Mendik Tepe: Older Than Göbekli Tepe

Many of you have heard of Göbekli Tepe, a 12,000-year-old site known for its monumental, heavily engraved T-shaped stone pillars ... and because it broke everything archaeologists thought they knew about pre-history and the earliest settlements. Now it is being reported that another site--Mendik Tepe--may be even older. From Arkeonews:

    Archaeologists working at Mendik Tepe, a prehistoric mound in southeastern Türkiye, are unearthing evidence that may date earlier than the world-famous Göbekli Tepe, often hailed as the “zero point of history.” The excavation, part of the wider Taş Tepeler Project, is already reshaping our understanding of the Neolithic Revolution and humanity’s transition from hunter-gatherers to settled communities.

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    Mendik Tepe is located in the Eyyübiye district of Şanlıurfa, near Payamlı village, at the heart of the Fertile Crescent. The site was first identified by archaeologist Fatma Şahin and is now being excavated under the direction of Professor Douglas Baird of the University of Liverpool, in collaboration with the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum and the British Institute of Archaeology.

    Baird emphasizes the importance of this new site:

    “The finds suggest Mendik Tepe belongs to the very beginnings of the Neolithic. While connected to Göbekli Tepe and Karahantepe, its structures show unique forms and may even predate them.”

    This makes Mendik Tepe a crucial piece in understanding how Neolithic culture emerged and spread across the Taş Tepeler region.

Significantly, and unlike Göbekli Tepe which appears to be a ceremonial center, excavations at Mendik Tepe have revealed a number of structures with different purposes: larger structures believed to have ritual or ceremonial significance, medium sized structures that were probably homes, and smaller structures probably used for storage or food preparation. And, "[u]nlike Göbekli Tepe and Karahantepe, known for their iconic T-shaped pillars, Mendik Tepe features upright stones in different forms, marking a distinctive architectural identity. This difference may point to a transitional phase in early human construction methods." 

•  More: "Archaeologists unearth structures 7,000 years older than Stonehenge in discovery that reshapes human history"--Daily Mail. While this covers much of the same ground as the article cited above, it also describes some recent (2024) discoveries in regard to Göbekli Tepe including carvings indicating its use as a calendar, and other carvings "depicting a comet strike that triggered a 1,200-year mini ice age, leading to the extinction of large animals and spurring the development of agriculture and complex societies." This seems too controversial for main stream archeology. Heck, it was only last year that Graham Hancock was being blasted for suggesting as much.