Table of Contents
Ancient Architects returns to Cakmaktepe, a Tas Tepeler hill in southeastern Anatolia opened in 2021 after a satellite survey. The channel presents it as one of the first places hunter gatherers stayed year round, earlier than the carved pillars at Gobekli Tepe. A Sanliurfa museum team and Cukurova University, later joined from Japan, cleared a settlement about 50 meters (164.04 feet) across on limestone near 670 meters (2198 feet) elevation, with neighbors a few kilometers off. Round houses, larger shared rooms, gravel over sloping rock, and pits read as mortars are taken as a step toward processing food, a habit also seen in the Levant. One public hall about 16 meters (52.49 feet) wide was cut into the bedrock, later packed with orderly stone, and roofed on wooden posts rather than the T shaped pillars of younger sites. Burned skulls of wild cattle, sheep, and equids along a wall are treated as ritual. Points, beads, and a decorated shaft straightener set the place near 12000 to 11500 years ago. Digging, the channel says, has barely started.
Key points
- Cakmaktepe is presented as an early sedentary camp in the Tas Tepeler group, older than Gobekli Tepe.
- Excavation since 2021 is a joint effort that later included a Japanese university.
- Houses, a large rock cut hall, wooden posts, and mortar pits are read as a community before limestone pillars.
- Animal skulls set inside a special building are treated as ritual remains of hunted wild herds.
- Flint points and a shaft straightener are used to date the settlement to roughly 12000 to 11500 years ago.
Short quotes
Neolithic people were settling at this location long before the first pillars of [Göbekli Tepe] were being erected
Ancient Architects, Cakmaktepe before Gobekli Tepe
The channel places this hill before the famous pillar enclosures farther east. Watch at 3:04
This artifact that was found at the site is a shaft straightener
Ancient Architects, Cakmaktepe before Gobekli Tepe
A small hunting tool is offered as one of the objects used to date the camp. Watch at 10:38
Video by Ancient Architects. Watch on YouTube.