DOCUMENTARIES A GRATIS GLOBAL SERVICE
⌕ SEARCH GRATIS GLOBAL ↗
DOCUMENTARIES
Did Civilization Begin At Karahan Tepe?
SOURCE: YOUTUBE · NO TRACKING UNTIL YOU PRESS PLAY · TROUBLE PLAYING? WATCH AT THE SOURCE ↗

Did Civilization Begin At Karahan Tepe?

EN · STATUS: [ STREAMING ]
RATE THIS

Karahan Tepe sits in Turkey's Şanlıurfa Province, a cluster of T-shaped limestone pillars and rock-cut benches that predates Stonehenge by thousands of years and sits close to its more famous neighbor, Göbekli Tepe. The film walks the excavated terraces with archaeologists and researchers examining the carved pillars, animal reliefs, and a striking human-headed statue pulled from the site, asking what kind of society organized enough to quarry, carve, and erect this stone before agriculture, pottery, or writing existed. Local name for the site, Keçilitepe, and the site's low, cave-like chambers get their own attention, as does the debate over whether these were temples, communal halls, or something else entirely. Researchers lay out radiocarbon dates, compare construction techniques across the region's other Neolithic sites, and weigh what the find means for the standard timeline that puts complex society after farming rather than before it. The pillars remain half-buried in places, evidence of how much of the site is still unexcavated.