The hill was noted in a 1963 survey but dismissed as a medieval cemetery. The real discovery came in 1994, when the German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt recognised that the carved T-stones were not medieval at all — they were among the oldest monuments ever found.
A joint Istanbul–Chicago survey recorded the mound in 1963 but misread the broken limestone as later graves. In 1994 Klaus Schmidt, who had worked at nearby Neolithic sites, examined it and understood the T-shaped pillars were Stone Age. He led excavations there from 1995 until his death in 2014; the work continues today under the German Archaeological Institute and Turkish colleagues.
The 1963 miss is the human part of the story: the evidence was lying on the surface for thirty years, and it took someone asking a different question to see it. Schmidt's insight wasn't luck — he came with the right frame, from digging older sites, and trusted what the stones were telling him. Discovery here was less about finding the hill than about believing its age.
This is our reading of the record.
- 1963: surveyed, but dismissed as a medieval cemetery.
- 1994: Klaus Schmidt recognises the T-pillars as Neolithic.
- 1995–2014: Schmidt leads the excavations.
- Work continues today under the German Archaeological Institute.
- Most of the hill is still unexcavated.
Sources & further reading5 references
- Schmidt, K. (2012). Göbekli Tepe: A Stone Age Sanctuary in South-Eastern Anatolia. Berlin: ex oriente. The foundational monograph by the site's first excavator.
- Clare, L. (2020). Göbekli Tepe, Turkey. A brief summary of research at a new World Heritage Site (2015–2019). e-Forschungsberichte des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 2020(2): 81–88.
- Notroff, J., Dietrich, O. & Schmidt, K. (2014). Building Monuments, Creating Communities. Early monumental architecture at Pre-Pottery Neolithic Göbekli Tepe. In J.F. Osborne (ed.), Approaching Monumentality in Archaeology: 83–105. Albany: SUNY Press.
- The Tepe Telegrams (official research blog of the Göbekli Tepe Project, DAI). The Tepe Telegrams. Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. link Accessible, authoritative running commentary from the excavation team.
- Haklay, G. & Gopher, A. (2020). Geometry and Architectural Planning at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 30(2): 343–357.
Full bibliography: the Taş Tepeler reference library →