Necmi Karul

The Culture and Tourism Ministry is working on a new travel route that will feature the ongoing excavations of Neolithic sites, including the renowned Göbeklitepe and Karahantepe, in the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa.

Significant findings have been uncovered regarding how people acquired their dietary habits in excavation sites dating back 12,000 years. 

The head of the excavation at Göbeklitepe in the eastern province of Şanlıurfa has denied recent reports which surfaced in both Turkish and international media that operations at the Neolithic site had ceased and that trees had been planted in the protected area.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry has requested social media organizations to monitor and block posts by treasure hunters who broadcast their illegal excavations on social media.

As 2023 nears its end, archaeologists working in ancient cities all around Anatolia made significant discoveries throughout the year. According to archaeology magazine Arkeofili editors, the most exciting archaeological discoveries in Türkiye in 2023 are as follows:

1. Boar statue in Göbeklitepe

The excavation works in Göbeklitepe, a 12-000-year-old Neolithic archaeological site in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, may continue for decades, an expert has said.

"The site unearthed until today is not even 10 percent of all the complex that is still underground," Necmi Karul, a member of the Göbeklitepe Science Board, told Demirören News Agency.

Historical artifacts unearthed at the archeological site of Karahantepe in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, considered one of the important settlements of the Neolithic period, reveal the artistic talents of the people who resided there some 11,000 years ago.

Excavations at the Stone Hills in Turkey's southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, which hosts the first examples of settled life and social communities in the world, reveals new and stunning details that could rewrite the history of the region.

Karahantepe ancient site in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, which is home to more than 250 Neolithic-era T-shaped obelisks similar to the ones in the world-famous Göbeklitepe, is on the way to become the new face of Turkey.

Archaeological excavations on the Aktopraklık Mound in the northwestern province of Bursa's Nilüfer district have unearthed 8,500-year-old stones that were used for slingshots which boasted a throwing mechanism that is today known as the Palestinian slingshot.