Göbekli Tepe and Derinkuyu: The History of Ancient Anatolia’s Most Unique Sites

Summary

Despite the fact some Neolithic communities grew to considerable sizes, they’re typically not considered when people think of the first ancient civilizations or the first major cities, so when German archaeologists discovered the archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey in the 1990s, it created an academic firestorm that is still raging. Far from being just another settlement, Göbekli Tepe has been described as the world’s first temple and perhaps one of the locations where human civilization began. Subsequent archaeological work at Göbekli Tepe has revealed that the site was a spiritual center for the local population during a time when humans were undergoing a transition as hunter-gatherers in the Paleolithic Period to a more sedentary lifestyle in the Neolithic Period, more than 10,000 years ago. Further research in the disciplines of anthropology, religion, and history indicate that the activity at Göbekli Tepe subsequently set the tone for elements of Neolithic and Bronze Age religion and ideology in the Near East, especially in Anatolia (roughly equivalent with modern Turkey). 

Derinkuyu, which started with a series of cave constructions in the 7th century BCE, managed to become a somewhat bustling location when the Byzantine Empire controlled the area in the Early Middle Ages, alive with a combination of peasants, pilgrims, merchants, and warriors. As is the case with many archaeological sites, it was surpassed and forgotten with the advent of the modern world, so when Derinkuyu was serendipitously discovered in the mid-20th century, it remained a curiosity for quite some time and did not elicit much scholarly attention beyond the initial archaeological work and subsequent reports. More recently, Derinkuyu has caught the attention of tourists, while academics have started to ask serious questions about this important site.