Overview
- “Gebaute Gemeinschaft” at Berlin’s James-Simon-Galerie runs through 19 July and features artifacts from Göbeklitepe and related Taş Tepeler sites, many shown abroad for the first time.
- Recent research identifies roughly 15 interconnected sites in the Şanlıurfa region, with ongoing Taş-Tepeler excavations since 2021 expanding beyond the singular focus on Göbeklitepe.
- Monumental circular buildings with T-shaped pillars are interpreted as communal ritual spaces and public art, with new evidence for adjacent domestic structures and cooking areas.
- Iconography highlights humans with animal attributes and dancing scenes, pointing to performances and shared narratives rather than formalized worship of deities.
- Material analyses, including chemical sourcing of obsidian from distant Anatolian sources, trace long-distance exchange networks formed as communities shifted toward more settled lifeways after the last Ice Age.