Archaeological excavations at Mendik Tepe, a site believed to predate both Göbeklitepe—often called the “zero point of history”—and Karahantepe, are offering new insights into humanity’s earliest steps toward settled life.
Situated in the rural Payamlı neighborhood of Şanlıurfa’s Eyyübiye district, Mendik Tepe was first identified by excavation director Fatma Şahin. Work at the site began in 2024 under the leadership of Professor Douglas Baird of the University of Liverpool’s Department of Archaeology. The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum, supported by the British Institute of Archaeology, and forms part of Türkiye’s “Taş Tepeler” (Stone Hills) Project led by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Investigating Early Neolithic Structures
Professor Baird explained that excavations have already uncovered several buildings of different sizes, sparking questions about their function and significance.
“Last year we opened a few trenches and immediately began to find structures,” Baird said. “Some were small—about three meters across—others slightly larger, and a few were significantly bigger. This season, our aim is to understand why these buildings varied so much in size.”
According to Baird, Mendik Tepe likely dates to the earliest stages of the Neolithic era, when people were first abandoning mobile foraging to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle, possibly experimenting with plant cultivation.
“This site seems to capture the very beginnings of that transformation,” he noted. “We’re asking fundamental questions about why people settled down and how agriculture may have started.”
Earlier than Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe?
Baird added that Mendik Tepe and nearby Çakmak Tepe, also being excavated under Şahin’s direction, appear to be older than much of what has been unearthed at Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe.
“What’s exciting is that Mendik Tepe is not identical to the famous pillar sites,” he said. “Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe are renowned for their large T-shaped pillars decorated with carvings of animals and humans. At Mendik Tepe, the pillars are smaller and not T-shaped, suggesting a different architectural tradition.”
A New Chapter in Early Human History
The discovery could reshape our understanding of the transition to settled life in southeastern Anatolia, a region already known for some of the world’s earliest monumental architecture.
The 12,000-year-old remains of Göbeklitepe, first identified in 1963 by researchers from Istanbul and Chicago universities and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2018, have long been regarded as the earliest evidence of complex ritual architecture. Findings at Mendik Tepe may now push that timeline even further back.
