Just a couple of weeks ago I visited Karahan Tepe for the very first time, the 11,400-year-old site in SE Turkey. I looked down into the amazing pillared building, gazed across at the huge central stucture AD, and then I got to walk around the entire site.
And it’s an active excavation site, with dozens of people hard at work, carefully pealing back the layers of soil, stones and rubble to unveil the incredible architecture and artefacts that have been lying in wait for thousands of years.
You only have to look at aerial photos to see the transformation of what once looked like an ordinary limestone hill, albeit with a handful of bizarre T-shaped pillars poking through the surface, stones that were once believed to be tombstones of an historic cemetery.
Every year the excavation expands and this year it is advancing westwards up the hill, building on the work from 2023.
At one point I watched for what felt like ages as two men were carefully excavating a T-pillar towards the top of the hill, close to the amazing 2.3-metre-tall human statue that was discovered last year.
But whilst observing the detail, I had totally overlooked the bigger picture. I soon realised I wasn’t just watching the excavation of a pillar, but a pillar that was part of another large oval building at Karahan Tepe.
In this video I'll show you and tell you everything we know about this huge 11,000-year-old building that's currently being excavated and why it's set to change everything we thought we knew about Karahan Tepe.
00:00 Introduction
00:26 My visit to Karahan Tepe
01:47 The New Large Enclosure
02:43 It's Location in the Settlement
03:06 What's Been Discovered So Far
05:00 The Altar
07:00 More Perimeter Pillars
07:27 The Size and Shape of the Building
08:09 Concluding Remarks