Sefertepe.com exists because one of the most striking sites in the Neolithic world has almost no presence in English. Sefertepe — a Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlement on the eastern edge of the Taş Tepeler near Şanlıurfa, Türkiye — is known for a room of human skulls, carved human faces, and small charged objects. Yet most of what is written about it sits in excavation reports, Turkish-language news, and specialist journals. This site gathers that material, checks it, and tells the story straight.
Who publishes this site?
Sefertepe.com is published by The Community Garden, a foundation in cultural preservation. It is one of a small network of English-language homes we maintain for the Stone Hills, alongside sister sites for Karahan Tepe, Sayburç, and the wider Taş Tepeler landscape. We are not the excavators. We are custodians of the public record — writing for the curious reader, the traveller, and the researcher who needs the story in one clear place.
How we handle the evidence
Sefertepe is an active excavation, and that shapes everything here. Numbers change from season to season; some of the most compelling details are reported before they are formally published. Rather than smooth that over, we work to a few simple rules.
We would rather show you the seams than sell you a tidy story that later has to be unpicked.
We date every claim. When we say the skull room held 22 skulls, or 31, we tell you when that count was reported and by whom — because those are snapshots in time, not contradictions. We separate field notes from published findings. Where a detail comes from observation on site rather than a peer-reviewed source — such as the single skull reported facing east — we label it clearly and mark it as awaiting formal confirmation. We cite primary sources wherever we can, and prefer the excavation team and the museum over secondhand retellings.
Where our information comes from
Excavations at Sefertepe began in 2021 under the Şanlıurfa Neolithic Research Project, the programme within Taş Tepeler that coordinates the digs across the Stone Hills. The Sefertepe excavation is led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emre Güldoğan of Istanbul University's Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, working under the supervision of the Şanlıurfa Museum. Our pages draw on that project's reporting, on archaeological outlets that cover it closely — such as Arkeonews and Anatolian Archaeology — and on our own notes from time spent in the region.
Corrections & contact
If you are part of the excavation team, a researcher, or simply a careful reader and you spot something out of date or wrong, we want to hear it — accuracy here depends on it. Write to us at info@thecommunitygarden.org and we will correct the record and note the change.
Sources
- Şanlıurfa Neolithic Research Project / Taş Tepeler — Sefertepe site profile.
- Excavation led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emre Güldoğan, Istanbul University, Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, with Şanlıurfa Museum (2021– ).
- Arkeonews and Anatolian Archaeology — Sefertepe excavation reporting, 2025.
- The Community Garden — Taş Tepeler study material and Sefertepe field notes (field-note level; some details await publication).