The 12,000 - class - honest-to-god prehistoric site of Göbekli Tepe has become showered with attention in late years – and rightly so – but it ’s lesser known that southerly Turkey is also home to a very similar “ sister site ” known as Karahan Tepe .
Located just over 45 kilometers ( 27 miles ) east ofGöbekli Tepe , Karahan Tepe was first light upon in 1997 , according to anacademic paperpublished in 2000 . While the archaeological site has still not been in full turn up , shaft have reveal that this ancient complex has some incredible similarities to Göbekli Tepe .
The word “ tepe ” entail hill or summit in Turkish and describes how both of these sites dwell around the rocky Tektek Mountains of Turkey , although the mound around Karahan Tepe are more or less less severe with the site stranding around 700 meters ( 2,296 foot ) above sea level .
It’s unclear what Karahan Tepe was used for. Image credit: Berna Namoglu/Shutterstock.com
Its ruin span over an area of 325,000 beat square ( 3.4 million foot squared ) , which is around three times smaller than the Göbekli Tepe excavation area . However , it does feature similar pillar feature article , particular structures , obelisks , and ornate animal sculptures .
As per anotherstudy , archaeologists have documented 274 architectural find at the site , at least 266 being tower that are still stand proud . A fistful of the pillars have even been decorated with stunningreliefsdepicting snake and human face .
Its exact age is n’t clear , but it ’s likely that it dates to around the same time period as Göbekli Tepe . It also look like it was only inhabited for a brief blip of time during the Pre - Pottery Neolithic period .
One of the master wonders of Göbekli Tepe is that it was build during the Neolithic age at some detail between 9600 and 8200 BCE . It is widely remember that complex structure such as this could only be achieved aftera society has mastered agriculture , which issue 10,000 to 12,000 years ago when man began to cultivate industrial plant and animals .
Yet the age of Göbekli Tepe challenges that primal assumption . It suggests that it was construct at the very dawn of humanity ’s first farming rotation when settlements were thought to be diminished and humble gatherings of people who were just beginning to utilize husbandry .
Either that or settled civilizations have been around for long than thought , although that idea is controversial and riddled withpsuedo - archaeological feeling .
As the world ’s one-time known megalithic site , Göbekli Tepe is often shrug off as a nut unusual person that , for some cause , appear thousands of twelvemonth before anything else like it on Earth emerged .
However , Karahan Tepe shows that it is certainly not a one - off and other paradigm - shifting find might be out there .
