals have been found. The inhabitants were hunter gatherers.