Excavations in Göbeklitepe may continue for decades: Expert

BURSA

The excavation works in Göbeklitepe, a 12-000-year-old Neolithic archaeological site in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, may continue for decades, an expert has said.

“The site unearthed until today is not even 10 percent of all the complex that is still underground,” Necmi Karul, a member of the Göbeklitepe Science Board, told Demirören News Agency.

“Göbeklitepe gets the interest of people it deserves,” he said. “There are now around eight excavation works in the area.”

Highlighting the works may take time, like many years, Karul said: “Göbeklitepe is a very huge region. It is hard to estimate, but it will take decades to finish the excavation works.”

According to Karul, many generations will “work in Göbeklitepe in the long term.”

Dating back to between 9500 and 8000 B.C., Göbeklitepe is comprised of a number of large stone pillars that are richly decorated with anthropomorphic details, clothing and reliefs of wild animals.

German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, the site’s original excavator, described it as the “world’s first temple.”