News & field journal
From the field.
New discoveries, research, and events from across the Taş Tepeler sites — sourced, and updated as the digs report.
27 January 2026 · AdıyamanThe Taş Tepeler map just got bigger: T-pillars found in AdıyamanFalling water in the Atatürk Dam reservoir has exposed Göbekli-style T-shaped pillars near Samsat — the first sign that this culture reached beyond Şanlıurfa and into the Euphrates basin.
15 January 2026 · Karahan TepeA stone-sealed chamber at Karahan Tepe will be opened this seasonArchaeologists plan to open a sealed section of one of Karahan Tepe's unusual Neolithic buildings during the 2026 season — the first access to a space closed for roughly twelve thousand years.
27 November 2025 · Göbekli TepeA human statue surfaces between Enclosures B and DGöbekli Tepe's 2025 season produced a human figure with clearly defined head and torso — found in the ground between two of the site's best-known enclosures.
26 November 2025 · SefertepeSefertepe joins the family: two carved faces and a double-sided beadNew finds unveiled at the Taş Tepeler project's fifth-season briefing show Sefertepe carving human faces in its own distinct style — proof the symbolic world reached well beyond Göbekli and Karahan.
25 November 2025 · Karahan TepeThe earliest story told in three dimensions?Three tiny carved animals — a fox, a vulture and a wild boar — found sealed inside a vessel at Karahan Tepe are being read as one of the first stories ever staged in three dimensions.
24 November 2025 · SayburçThe stitched-mouth statue of SayburçA carved human figure with a mouth that appears sewn shut, found at Sayburç, is prompting archaeologists to rethink how these communities pictured death — beyond skulls and burials.
18 October 2025 · Karahan TepeThe village beneath Karahan TepeMore than thirty Neolithic houses — with hearths, grinding stones and standing stones inside them — reframe Karahan Tepe as not only a sanctuary but one of the world's earliest villages.
9 October 2025 · Karahan TepeA human face on a T-pillar, for the first timeA T-shaped pillar at Karahan Tepe carved with a human face — a prominent nose, deep-set eyes, an angular jaw — is the first of its kind, and hard evidence that the T-pillars stood for people.
18 September 2025 · Ayanlar HöyükA Japanese princess breaks ground at Ayanlar HöyükPrincess Akiko of Mikasa and Türkiye's culture minister opened excavations at Ayanlar Höyük, expanding the Taş Tepeler project through a new Türkiye–Japan partnership.
8 October 2023 · Göbekli TepeGöbekli Tepe's painted boar: the first coloured Neolithic statueA life-sized wild boar found in Special Building D still carried red, black and white pigment — the first hard proof that the sculptures of Göbekli Tepe were painted.
8 December 2022 · SayburçThe oldest story ever carved? The Sayburç relief goes publicA five-figure scene carved on a bench at Sayburç, published in Antiquity, is argued to be the earliest known depiction of a narrative in human art.
14 November 2016 · Göbekli TepeDances with cranes: did the first ritual performers dress as birds?Göbekli Tepe's crane reliefs are carved with human-like knees — leading the excavation team to a striking idea: that people performed animal masquerades, costumed as cranes.
19 December 2018 · Göbekli TepeBehind the mask: the Neolithic faces of Göbekli TepeFrom a small clay face found in Enclosure D to a set of miniature stone masks, Göbekli Tepe's people kept making faces to wear and to hold — among the earliest masks known anywhere.
17 January 2018 · Göbekli TepeA 12,000-year-old hunting wound, frozen in boneAn aurochs bone from Göbekli Tepe still holds the broken tip of a flint projectile — a single, vivid moment from a Neolithic hunt, preserved for twelve thousand years.
10 May 2017 · Göbekli TepeA stairway into the circle of boarsEnclosure C — Göbekli Tepe's most rebuilt ring — was entered down a stone stair, past boars carved to meet whoever came in.
14 October 2016 · Göbekli TepeOf animals and a headless man: reading Pillar 43The excavation team's own walk-through of the Vulture Stone — the vulture, the scorpion, the 'bags', and the small headless figure that ties the whole scene to death.
12 December 2016 · Göbekli TepeA tale of snakes and birds: Pillar 56One of Göbekli Tepe's most densely carved pillars packs snakes, birds and other animals across its whole surface — a reminder that these stones could be almost overwhelmingly full.
20 March 2017 · Göbekli TepeGuarded by beasts: a porthole stoneA carved 'porthole' stone from Göbekli Tepe — a doorway-like slab flanked by animals — hints that thresholds themselves were watched over.
3 July 2017 · Göbekli TepeMore than a vulture: the team's answer to the comet theoryWhen researchers claimed Pillar 43 encodes a comet strike, Göbekli Tepe's excavators published a point-by-point rebuttal. It's the clearest statement of why the site's own team rejects the idea.
9 August 2017 · Göbekli TepeA new kind of figurine from Göbekli TepeBeyond the monuments, Göbekli Tepe keeps yielding small things — including a figurine type first described by Oliver Dietrich and the late Klaus Schmidt.