Older than Gobekli Tepe: Boncuklu Tarla

Gregon (The Daily Grail, May 20, 2023); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

One hundred thousand carved beads have been found at the Boncuklu Tarla site so far.

Boncuklu Tarla: A megalithic site predating Göbekli Tepe

Couple of skeletons buried in an embrace.

The uncovering of the stunning megalithic architecture of Göbekli Tepe in modern-day Turkey (Türkiye) between Europe and Asia less than three decades ago turned our view of prehistory upside down.

Its massive T-shaped pillars predate the pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge by 6,000 or 7,000 years.

While it took the spotlight, archeologists in the area continued finding similar sites with impressive architecture dating back the same mind-boggling stretch in time, more than 10,000 years before present.

One of the sites that has become well-known recently is Karahan Tepe (after it was covered in Graham Hancock’s Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse). However, a lesser-known site lies further to the east, and it may end up being even more important: Boncuklu Tarla.

• A tepe is a tell, a burial mound or small hill, in archeology
• Boncuklu Höyük is another ancient site in Anatolia, Turkey
• Ancient Buddhist archeological site of Ajina Tepe
• Amazing temple treasures of Göbekli Tepe
• Anatolia is in modern Turkey

Discovered during construction work on Ilısu Dam in 2008, it has undergone excavation over the last 11 years. It has already turned up many things. Like the other ancient sites of that time in Turkey, Boncuklu Tarla features a walled "temple" with rock pillars – but they appear to predate Göbekli Tepe by a thousand years or more. (The pillars don’t appear to be as impressive).

The earliest layer of the site dates back a staggering 13,000 years. What’s more, the excavation over the past 11 years has worked through multiple layers, with dating of those layers suggesting that it was occupied for about 4,000 years – from around 11,000 to 7,000 BCE.

The documentary Traces: Boncuklu Tarla offers an early look at the site and excavations, along with extended interviews with the lead archeologist Dr. Ergül Kodaş:..

Another surprising discovery appears to be a sewer system that dates back 12,000 years. This architectural feature shows yet again that humans that came out of the last Ice Age were anything but primitive. More